Fire relief, helping others, and world peace (cookies)
It rained last night in the Bay Area. If you don't live here, and haven't spent the past two weeks breathing in smoke from the devastating fires in Napa and Sonoma counties, you have no idea what a relief that was. I was so happy for clear air and to open my windows again, but I was overjoyed for the residents and first responders of those counties. I have so many friends who live up there who evacuated or almost did, and all of them have friends who have lost so much. In the past few weeks I've gotten emails from every winery that I'm on the email list for (turns out I'm on the email list for lots of wineries) and each email makes me tear up, because they're all so emotional about the horrors that they've been through. Most of them have also sent out lists of ways to help, and here are some of the charities that I've seen mentioned a lot by people I trust. So many people who have very little lost everything in these terrible fires (contrary to what a lot of people think, most of the residents of Napa and Sonoma Counties are not the super rich; to the contrary, a lot of the people who lost everything are farm workers who have very little). Please help if you can. And please continue to come visit wine country -- tourism is the biggest industry up there, and they are going to need your tourist dollars in the coming weeks and months and years so badly.
Napa Valley Community Foundation
Redwood Empire Food Bank
Redwood Credit Union Community Fund
Community Foundation of Sonoma County
Undocufund
If you know of any other great places to donate to help out, please reply to this or tweet them at me so that I can share.
Today some friends are going to have a highly anticipated baby, and I'm just so excited for them. I have many many favorite kids books, some that I loved as a kid myself, some that I loved when I was a little older and was reading to my younger sister, and some that I've bought in the past ten or so years to give to babies of friends and family. A recent favorite, that I've given to a whole bunch of babies, is Last Stop on Market Street, which is super fun to read, has great illustrations, and is about giving back to your community. It makes me think of how my parents would make me go with them to food kitchens and to do Meals on Wheels and bring food to older people from our church when I was little and I hated it so so much, and I am so grateful now that they made me do it. Does that make it sound like this book is preachy? Because it really isn't, it's lovely and fun and heartwarming and you should buy it for all of the kids in your life.
Before I get to my recipe, an apology! Last week, I made an error in the cake recipe, I am so sorry! The ingredient list is correct, but in the instructions, the first place I say to add "egg whites" should be egg yolks.
Everything is stressful this year, but we're starting to enter prime cookie season, and I really love baking (and giving away) cookies. I love Dorie Greenspan's World Peace cookies, not just because of the name, or because they're delicious, but also because the dough is very easy to throw together, roll into a log, and keep in the freezer, for those times when you need to slice two or two dozen and bake them to give to someone who needs them.
World Peace Cookies
Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
11 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon fleur de sel
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped into small bits
Sift (or, let's be real, just combine well) the flour, cocoa, and baking soda together. Beat the butter in your stand mixer, or in a big bowl with a handheld mixer, on medium until it's soft and creamy. Add both sugars, the salt, and the vanilla, and beat for 2 more minutes. Turn off the mixer and the dry ingredients, and stir until not quite combined, then add the chopped chocolate and stir until everything is just combined. The dough is crumbly, that's okay! Separate it in half and roll each half into a log -- the texture of the dough means you have to sort of smash it all together, I find it easier if you dump the dough onto a sheet of plastic wrap, and use the plastic to help you form the log. You want the logs to be about an inch and a half in diameter. Wrap the log well in more plastic wrap, and either stick in the fridge for 3 or so hours, or put right into the freezer.
When you're ready to bake: line your cookie sheets with the parchment paper sheets that I raved about in a previous tinyletter (but seriously, you need these now that cookie baking time is coming up for real), and preheat your oven to 325 F. Take your logs out of the fridge or freezer, and slice rounds that are about 1/2 inches thick. Sometimes they crumble as you slice, just smash them into rounds again and put on the cookie sheets. Bake for 12 or so minutes (a minute longer if you're baking from frozen); they'll look half baked when you pull them out, but they firm up as they cool. Give them away or eat them all yourself.
Have a great weekend!
Jasmine
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