Butter Nut Twists

Atmospheric river forecast. Three days of rain. Amazon this week. Sprint planning Tuesday. Two hours of meetings I could have been a Slack message.

Hana, 1, a small loud animal. She mostly eats rice and bananas. Jisoo FaceTimed Tuesday. We made doenjang jjigae together — me in Wallingford, her in Haeundae. Eleven thousand miles. The same soup.

Galbitang Sunday. Beef short ribs, daikon, glass noodles. Slow simmer.

Drove to Bellevue Saturday. Karen was tired. I brought soft food. She ate.

The week held. The kitchen held. The two cultures shared the counter.

Reading at night. A novel by a Korean-American writer about a family in 1990s LA. I underlined four sentences. The underlining is the marking-of-the-territory of the soul.

David came over for Sunday dinner. He brought some tomatoes from the Bellevue garden.

I made coffee at seven. Hana ate cereal at seven-fifteen. Min wandered down at seven-twenty-five. James left for work at eight. The morning was the morning. The standard.

Sunday farmers market on Wallingford Avenue. The kabocha at the Asian vendor's stall. The shishito peppers. The brokered conversation. We bought too much. We always do.

The shiso on the south fence is fragrant and unruly. I brushed past it taking the compost out and the smell stopped me. The smell is the country. The smell is Jisoo's apartment.

The kimchi crock was bubbling Saturday morning when I checked. The bubbling is the right bubbling. The fermentation knew what it was doing.

Jisoo sent a photo of the dol the kids did for our visit last summer. The photo went on the fridge.

The Capitol Hill apartment kitchen is small. We make it work.

The newsletter went out Sunday morning. The opening sentence took an hour. The piece took five. The piece was what it needed to be.

I sat at the kitchen counter at six AM with a notebook and a cup of green tea. Writing time before the house wakes. The pre-light hour is the only writing hour I trust.

My Korean is improving. Slowly. Painfully. Conversationally adequate now. I can argue about kimchi proportions in two languages, which is a milestone in any marriage between mother and daughter.

James and I had date night Friday. Indian restaurant on 45th. We ate too much. We sat in the car after talking about nothing for an hour. The marriage is the marriage.

Therapy Tuesday with Dr. Kim. We talked about the parents — the two sets, the one living, the one gone, the one who became real after thirty years and the one who was real my whole life and is now gone. The work is the layered work.

Rain on the porch all afternoon Saturday. The Wallingford rain is its own weather. I sat with a book and a tea and did not move for two hours.

Yoga Tuesday morning at the studio. The forward fold released something I had been carrying in the shoulder. The mat is the mat.

I read a thread on the Korean Adoptee subreddit Saturday. Some posts brought up old anger. Most are people figuring it out in real time. We are not unique. We are a community.

A blog reader wrote about her own adoptee experience. We exchanged three emails this week.

I texted Jisoo a photo of the kimchi in the new onggi pot. She replied with the thumb-up emoji and a Korean-language critique. The duality is the gift.

Hana left a Lego on the kitchen floor. I stepped on it at two AM. Standard.

Sprint review at Amazon Friday. Two hours. I could have been on a podcast.

The galbitang had done its slow, necessary work by Sunday evening — the ribs tender, the broth clear, the daikon soft enough for Hana — and something in me still wanted to keep the oven on, keep the kitchen warm, keep the day from ending too quickly. David had left, Min had wandered back upstairs, and I found myself reaching for butter and walnuts, the kind of simple baking that asks nothing of you and gives back warmth. Butter Nut Twists are exactly that: a small act of care in a week that had asked for a lot of those. The twist in the dough felt right — two things becoming one thing, holding their shape.

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 18 min | Total Time: 38 min | Servings: 24 twists

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
3/4 cup finely chopped walnuts or pecans, toasted
2 tablespoons granulated sugar (for rolling)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (for rolling)

Instructions

Preheat and prep. Preheat oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Cream the butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides as needed.
Add yolks and vanilla. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time, then beat in the vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
Combine dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add to the butter mixture and stir on low speed until a soft dough forms. Fold in the toasted nuts by hand with a spatula.
Shape the twists. Scoop about 1 tablespoon of dough and roll into a rope roughly 5 inches long. Fold the rope in half and twist the two strands around each other two or three times. Press the end gently to seal. Place on prepared baking sheets about 1 1/2 inches apart.
Roll in cinnamon sugar. In a small bowl, stir together the 2 tablespoons granulated sugar and cinnamon. Lightly press the top of each twist into the cinnamon sugar mixture before baking, or sprinkle over the tops.
Bake. Bake 16–18 minutes, rotating pans halfway through, until the bottoms are just golden and the tops look set. They will firm as they cool — do not overbake.
Cool. Let twists rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

Nutrition (per serving)

Butter Nut Twists — The Week the Kitchen Held Everything