That felt like an awfully long summer, didn’t it? Maybe because it was so hot here in Texas. Or maybe because I wasn’t focused on a training schedule, instead, content to sleep in some, dawdle, and generally just phone it in. Or maybe it was because this was the first summer without a kid at home.
Summer is for kids. When kids are around, you spend more time outside, sitting around in a wet bathing suit, getting too much sun, and eating things you know will probably give you cancer. You hear new songs that, at first listen, make your ear drums bleed, but after a few days, are the tunes in your head on your long run. You stay up too late, not wanting to miss the ending of a movie you’ve already seen three times, but is new to your kid. You go to see movies he’s seen three times, and knows your going to love (you don’t, but you love him, so you do). When kids are around, summer goes by like the flash of a firecracker.
When your kids don’t come home for the summer anymore, the days just lumber along, each one very much like the one before. You stop baking because you know there is no kid there to eat your concoctions and your hips definitely don’t need a full batch of chocolate peanut butter brownies. You don’t dive off the diving board because there is no one to have a can opener contest with or to laugh when your front flip is more of a sea monkey somersault. You hear a new song on the radio and think, “The music of the ’80s was sooooooo much better.”
And then it is Fall and you realize it’s time to pull yourself together.
How? Bake cookies. Chocolate cookies, of course. And then while your eating them straight out of the oven, be brave and sign up for open water swim camp on Catalina, then practice your headstand, and download some new songs. Oh, and for the love of your kids, get back to training.
Double Chocolate Chunk Cookies
(adapted from Ghiradelli)
2 bars Ghiradelli semi-sweet baking chocolate bars
1/2 cup Ghiradelli white chocolate chips
5 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup brown sugar
rounded 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 large egg
1 cup + 2 tablespoons AP flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Chop 12 squares (1 1/2 bars) into chunks (about 1/4 inch). Set aside.
Break up the other 4 squares (remaining 1/2 bar) and place in a heatproof bowl. Set the bowl directly in a skillet of simmering water. Add butter. Stir until melted and smooth.
Into a large bowl, pour the melted chocolate mixture. Add both sugars and stir until smooth.
Add the baking soda and vanilla.
Lightly beat the egg and then quickly mix it into the chocolate mixture, stirring briskly until well blended.
Add all of the flour at once and gently stir until just entirely blended. Let cool for 5 minutes.
Add the chocolate chunks and the vanilla chips.
At this point, you can cover the mixture and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes, or you can drop 2 inch spoonfuls of dough onto the cookie sheets and THEN refrigerate for 15 minutes.
Bake for 12 minutes, rotating the sheets from upper to lower and back to front halfway through the baking time. The cookies are ready when they are puffy and cracked on top.
Cool on baking racks.
Mom, ultrarunner, four-time US 24 Hour National Team member, adventure athlete, food writer. Graduate of the Pro Cooking Program at the New School of Cooking, Los Angeles. Will run for food.
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