It’s a slow slow week we’re living, these days after Christmas and before New Year’s Day… but what’s on your brain?

Are you ready to say goodbye to 2011?  Are you ready to shake it out?

2011 was a beautiful year… but I’m ready to shake it out so I can put some beauty in 2012.

These days between Christmas and New Years feel so still and quiet… and yet very contemplative and heavy with potential.

I’m not talking about the potential of… I dunno, losing weight and eating better and drinking more water… and all that important nonsense.

I’m talking about the potential of it all.  Another year behind us and another chance in front of us.

What are we going to do with it?  Now is the time to think.

Now is the time to think and eat cookies.

Let’s get into imagining our future selves!  This is it!

Aaaahh oatmeal cookies.  So much potential.  It feels like all you need is brown sugar, cinnamon and freshly grated nutmeg.

Such a simple treat.

Oh… you also need oatmeal.  Duh.

I love to use old-fashioned oats because they’re big and hearty.

We’re also going to add two kinds of chocolate to the cookies.  Chocolate chips and cocoa nibs.  We’re talking melty chocolate and crunchy chocolate flavor.

I’d like you to meet my dear friend, Cocoa Nibs.

Cocoa nibs are coarsely ground cocoa beans.  I think they taste like a mix between roasted coffee beans and dark chocolate.  They’re crunchy and full of nutrients.  I love cocoa nibs on top of vanilla ice cream, with yogurt and fruit, and definitely in these oatmeal cookies where they add a lovely crunch and deep chocolate flavor.

Cocoa nibs.  Get into it!  Seriously.

These Oatmeal Walnut Cocoa Nib Cookies are exactly what you want them to be.  Expected and hearty.  Totally comforting and delicious… and with a touch of something just a bit different (that’s the cocoa nib part).  These cookies are exactly the way I like to approach a new year:  with certain expected comforts, but full of newness and surprise… and chocolate.

We’re almost in the future!

Oh!  Ps.  The best, most delightful way to scoop cookies from a big heap of dough into perfectly portioned individual cookies is with a cookie scoop.  I gifted myself one of these and I’m hooked.

Hello, today.

This week was inspired by…dinner with a new friend on face plates.  Pea pasta with lemon.

This week was inspired by… making avocado crab toast with Jill.

This week was inspired by … this mama, in a chevron skirt with two babies.  I love how close her baby boy is playing next to her skirt.  She totally has a little baby in her arms too.  I like this mama.  I have a soft spot for Mr. Potato Head.  I want this to be me eventually (the mama… not the potato head).

I can’t think of one good reason not to put dried flowers and raw sugar into cookies.

Something feels so utterly refined and pleasingly natural about this combination.

A quick zip-a-zip in the spice grinder turns raw sugar into a powder, and lavender into a fragrant chop.

I think this is my favorite part of cut-out shortbread cookies.  The scraps.

Perfect for sneaking dough bites.

These cookies bake up into simple, buttery, florally frangrant, sweet bites.  I love the use of raw sugar.. it adds a really nice depth, but you can use granulated sugar if you don’t have raw on hand.

These cookies would be dreamy with earl grey tea, honey ice cream, or a cup of cold milk.

I like to stack them tall and eat far too many. You know…

Here’s a few things I’ve learned from life… they definitely have nothing to do with cookies:

Don’t laugh when someone asks you out on a date.  They’ll think you’re laughing at them.  They won’t understand that you’re just flattered and awkward and your head is about to explode.  Don’t chew gum in a public restroom.  It sorta feels like you’re eating bathroom air.  Capital Gross.

Lastly, don’t drink wine past 3:30am.  It’s totally past your bedtime and you won’t look pretty in the morning.

It’s just that life is so beautiful, I’d hate for you to make these mistakes.

Can we talk about cookies now?  Geez.

These cookies are with and without.

They’re just like chewy sugar cookies, with brown sugar.  They’re also just like chocolate chip cookies, without chocolate chips.  Wrap your brain around those deep depth thoughts.

These are the gorgeous, sweet, chewy, caramel cookies.  They sound so simple:  brown sugar cookies.  But seriously?  These are some of my new favorites.  They have just a touch of ginger and cinnamon in them too.  These aren’t spice cookies.  The ginger and cinnamon adds a roundness, not a ton of spice flavor.  These cookies are the real deal.

Oh!  If you wanted to add chocolate chips or toffee pieces, we will totally be friends for life.

New Joy the Baker Podcast is ready for your ears!  Get your listen on!!

