I often wonder about my dad when I’m in the kitchen if it’s quiet and nobody is there keeping me company.

You see, he really enjoyed cooking and hated doing dishes afterward, just like me. I’m told he regarded written recipes mostly as a framework to be expanded upon, just like me. Still, he is a man I can barely remember, and certainly never knew as an adult, so I ask myself many questions in the quiet as I stir, knead or roll.

He probably didn’t bake like I do, but what was he good at making? What were his favorite things to make? Would he think it’s interesting that I share his inclination for spending time in the kitchen, like I do? Would he like the person who I turned out to be?

My dad was a hunter, would it have driven him nuts that I was a vegan for a few years in high school? I’m apparently going to learn how to shoot this summer, how long ago would I have learned about guns had he been alive when I was growing up? Would he like Mister?

Would we have gotten along together well? I’m told he was on the quiet side most of the time, especially with people he didn’t know well. I’m much the same way.

Mostly, I just wonder who he was as a person. You can’t really and truly know someone by what other people tell you. And sometimes, in the quiet of my kitchen, a kitchen he’s never been in and never will be, I roll out balls of cookie dough and wonder what it would have been like to know him.

Salted Double Chocolate Cookies

(adapted from Whipped)
Ingredients

1/2 Cup butter

4 oz dark chocolate, finely chopped

1 Cup flour

1/2 Cup cocoa powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp kosher salt

1 1/2 Cups sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

4 oz dark chocolate, chunked

~1/2 tsp kosher salt, for sprinkling

Directions
  • Brown the butter in a small saucepan, decrease the heat to low, and add the finely chopped chocolate, stirring to melt.
  • In a medium sized bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and first measure of salt.
  • In a large bowl, combine the sugar, eggs and vanilla, stirring until bubbly.
  • Add the chocolate and browned butter mixture to the mixture in the large bowl, stirring to combine.
  • Slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. The dough should be pretty tough, and not very sticky.
  • Scoop tablespoon sized balls out of the dough, and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. If you want a flatter cookie, like mine, squish the balls down slightly; the balls do not flatten as much as you would expect upon baking.
  • When you have a full cookie sheet, your hands will be slightly tacky from the butter, and you can use this extra stickiness to add a few grains of salt to the top of each cookie. Just tap your fingertips into the remaining measure of salt to pick up a few grains, and then apply them to the cookies.
  • Bake the cookies in a 325° oven for 10-12 minutes and allow to cool before eating.

These cookies are truly decadent, chocolate-y and brown buttery to a heavenly degree, but where they may have been a little rich without the salt, the hint of it that tops each cookie cuts through and keeps your palate from being overwhelmed. What a great result!

Mister’s rating: “These cookies have all the goodness of a brownie crammed into a cookie. The salt is a delicious counterbalance to the richness of the chocolate, but you experience it to a fuller effect if you eat your cookies upside down.”