Baked Appreciation

As it so happens, I am seriously overdue on thanking some of my professors for writing grad school recommendations for me and for sitting on my thesis defense panel. Oops. Granted, I was wanting to wait until I knew where I was going officially before I thanked the thesis recommenders, but that was still about a month and a half ago. This situation calls for some desperate action.

Actually, I’ve been mulling over the issue for some time now. I wasn’t quite sure what to give some of these professors: of course a note would probably suffice, but I wanted to let them know that I really appreciated what they had done for me by giving them something special. On the other hand, you don’t want to go too far in the other direction, or else it seems like bribery or a kickback or something. I also briefly considered getting my thesis director a bouquet of flowers, but immediately crossed that one off the list as being just a little bit creepy. I mean, I’m sure she would have loved them and all that, but I’m also quite sure that she would have had no idea how to react, because apparently flowers have some overtones of romanticism, or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention.

Anyway, I finally decided to settle on baked goods, which are the perfect gift for many reasons. First of all, as a male, anything that I cook for people benefits from an automatic bonus factor associated with the surprise of finding someone behaving outside of rigid gender stereotypes. For some reason, this is especially true of baked goods—apparently only girls decide to make cookies. Who knew? Whatever the reason, my being a male will give these cookies’ appreciation score a permanent +2. No, it’s not fair that I get this advantage, but I’m totally taking advantage of it.

Second, it’s a busy time of year for professors. They have to get caught up on end of the semester grading, plus the grading of final papers and tests, plus make arrangements for summer studies and activities, plus a thousand other little things that seem to pour in at the end of the year. That translates into long hours spent at the office, which translates into an urgent need for comfort food. Enter the cookies.

The third reason is that cookies are easy to make, carry that homemade charm, and are frankly delicious. Last summer I patented a recipe for some cookies of my own design, which I have dubbed Choco-Scotch Chip Cookies. Being both tasty and somewhat unusual, these cookies have been a big hit with everyone. I’ll post the recipe below, but if you want the short version of it, just replace half of the chocolate chips in any recipe with butterscotch chips. The combo is delightful and unexpected, although, despite what the title might imply, it does not include whisky—that’s another culinary experiment for another day.

Lastly, of course, is the fact that I (and my friends as well!) get to eat some of the cookies as a bonus. Can baked appreciation get any sweeter than that? I humbly submit that it cannot… at least not without ice cream.

Here's a picture of the cookies, all wrapped up in plastic baggies and ready to be delivered. I've got a feeling that they'll find a happy home in some professorial bellies.

Choco-Scotch Chip Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup granulated white sugar
2/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg + another large egg yolk
A goodly dose of pure vanilla extract
3/4 cup chocolate chunks or chips
3/4 cup butterscotch chips

1.) Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
2.) Mix flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl, then set aside.
3.) Beat the sugar and butter together with an electric mixer until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). The beat in the egg and the additional yolk, as well as the vanilla.
4.) Gradually beat the flower mixture into the butter mixture. Beat the dough as little as possible in this stage.
5.) Pour the chips in and mix them into the dough. I prefer to use a fork.
6.) Roll the dough into balls and plop them onto a cookie sheet.

Cooking time will vary based on the size of the dough balls. I tend to like my cookies larger, so I let them bake for about fifteen minutes. At that rate, you should be able to get about eighteen cookies out of this batch. Adjust your baking time according to the size of your cookies. I hope you enjoy!