When I was a small little baby girl, I was super stoked to grow up and:

Wear sunglasses like Jackie O.  Stop doing homework.  Shave my legs (um…. wwwhhhhyyyy!?).  Stay up past 9:30.  Watch all the Beverly Hills 90210 ever ever ever made.  Do my own hair.  Roller skate without a helmet.  Play basketball better than my little sister (I can not.  I mean… come on).  Be a firefighter, writer, or veterinarian.  Eat cookies for breakfast, Cheetos for lunch, and fried chicken and chocolate cake for dinner.

I’m a real-life grown-up now.

I’ve moved past my haphazard Jackie O phase.  I’m pretty sure that email is the new homework.  I shave my legs, but wow… the appeal of that pastime is loooong gone.  I stay up as late as I want… because I’m grown.  Beverly Hills 90210 has been replaced by Real Housewives of Minnetonka.  I get my hair done did…. and that feels nice.  I wear a helmet because I’m totally over trying to look cute.  I’m totally into trying to look alive.  I realized I don’t like fire, dictionaries, or sick animals.  I don’t eat Cheetos for lunch.  If I ate fried chicken and chocolate cake everyday I would be a happy and hefty lady.

But!  but but but but but….. I can totally have cookies for breakfast.

I may have known absolutely nothing about my adult self as a young youth…. Meh! At least now there are cookies, and coffee, and iPhones.

These are happy happy cookies!  Major.

They’re absolutely filled with good for you stuffs!

Whole wheat flour.  Oats.  Millet.  Carrots.  Dried cherries.  Maple Syrup.  Coconut oil.  and Ginger!

Amazing!

I didn’t say any words like butter, chocolate, peanut butter, cupcake, nutella, marshmallows.  I didn’t say aaaany of those words!  It sorta made me twitch a little.

These breakfast cookies are entirely wholesome and totally delicious.  They’re moist, soft, and cakey… like carrot cake with a crunch.  They have just a hint of coconut flavor (from the oil), a little zip from the ginger, and a perfect tartness from the dried cherries.  I am totally obsessed!

If you eat one whole rushing out of the house, into your car, into traffic, spilling your coffee, forgetting your cell phone, trying to get to work… I assure you, you’ll feel like a real-life grown-up.  For better or worse.

Dear The French Laundry,

How did a humble baker girl like me end up at a fine establishment such as yours?  Seriously.  Breathtaking.  How did this happen?

Ok… truth be told, my friend Tracy extended a last minute invite, I basically ran to my car in my slippers, a dress on a hanger flying behind me, and I sped from Los Angeles to Yountville in a cool 7 hours.  I forgot my lipstick.  Thank you for not judging.

Is it The French Laundry, or can I just call you French Laundry?

We’re on a first name basis, right?  Good.  Thank you.

French Laundry.  You are Fancy.  Capital F, Fancy.

… I can tell by the generous amount of gorgeous Thomas Keller flatware, delicious amount of caviar, and generous amount of champagne.

You brought me this tiny pearled spoon scoop and I thought about accidentally putting it in my purse for 3.45 seconds.  It’s a good thing I remembered that I don’t steal things.  I love that little scooper.  Well played.

You have salts from all over the world.  One of these is from the deep ocean, one of them is a French grey salt, one of them is a 40 million year old salt from Montana.  Wait… did you say 40 million years old?  Is Montana even that old?  I believe you.. mostly because you serve your salt in a swan.

I’m humbled by your salt choices.  Truly.  So delicious.  So delicate.  Refined.  So much refinement.

French Laundry, your Cold Corn Soup almost made me cry.  You brought giant truffles out in a dehumidified box.  Whoah!  You served me Lobster Mitts…. I didn’t even know that was a thing!  Lamb with pine nut vinaigrette?  I love you.  Every bite was entirely humbling.  I mean that most sincerely.

You did a thing to me… I think it was called Caramelia Chocolate “Cremeux”.  Don’t judge me for only being able to pronounce one of those words correctly.

Chocolate mousse, caramel corn, Georgia peanuts, ridiculous banana puree, and and and and Salted Popcorn Ice Cream.  It was the best dessert to ever happen to my mouth.  I thank you.  My heart thanks you.

The thing is, French Laundry… the thing is this:  you’re fancy… to be sure…  but you and your staff have a way about you.  You somehow make ultra fine dining feel like an intimate home dining experience.  You make the most delicious, perfectly executed food taste like mind blowing home cooking.  I mean  that with the most respect possible.

Your food tastes like community.  It tastes like love and pride.  It taste like dedication, education, and attention.  It tastes like knowledge and technique… and it tastes like you love your grandmothers.  It is everything that is good, brought to its highest potential.  Inspired.  I’m not telling you anything you don’t already know… but you blew my mind.

