Is it possible, with enough butter, to bring this country together?
That’s what singer/songwriter/baker, Christine Lavin believes, and that’s why she created a unique recipe to express that... um, hope. The exuberant and sprightly Lavin has been including a song in her concerts the last few weeks that comes with a recipe guaranteed to break down the divisive political environment gripping this nation.
My longtime friends Tim and Alice heard Lavin perform the “Barackolate Chip Cookie Recipe Song” at the Freight & Salvage Coffee House in Berkeley, Calif. on Thursday, October 9, and secured Christine’s blessing to distribute a recording of the song—and the recipe—far and wide.
So open your mind and your oven, and listen to this instant classic. Making Christine’s Barackolate Chip Cookies while listening to the accompanying song, you can just imagine lovingly swirling together all the kinds of people that make up this great country and see them getting along, whether brown, white or just plain nutty! Christine reports that she has made Barackolate Chip Cookies five times for the cast of “South Pacific” at Lincoln Center. Whoops, make that six times; she even dropped a batch off for their matinee Sunday. For the record, the cast prefers slivered almonds to the pecans -- And also for the record, I am deathly allergic to tree nuts, and would wind up in the ER with a Benadryl drip, so I will use sunflower seeds. The cast also prefers less white chocolate (a little too sweet), so Christine encourages you can “take liberties” with her very patriotic foundation. Me, I'll get my chocolate from the Wilbur Company of Lititz, PA.
She has also baked the cookies and distributed them—along with the recipe—during recent performances in North Carolina and Maryland. Now there is a woman who knows her audience; what could make a folk music concert more enjoyable than fresh-baked cookies?
If you want to download the song, right-click HERE (control-click if you’re using a Macintosh), and save it to your computer or mp3 player. If you want to know a little more about Christine, we like this brief interview by Tim’s friend Kathy of the Me & Thee in Marblehead, Mass. Below is the recipe.
Following the recipe are the lyrics to the song for your own community sing-alongs.
So step aside, Cindy. Take a seat, Michelle. Christine’s cookies are going to steal the public’s heart... and maybe their vote! Imagine thousands upon thousands of kitchens cranking out Barackolate Chip Cookies. If someone offers you a cookie when you leave the voting booth on Tuesday, November 4, eat it in good health.
BARACKOLATE CHIP COOKIES
from Christine Lavin’s kitchen
Finally! A cookie that represents ALL Americans:
Democrats, Republicans, Independents --
light ones, dark ones, beige ones, and of course, nuts.
2 cups unbleached white flour
1/4 cup wheat germ (a secret ingredient - some politicians love secrets!)
6 oz. milk chocolate chips (approximately 1 cup)
6 oz. white chocolate chips (ditto)
6 oz. bittersweet chocolate chips (ditto)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
1-1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans*
* I have made these cookies FIVE times for the cast of “South Pacific” at Lincoln Center (I’ve seen the show 11 times. It’s brilliant). They prefer slivered almonds to the chopped pecans, and they also like more bittersweet chocolate and less white chocolate (because the white chocolate is so sweet). So feel free to experiment with the proportions of bittersweet to white to milk chocolate -- you can also do it with bittersweet, semi-sweet, milk chocolate and white chocolate. Just don’t substitute lima beans for chocolate. That would ruin it.
Preheat the oven 375° Fahrenheit. That’s 190.5° for our Celsius cousins.
Chop the pecans up, then measure them. If you are doing slivered almonds, no chopping necessary. Spread them on an ungreased cookie sheet; toast them for approximately 10 minutes. They are done when you can smell them toasting. Don’t over-toast them! And if you don’t want to toast them, you don’t have to! This is America, land of choices. You can even do half pecans, half almonds, but toast them separately since they won’t toast at the same rate.
If you have chosen to toast them, take them out of the oven, let them cool.
In a big bowl blend the softened butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla. Only use the best ingredients: real butter, vanilla from Madagascar. Mix in the eggs, one at a time. Do this by hand; please don’t use an electric mixer. Think of your carbon footprint. Plus, it’s a great upper body workout.
