Lala's Legacy: Chocolate Drop Cookies

My apologies go out to anyone who has been chomping at the bit for me to post a new blog.  I realize it's been a long time since my last entry.  Life sometimes has a way of getting ahead of me.  I'm sure you've been there as well, where there are only 24 hours in the day but if there were 30...

One of the projects I was involved with in the last five months was helping my parents clean out their long-time home to ready it for the real estate market.  When I say help, I mean in a very limited capacity as I live in another state, and that THEY did the bulk of the work.  Considering that my Dad was in hospice less than two years ago and my Mom has knee troubles, cleaning out the family home of 48 years was nothing short of a miracle, some may say "miracles" is their legacy.  And speaking of legacies, my Paternal Grandmother has left her recipes for us in a box that is 12"x8"x8".  It's filled with hand-written recipes spanning much of the 20th century.  As I browse through them, I find that only a handful have a name attached: as in this is Carol's recipe, David likes this one a lot.  Some are written on recipe cards or index cards, but most are written on random pieces of paper, the back of check stubs, or a restaurant ticket.

One of the most notable things upon opening the box is not that it smells like old paper, although it kind of does.  It's that it smells like my Grandma, whom I called Lala.  Lala's apartment smelled like baked goods and cigarette smoke.  Strangely, a similar smell to this happened a few weeks ago when I removed the plastic treads on the steps to our basement.  Decades old, they had overstayed their welcome.  Upon removal, I found years of dust collected under each one.  In an attempt to clean the steps, I employed Windex and Norwex clothes.  The combination of dust and the ammonia in the Windex reminded me of the smell of Lala's apartment.  At first I was embarrassed to admit this, my sweet Lala was such a kind woman, always there to care for us.  As the sadness of her lot faded, I set goal for my own home to have a scent that my future grandchildren will conjure up as adults.  We should only be so lucky.

As we come back to the box of recipes, the first to really stand out was not the recipe itself, but the paper it's written on.  It says BIG DADDY across the top!  I can picture this paper, once part of a note pad no doubt, that represented my Grandpa Louie who was known by all as Doc.

This recipe is for Chocolate Drop Cookies.  Now if it was worth the time to write down the recipe and save it for future generations, I absolutely have to make these for my family to try.  I may play around with the recipe at some point in the future to make these GF and VEGAN but for now, I want to stay true to Lala's culinary knowledge.

As I was gathering ingredients, I discovered that the people I live with finished the butter that was in the fridge.  I only half joke when I call my husband and children the people I live with.  As the kids get older, there's less hand-holding parenting, and more fridge-stocking parenting taking place.  Thankfully I keep plenty of butter in the freezer so the fridge has a few sticks on hand again.

This recipe calls for melted chocolate.  As I do not have a double boiler, I improvise using a Pyrex glass storage bowl and my 1 qt. sauce pan.  It's possible to melt the chocolate in the microwave, but I find that often leaves it grainy and I like a smooth, shiny melted chocolate.

When making this recipe, I used Elite Bittersweet Chocolate.  It's leftover from Passover (I know, how is it possible that there's leftover Passover chocolate when we live on that and eggs all week?!?), and has the cutest cows on each piece.  It comes in a bar and I break it up into pieces before placing in the double boiler.  This is also how I make chocolate covered anything during Passover.

MMM... melted chocolate is a woman's best friend!

I have to admit, I was surprised by how light the chocolate color was in the batter once it was mixed together.  And although they're camouflaged in this photo, there are chopped pecans in the cookie dough.  The hardest part of this recipe came after this moment... exercising patience while the dough chilled in the fridge.  

On the day I made this cookie dough, I happened to be scheduled to join my daughter for lunch at her school, which helped pass the time.  I would imagine making the dough at the same time as prepping dinner is also an option, giving them time to cool in the fridge while you serve, eat, and clean up from the meal.  And who doesn't LOVE fresh baked cookies for an evening treat?

I prefer to roll my cookies dough between my palms to make a uniform, round shape.  I think this gives the edge a clean look once baked.  I also chose to bake a test batch in my toaster oven.  At the 7 minute mark, they were clearly done.  I think they should have come out at 6:30, but I wasn't paying close attention.  A full size oven works just as well, and if using one please follow the time listed in the recipe.  This recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

I never remember Lala making these cookies.  I actually don't remember her making any cookies.  I remember her chicken casserole, and our family recipe (goes back more generations than we will ever know) for Buttermilk Pancakes (be on the lookout for the recipe to be added in the near future).  

Since I don't remember these cookies and it's unlikely my siblings would either, I called my Dad to find out more.  Here's what he had to say, "My mother would make them for the holidays.  It's the only thing I remember.  I remember it was from scratch.  She made them around Christmas time and gave them out to people.  They were good!"