The Zen of Baking: Erin McDowell's Flourless Cocoa Cookies

After a six-month hiatus on baking, I thought I could kick off my cooking gears with a no-frills, low-stress easy cookie recipe. Who doesn't love cookies? It's easy to put the ingredients together, and in a recipe like this, the steps are immensely forgiving, and you can miss a few steps here and there without being too worse for the wear. 

That optimism was stretched when my house suffered from an outbreak of equipment malfunction. Something must be contagious, and it's not just my enthusiasm! Both my electronic weighing scales and my oven went on the frizz. 

But Calvin, you ask, when did you discover the malfunctions? Great question, and your inquisitive nature is laudable. The most Zen moment to discover a non-functioning oven would naturally, be when the batter is done. 

It hadn't been easy, but I've learnt to roll with the punches. I packed the cookie scoops into the fridge until after I located an oven. The recipe said to bake straight after mixing, but surely there's no harm in sticking them in the fridge for a few hours, or even overnight's quite fine too, as it turned out, and now they sit very magnificently in front of you, leaving your hearts thumping, marvel blossoming in your chests, eyes wide and jaws agape, wondering how did he bake these? And is he single? 

Baci di Dama cookies - bottom left

I'll tell you how I baked them. Like most things in life, the making of a cookie may lead you on unexpected detours. Sometimes, it involves the hunting for spare batteries in the house before giving up and trying to locate a third weighing scale in the house. It could involve driving out at 8pm on a weekday night trying to buy an oven, while trays of cookie batter warm up in your car boot. It may require angling for a discount for an oven while avoiding thoughts about said cookie batter melting into puddles in your car. 

Sometimes all three. 

But no matter. The best cookies are not made by slapping ingredients together in a mad dash. Like all art, the process can't be rushed. It's made with fortitude in the face of kitchen adversity (in your face, mis en place!), carefully sifting the flour, mixing the chocolate in, shaping the dough, maybe leaving work a little early the next day to install an oven. 

It's an exercise in Zen, the baking of cookies. 

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Flourless Cocoa Cookies  
Original recipe by Erin Jeanne McDowell from The Fearless Baker', published in The New York Times.