It has been a few years since I have made the Sweet Dreams, a cookie having rather strong memories on many levels. The year there was a cookie baking contest held at work was when the permanently instilled memory occurred. When I hear the words cookie and contest in the same sentence, my interest is generally peaked. Although I wasn't responsible for organizing the contest, I was given the responsibility for getting the judges. So I asked three local community leaders, who all just happened to be men (men and food seemed to be a combination that made sense at the time) to, in the spirit of community service, judge the Christmas cookies made by their local educators.
The Sweet Dream cookies were amongst the array of cookies in the contest. After all of the cookies were tasted and rated, the judges learned who made each of the cookies. Now I have to be honest and say I thought I would win this little competition hands down (a moment of unusually high confidence). So when the judges came down to my office their first words, said in harmony (and well rehearsed) were 'Don't quit your day job'. Even though the Sweet Dreams weren't awarded first place (I think they came in third), to this day I still think they were the best cookie in the competition. Call me a conspiracy theorist, but I have convinced myself the judges were challenged to award the 'blue ribbon' to the person who recruited them, the person who was also one of their peers in the community. (Yes, I have had to rationalize this cookie contest 'loss' somehow.) Whatever memories that are created when you make this cookie, who knows what they will be, but you won't have any unless, of course, you make them.
There are two kinds of sugar in this cookie: brown sugar and confectionary sugar. The brown sugar is mixed into the batter while the confectionary sugar is reserved for rolling the balls of dough in before the cookies are baked.
What changes these cookies from chocolate chip cookies to Sweet Dreams are the spices ginger and cinnamon. Like the use of sea salt elevates the taste of chocolate, ginger and cinnamon compliment it perfectly. The Sweet Dream recipe was around long before all of the 'designer' chocolates went mainstream. Someone was definitely ahead of their time when they created this recipe.
There are so many chocolate chips choices on the shelves of the grocery store these days it can be at times daunting as to which ones to choose. But my personal favorites are the Ghiradelli 60% bittersweet chocolate chips. They are a slightly oversized chocolate chip and when baked are creamy, not grainy. While it is an extra (and definitely worthwhile) step to toast walnuts before mixing them in, it is always preferable to buy walnut halves rather than pieces. To enhance the sweet nutty flavor of walnuts, they are simply placed on cookie sheet and baked at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes.
This is one of those recipes where you have some wait time before you bake them as the dough needs to be refrigerated for several hours or until the dough is firm. Personally, I consider making cookies needing refrigeration a good thing particularly during the baking frenzied holidays. Sometimes you just need to move on to other things and the 'make now, bake later' cookies are a blessing in disguise.
Once chilled the dough is formed into one inch balls. For purposes of uniformity I like using an ice cream scoop (if you don't have or haven't bought one yet, you might want to add this to your list this year, that is, if you can wait that long). The balls of dough are rolled in confectionary sugar and placed two inches apart on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a preheated 375 degree oven. The cookies bake for 12-14 minutes (if you reduce or increase the size of the balls of dough you will have to adjust your baking time). Important Note: The original recipe called for a 10 minute baking time but in my experience with these cookies, 10 minutes wasn't long enough. I would recommend you check for doneness at 10 minutes and then adjust the time based on your oven.
These cookies are as delicious as they are beautiful (makes me wonder if the judges in the cookie contest were wearing blind folds when they were tasting cookies!). And no, I am not getting started on baking holiday cookies, it's just the Sweet Dreams cookies have been put on hiatus for much too long and today was the perfect day to resurrect them. I guess I just couldn't want to wait any longer until these cookies were made and shared. And oh, as for how the outcome of the cookie contest has affected me, well let's just say it was really an endearing memorable moment amongst friends, the most important part of this memory.
Recipe
Sweet Dream Cookies (minor adaptations of a recipe from the Foothill House Bed and Breakfast, Calistoga, California)
Updated 12/20
Ingredients
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups (325g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
12 ounces (340g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 cup (115g) walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup (120g) confectionary sugar
Directions
1. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standing fitted with a paddle attachment cream the butter.
