By November and I have been married three weeks. The duplex feels different in ways I cannot fully articulate. It feels more settled. The furniture is in the same places it has always been but everything is heavier, more decided. Even Tyler shoes in the hall, which are still there every morning, feel like they belong there now in a way they only provisionally belonged before.
I made Tyler a birthday cake this month. He turned twenty-nine on the fifth and I made a chocolate layer cake from scratch, which I have never made before. It took two practice runs and the actual cake was the best of the three. I frosted it imperfectly and then decided the imperfection was good. A perfect cake from someone who loves you is good. An imperfect cake from someone who loves you is also good. The love is the constant.
Visited Gloria and Destiny for Sunday cooking as usual. Destiny is eight and she is managing the kitchen with increasing competence. She made a whole pan of biscuits this week from memory. They were excellent. Gloria said nothing except good, which from Gloria is a standing ovation.
I have been thinking about the future. Not anxiously. Just thinking about it the way you think about something you are walking toward and you can see the shape of it even if not all the details. A year ago I could not see any shape. Now I can. Now there is a shape and I am inside it and it fits.
Making Tyler’s birthday cake taught me something I already knew but needed to bake my way back to: the effort itself is the point. Three rounds of chocolate cake left me with a well-worn kitchen and a better understanding of what I actually want to make when I want to show someone I care. These flourless chocolate peanut butter chocolate chip cookies carry that same spirit — deeply chocolatey, a little imperfect, and completely honest — without a two-day project attached. They’re the kind of thing you make on a Tuesday because someone deserves something good, and that is enough.
Flourless Chocolate Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 12 minutes | Total Time: 22 minutes | Servings: 18 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup creamy peanut butter
- 3/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon fine salt
- 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
Instructions
- Preheat. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Mix the dough. In a medium bowl, stir together the peanut butter, sugar, cocoa powder, egg, vanilla extract, baking soda, and salt until a thick, uniform dough forms.
- Fold in chips. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of chocolate chips for topping, then fold the remainder into the dough.
- Portion. Scoop the dough into rounded tablespoons (about 1.5 tablespoons each) and place them 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Gently flatten each ball with your palm or the back of a spoon.
- Top. Press a few of the reserved chocolate chips onto the top of each cookie.
- Bake. Bake for 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops look just dry. The centers will appear underdone — that’s correct.
- Cool. Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They firm up as they cool.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 158 | Protein: 4g | Fat: 10g | Carbs: 15g | Fiber: 2g | Sodium: 98mg