Would now be a good time to mention that we wrote ‘booyakah’ in your guestbook?

Yea… that happened.

Oh!  We also took a picture outside in the dark.  Tracy was holding her lightsaber.  Totally normal.  Nevermind.

Thank you, French Laundry.  That sounds trite, but I mean it from deep down inside.

Love,

Joy

Ps. Please don’t show your pastry chef these cookies.  Seriously.  They’re no biggie.  Like… seriously.

Sigh.

Back to real life.

Back to my boring old cookies.

Light, crisp, and delicious meringues.

Egg whites are whipped with granulated sugar, salt, and lemon juice until they’re stiff and glossy.

Then we fold in ground, toasted almonds, and cornstarch.

Humble… but I like where this is going!

It’s like nutty marshmallow fluff!

I’m into it.

These cookies can either be piped or spooned onto the cookie sheet.

Keep them close on the baking sheet because they don’t spread.  Easy!

Top with powdered sugar and sliced almonds.  Generous.  We like generosity.

These cookies were a gift to Tracy, to say thanks for French Laundry invite.

Packaging is key when you’re dealing with Tracy, so I tried to keep it cute.

Oh!  And I had to write a note… even if it got awkward. Note paper from Anthropologie.

I think what I need is someone to catch a grenade for me.

… perhaps someone to throw their hand on a blade for me.

Someone to jump in front of a train for me?

Wait.  What?  Clearly I have a problem.  I can not stop listening to this silly song.

… and now I want people catching grenades.  Please.

Actually, no.  All I really need is someone to make cookies for.  … and maybe someone to push a piano around Los Angeles for me.  That would be… odd.

Just listen to the song… most of the words I’ve written will make more sense.

I’ve wanted to make chocolate chip cookies for weeks.  For one reason or another I’ve been dilly-dallying with quinoa and scones and vegan cookies.

None of these things really removed my brain from chocolate chip cookies.

Yesterday morning I woke up and browned butter.

See?  It’s literally brown.  It smells just as delicious as you might imagine.  The kind of delicious that you want to rub all of your body.  That kind.  The good kind.

Once the butter was browned, I knew there were chocolate chip cookies in my future.

I just had no idea how dang good they would turn out.  I mean… seriously.  I kinda impressed myself.

With browned butter and and AAANNNDDD toasted coconut, these cookies have depth.

If I had to use words to describe them (and I do have to), I would say these cookies are:  nutty, toasty, chewy on the inside, crunchy on the outside, studded with dark chocolate, a total high five, and a pat on the back.

And they don’t bake up super flat.  They have junk in the trunk… thick thighs… you know what I mean.

Make these.  Catch grenades.

Two things are unacceptable:  I keep forgetting to buy butter, and there’s a spider on my ceiling that my cat can’t reach.

Two solutions have presented themselves:  Make vegan cookies, and construct some sort of winged apparatus to send my cat into flight, thus into spider hunting range.

So far, I’ve got the cookies.  The cat wings have proven more difficult.  This mancat of mine doesn’t seem very aerodynamic.  Why don’t cat tails double as some sort of cat helicopter blade?  That would solve this stupid spider situation for sure.

Sunflower seeds covered in chocolate and a hard candy shell.  The candy shell makes them precious, darling, and edible by the fistful.

Ps.  The sunflower seeds are less than vegan.  Vegan chocolate chunks are a great replacement for those of you who are down with the vegan thing.

These cookies are adapted from my favorite vegan cookie recipe from Organic and Chic.  The original recipe is for spicy ginger cookies.  They’re dense, cakey, cookie biscuits.  I love them.

Applesauce, oil, and flax seed meal moisten these cookies, giving them a chewy bite and ample body.

Yea…  these cookies have body.

Chocolate, espresso powder, and a touch of cinnamon are all packed into this batter.  The sunflower seeds make these cookies spring, sprung, flowery, and bright… vegan chocolate chunks would also be wonderful.

Rolled in sugar and slightly under-baked,  I think these cookies are a treat.  I have a giant bag of them in my freezer.  I share… I’ll probably share.

If the dream fairies are taking requests, tonight I’d like my dreams to include:

the bright green grass of a perfectly manicured baseball field.

first kisses.

lemonade so cold and tart it almost hurts my teeth.

… maybe a waterfall… that might be nice.

… the sound of my aunt dede humming to herself?…. that could be pretty special.

and perhaps these lemon cookies, cold… from the freezer.

I rarely put in dream requests, but I’m feeling rather particular tonight.  K.  Thanks.