In a separate smaller bowl mix together the white flour, wheat germ, baking soda and salt. When that is evenly mixed, add 1/3 of that to the butter mixture. Stir til all is absorbed. Then add the second 1/3 of the dry ingredients, mix, then the final 1/3. Mix til smooth.
Mix all the chips together in a separate bowl, stir them around -- look, all different color chips! And they’re all getting along peacefully, like our Founding Fathers hoped we would.
Alternate adding the chips and the pecans to the cookie batter, stirring as you go, til everything is harmoniously joined together in one big happy bowl.
Now, on an ungreased cookie sheet, with a small spoon, lay out rows of SMALL chunky cookies, leaving enough room for the cookies to spread out a little bit. It’s important that you make very small cookies. Why? Because we Americans have a weight problem, but one tiny scrumptious Barackolate chip cookie won’t add to it! Another reason for small cookies: so everybody gets one. Oh, you could make big giant cookies with this recipe, but then only the lucky few would get to eat them. Haven’t we had enough of that over the last eight years? Huh?
Bake the cookies for approximately 10-11 minutes, depending on your oven. Makes 186 small cookies (1-3/4" in diameter). Take them out when they are golden brown, cool them on a rack, and then SHARE them. You can have one, but share the rest -- with everybody, no matter what their political affiliation. Bon Apetit! And just because that’s a French phrase, don’t you dare call me an elitist.
Ciao!
Christine Lavin
=================================
Barackolate Chip Cookie Recipe Song
by Christine Lavin © 2008 Christine Lavin Music
Democrats want alternative energy
Republicans want to drill baby drill for oil
Democrats want the smart guy to win the White House
Republicans don’t like smart, they prefer loyal
Democrats say Republicans don’t play fair
Republicans shrug say ‘we don't care’
But one thing we all agree
is who’s got the best cookie recipe? Me!
My cookies have white chips, dark chips,
my cookies have light chips
brown sugar white sugar too
and my recipe calls for a bunch of nuts
Bill O’Reilly that means you
in a single cookie we are all represented
Democrats Republicans Independents
a melting pot of yummy a consensus of confection
the best darn snack for the coming election
Democrats want women to make their own choice
Republicans take choice away
Democrats want to reverse global warming
Republicans -- they just pray
Democrats want to end a senseless war
When it comes to war Republicans say
more! more! more!
come on, you politicians, open your eyes
over a plate of my cookies, let’s compromise
My cookies have white chips, dark chips,
my cookies have light chips
white sugar brown sugar too
my recipe calls for a bunch of nuts
Sean Hannity I’m looking at you
In one single cookie we are all represented
the Left The Right the sane the demented
what a useful culinary souvenir
bake cookies for this election year
Share them with your enemy
share them with your friend
share them with the rednecks
who live around the bend
we can all shake hands
all make amends
eat Barackolate chip cookies . . .
but don’t drink John McCain’s Kool Aid
6 comments:
This is terrific! I love baking cookies almost as much as eating them!
Thanks for posting this!
Cookie consumers tend to come in 2 distinct groups.
those who like their cookies hard and crunchy, and those who like them soft and chewy. i usually add another 2-3 mins for the crunchy ones but you must watch them very carefully or they will burn on the bottom.
Also Dogg, there has been a vanilla shortage in Madagascar due to some bad weather there over the last couple of years. So your French, elitist request for only fresh vanilla beans from remote areas of the world should be tamed a bit no ?
;)
uh, the name of the cookie is entirely too hard to say.
just sayin'
but i'll still try 'em!
MTV, so how do you like your cookies?
Hey, these are GREAT! I'm going to find a local production of South Pacific and make sure they get PLENTY!
Thanks for posting this, Doggity. The Freight & Salvage must luv you!
C-mom:
I like cookies crunchy if they include nuts such as alnuts or almonds. I'm also a huge fan of smokin' hot, melty, chewy, soft cookies only seconds after they come out of the oven.
Is it Baracoltae cookies in honor of Barack Obama, or the Alaskan Baracuda who kills Kodiak bears with her folksiness ?
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