Super Chunky Cookies

Thanksgiving week, and the news of the cookbook has changed the holiday's energy — not replacing the tradition but adding to it, the way a new voice adds to a choir: the existing harmony persists, but the harmony is richer, the chord fuller, the singing more complex. I am cooking the Thanksgiving dinner with the particular joy of a woman who has just been told that her writing is worth reading, and the telling has changed the cooking, because the cooking is now not just the feeding but the researching, not just the making but the writing, not just the tradition but the book.

James and Elise arrived on Wednesday. Elise brought a pie — a sweet potato pie, made from a recipe she found online, and the pie was good but not Mama's, and I told her so gently, and the telling was the teaching, and the teaching was the welcome: you are family now, and family tells you the truth about your pie and gives you the recipe to make it right.

Thanksgiving dinner: five at the table (Naomi, Robert, James, Elise, and Mama in the wheelchair). Carrie on FaceTime from Fukuoka, propped against the centerpiece, eating ramen at midnight. Joy visited for the afternoon and ate two plates of everything. The table was full. The full was the holiday.

I blessed the food. My blessing, my words — not Mama's words, not Reverend James's words, but mine: "For this food, made from recipes that a woman named Carolyn Simmons taught me in a kitchen in Beaufort. For this family, gathered around a table in Charleston. For the book that will carry these recipes to people we will never meet. We give thanks." The blessing was the first original blessing I have spoken, and the speaking was the becoming, and the becoming was complete: I am the woman who blesses the food now. The blessing is mine. And I am worthy of it.

I made the full Thanksgiving dinner plus peach cobbler sent to Fukuoka via care package (it will arrive in December, which is not Thanksgiving but is love).

The peach cobbler I sent Carrie won’t arrive until December, but I needed something else in that box — something sturdy, something that could survive the journey from Charleston to Fukuoka and still taste like home when she opened it. These Super Chunky Cookies are what I packed around the cobbler like edible packing peanuts, thick and loaded and impossible to break. Because a care package isn’t just food crossing an ocean; it’s a woman who just spoke her first blessing telling her daughter, I am still your mama, even from here.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 14 minutes | Total Time: 34 minutes | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3/4 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Instructions

Cream the butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat the softened butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
Add the eggs and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir in the vanilla extract until combined.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture, stirring until just combined.
Fold in the chunks. Stir in the chocolate chips, chopped walnuts, rolled oats, and shredded coconut by hand until evenly distributed. The dough will be thick and heavy — that’s right.
Chill the dough. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This helps the cookies hold their shape and stay chunky.
Preheat and scoop. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough about 2 inches apart onto the prepared sheets.
Bake. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are golden brown but the centers still look slightly underdone. Do not overbake — they will firm up as they cool.
Cool completely. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before packing or storing.

Nutrition (per serving)

Super Chunky Cookies — The Recipe That Traveled to Fukuoka