These cookies:  little dreams… I swear to it.

Light meringues are infused with lemon zest and vanilla and baked until crisp and dry.  That’s just the beginning.

I used this tip and a piping bag to make little meringue star cookies.  It’s a big tip… although I’m not smart enough to know the size.

I piped 50 stars between two sheets.  Half of the stars stayed full and pretty, the other half of the stars I smoothed into a flat-ish circle.  The flat meringues will be the bottom of the lemon meringue sandwich.

These cookies bake in a low low oven for 2 hours.  The result is a crisp, light-as-air, dream cookie.  Dreeeeaaaaammmmm cookie.

Citrus curd…  Hello!

So easy to make.  So bright and happy.  So easy to shovel in my face with a spoon at midnight after I’ve already gotten out of bed to make myself a random bowl of grits.

… or whatever.

The hardest part about making curd is straining it through a fine mesh strainer… and we both know that’s no effort at all.

Oh, wait.  Another tough part is when you fill the curd jar too full… and you have to spoon a good portion into you mouth to keep it from overflowing.  That’s hard.

Lemon bottom.  Lemon curd middle.  Lemon top.

Sandwiched together, they’re the perfect bite.  All you need is a big mouth.

These little clouds are delicate, sweet and bright.  They taste exactly like Lemon Meringue Pie.  They’re my dream come true.  I wish I could tell you that I shared these cookies with people that I know and love, but the truth is… I shoved most of these cookies in my mouth before I told anyone that I even made them.

There are a few tricks you should know when making these cookies:

Humidity will effect the meringues.  The more humid, or moist the air, the stickier the meringues will get.  It’s just one of those things.

These are not really travel cookies.  They should be assembled right before they’re eaten.  I like the curd cold cold cold in these cookies.  I assembled the cookies, and left them to chill in the freezer for 20 minutes before serving… to myself.  They were incredible!

Assemble.  Chill for 20 minutes to an hour.  Serve.  Freak out.  …that’s how it should go.

Oh!  You may have a bit of extra curd left over.  Eat it.  Just eat it.

I couldn’t stop eating Nutella by the spoonful so… in my haste, I threw my giant Nutella jar in the trash can, put on a major cleavage shirt and went to empty the trash.  That’s just real life.  Sometimes you have to throw out your chocolate and haul out the cleavage.

After that!… I found my new favorite cookie.  It’s gingery without being a spice cookie.  It’s soft and chewy and wholesome… and vegan!

These ginger cookies are also full of whole wheat flour, apple sauce, ground flaxseeds and lemon juice.

I love love love them.

They come from the cookbook Organic and Chic.  Lovely recipe and lovely book.

Oh!  I made milk too… from cashews and oats.  I love it.  I’ll show you how to make that in two days.  Promise.

I might have a problem.

I check the weather.  I sometimes watch the news… just for the weather.  I’m obsessed with the weather.

See… if it’s raining then I can’t go for a bike ride.  If I can’t go for a bike ride then I have to find some sort of other exercise to do to keep my crazy brain from going crazy.  If I can’t find another exercise to do then I just end up doing halfass yoga in my living room for like… three minutes, before I get bored.  If I get bored then I start plucking my eyebrows and trying on random lipsticks in my medicine cabinet.  If I try on too many lipsticks I walk around my house looking like a lady of the night (you know…), and I really hate when that happens.

… Then the day is over and all I have to show for it is smeared lipstick on my face, the wine I’m drinking in despair, my cat, and episodes of Top Chef and Teen Mom 2.   See what I’m dealing with here?

I checked the weather for tomorrow.  The weather icons show a sun (promising), clouds (uh-oh), rain drops (craptown) and a thunderbolt (oh, come on!).  Seriously?!  Who is in charge here?

What am I supposed to do with that!?  LipstickWineCatlady is soooo not a good look for me.

One of the other things I do on rainy days (besides being a crazy cat lady) is make cookies.

Let’s be honest… I make cookies almost every day.  I need no excuse or water from the sky.

These are just like chocolate chip cookies with white chocolate and spiked with instant espresso powder.  Are you with me?

Do you use instant espresso powder?  I love it in baking.  Instant espresso powder really kicks up the flavor in a chocolate recipe and it’s a great way to sneak in a coffee flavor without crunching down on ground coffee beans.  The finer the instant espresso powder is the easier it will dissolve into the cookies.  I used a slightly chunkier instant powder and so my cookies had tiny bits of coffee.  I loved it.  Close your eyes and pretend that the white chocolate chunks are the cream in your cappuccino.  Yea.  Good.