This month’s Creative Cookie Exchange theme is love and hearts which started me thinking about what love really is, I mean, beyond the heady first rush and tumble of quick emotions, all the highs and lows that are often the hallmarks of young relationships. I’m talking about the comfortable love that settles in, where you can complete each other’s sentences and anticipate each other’s needs, and still thoroughly enjoy spending time together, laughing, traveling, playing. And that brought to mind yin and yang, the Taoist concept of two halves that together complete wholeness.
I’m not sure that’s something two people can ever truly accomplish, but let me just put it out there that this year, in just a couple of short months, my husband and I will celebrate 30 years of marriage and 32 years of laughing, traveling and playing together. Of raising babies to young women of whom we are most proud, moving about the planet making homes in six of the seven continents and sharing the joy of life with friends and family too numerous to count. We have been so blessed.
Since we are both flawed human beings (Ain't nobody perfect folks!) still growing and learning about each other and life, I will never complete him and he may never complete me. After this many years of experience, I believe that complementing each other seems a much more worthwhile goal anyway. Together, we make a pretty solid team. Just like these cookies. These aren’t traditional cookies for Valentine’s Day but bake them for someone you love anyway.
And just because everyone's thinking it anyway, this scene:
Note: Start early in the day to allow chilling time for the two doughs.
Ingredients for about 3 dozen cookies
For the yin:
1/2 cup, firmly packed, or 100g brown sugar
3/4 cup or 150g granulated sugar
1/3 cup or 75g butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup or 125g flour
3/4 cup or 60g unsweetened extra dark cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the yang:
1 cup or 200g granulated sugar
1/2 cup or 115g butter, softened
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups or 156g flour
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 95g uncooked quick rolled oats
To decorate: handful each white and semi-sweet chocolate chips
Useful tool: 5 in or 13cm length of stiff wire for marking where to cut the cookie dough
Method
For the yin dough:
Cream your butter with the two sugars.
Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.
Sift the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder and salt into the mixing bowl. Mix well until thoroughly combined.
Roll into a thick log about 2 inches or 5cm in diameter and cover tightly with cling film. Put the dough log in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
For the yang dough:
Cream your butter with the sugar.
Add in the egg and vanilla extract and beat again.
Sift in your flour, baking powder and salt and mix well.
Add in the oats and keep mixing until thoroughly combined.
Roll into a thick log about 2 inches or 5cm in diameter and cover tightly with cling film. Put the dough log in the refrigerator to chill for at least an hour.
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| Try to get your logs the same approximate size |
While the dough is chilling, bend your wire around the neck of a bottle, first one way and then the other, to make a tool the approximate outline of the division between the yin and yang.
Once the dough is well chilled, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Prepare your cookie sheet by greasing it with non-stick spray or lining it with parchment paper or a silicone liner.
Putting the two together
Slice your two cookie dough logs into even slices. Use your wire tool to press down on the slices to mark where to cut them into two. You can, of course, do this free hand. But the pieces might not match up as neatly.
Use the tip of a sharp knife to cut each slice apart. Fit them back together, one half light, the other half dark, pressing gently to make them one on the prepared cookie sheet.
Decorate each with one white and one dark chocolate chip.
Bake in your preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until just done for chewy cookies.
Leave to cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Enjoy!
These would also be pretty cool for Chinese New Year, another holiday coming upon us shortly. Many thanks to Deepti of Bakingyummies for handling the hosting responsibilities this month!
Check out all the other interpretations of love and hearts from my fellow Creative Cookie Exchange bakers this month.
- Aloha Linzer Cookies by All That's Left Are The Crumbs
- Cheese Hearts by Bakingyummies
- Chocolate Valentine Sugar Cookies by Karen's Kitchen Stories
- Dark Chocolate Sugar Cookies by Flours and Frostings
- Double Chocolate Spritz Heart Cookies by The Spiced Life
- Happy Heart Lemon Cookies by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
- LoftHouse Cookies by Oven Delights
- Meringue Hearts by Noshing With The Nolands
- Nutella Raspberry Cookies by Upstate Ramblings
- Pomegranate, Rose and White Chocolate Cookies by A Shaggy Dough Story
- Sour Cream Pecan Sandies by Magnolia Days
- Stained Glass Heart Cookies by A Baker's House
- Sweet Heart Cookies by 2 Cookin' Mamas
- Yin Yang Cookies by Food Lust People Love
We get together once a month to bake cookies with a common theme or ingredient so Creative Cookie Exchange is a great resource for cookie recipes. Be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts at The Spiced Life). We post the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month!
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