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What is it about the holiday season that brings out the cookie monster? The rest of the year, I find pleasure in the classics—the deep, rich Katharine Hepburn brownie spiked with walnuts; the raisin-studded oatmeal cookie the size of a small saucer that alternates between chewy and crispy in cahoots with the weather; the powdery pecan sandy that disappears faster than I can make it when my father is in the kitchen.
But come the fall, come the leaves sifting from the trees, come the evenings earlier and cooler, I find myself drifting toward my stack of cookbooks, searching for that ineffable difference, that cookie that will shine beyond all other cookies for the year: the keeper. One year, it was cranberry turtlebars. I knew that was a keeper when people followed me through the room, arms extended toward the silver cookie tray that had held a mound of garnet and deep chocolate cookies and was now a desert, bereft of even crumbs. “Are there more?” I heard them say. “Will you bring us more?”
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And then there was the French Whatnot. Fanciful and pretty, it caught people’s eye. I’d see them lift it up, scrutinize its fluted, ruffly shape, pop it in their mouth, walk away. Pause. Turn back. Pick up another Whatnot. Examine it. Pop it in their mouth… Perhaps it’s the spices that invade the kitchen with the baking dough—the cinnamon, the cloves and nutmeg. With my palms dusted in a fragrant brown powder, I am reminded that it is this perfume that inspired the voyages of Christopher Columbus, Magellan, Vasco de Gamma. It is the flavors of Christmas that pried open the doors to the world. Maybe it’s the sensuousness of flour and butter between the fingers, the childhood lure of mudpies and playdough. Or maybe it’s the look of gratitude as we surrender to the sins of indulgence, slip that buttery morsel between our lips and find ourselves smiling through the powdered sugar, loving the pretty platter piled high with jewel-like cookies, loving the friend who immersed herself in the dough, loving the creative impulse that nests in the kitchen, loving the season. Bring on the Christmas cookies! |
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