3. Beat in the brown sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and continue mixing until well blended.
4. Blend flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 365 degrees (F).
8. Form dough into one inch balls. Dredge in confectionary sugar before placing on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Space at least 2 inches apart.
9. Bake 12-14 minutes rotating pan midway through the baking process. Allow the cookies to cool 5 minutes on cookie sheets before removing.
10. Transfer to racks, cool and serve or store in an airtight container.
If there is one thing I know to be true is that taste is all a matter of opinion. What I or anyone else thinks looks good or tastes could either be the same or different. These perceptions are not nearly as important as is how one shares them. There are nuances to being honest, being polite, and there is also context. How I might say something to a really good friend or someone I care about might be a little different than what I might say to someone I don't know well, to a co-worker, or to someone that no longer matters to me. I say 'might' because sometimes I might say the exact same thing or I 'might' say something completely different. Giving a compliment or validating someone is a whole lot easier than expressing a differing view.
For me it's all about reading the context, reading the person. Sometimes a really close friend is in a place in their lives where the words chosen need to be a little more thoughtful. Judging when or when not to use humor can be the one thing that either makes them feel good and laugh or makes them wonder 'what is she thinking?' Either way I know I play a role in whatever their reaction might be. I certainly can't take credit for making someone laugh but not take some responsibility if they are momentarily wounded. I say 'momentarily' because how I react to them will affect whether my words remain with them or are forgotten (and possibly coming back as good teasing later on). In this day and age when face to face and ear to ear conversations are replaced (intentionally and unintentionally) with emails or texts, we lose the opportunity to strengthen connections. Maybe even more important, we risk having our intended outcome go awry. Seeing and hearing the judges (aka friends) say 'Don't quit your day job' just might have been received very differently if it came in the form of an email. For me, facial expressions, body language, and tone communicate more than words. They always have, they always will.
Ingredients
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups (300g) firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups (325g) all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Saigon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt
12 ounces (340g) semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
1 cup (115g) walnuts, toasted and chopped
1 cup (120g) confectionary sugar
Directions
1. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
2. In the bowl of a standing fitted with a paddle attachment cream the butter.
3. Beat in the brown sugar, and vanilla. Add egg and continue mixing until well blended.
4. Blend flour mixture into the butter/sugar/egg mixture.
5. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.
6. Refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
7. Preheat oven to 365 degrees (F).
8. Form dough into one inch balls. Dredge in confectionary sugar before placing on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Space at least 2 inches apart.
9. Bake 12-14 minutes rotating pan midway through the baking process. Allow the cookies to cool 5 minutes on cookie sheets before removing.
10. Transfer to racks, cool and serve or store in an airtight container.
If there is one thing I know to be true is that taste is all a matter of opinion. What I or anyone else thinks looks good or tastes could either be the same or different. These perceptions are not nearly as important as is how one shares them. There are nuances to being honest, being polite, and there is also context. How I might say something to a really good friend or someone I care about might be a little different than what I might say to someone I don't know well, to a co-worker, or to someone that no longer matters to me. I say 'might' because sometimes I might say the exact same thing or I 'might' say something completely different. Giving a compliment or validating someone is a whole lot easier than expressing a differing view.
For me it's all about reading the context, reading the person. Sometimes a really close friend is in a place in their lives where the words chosen need to be a little more thoughtful. Judging when or when not to use humor can be the one thing that either makes them feel good and laugh or makes them wonder 'what is she thinking?' Either way I know I play a role in whatever their reaction might be. I certainly can't take credit for making someone laugh but not take some responsibility if they are momentarily wounded. I say 'momentarily' because how I react to them will affect whether my words remain with them or are forgotten (and possibly coming back as good teasing later on). In this day and age when face to face and ear to ear conversations are replaced (intentionally and unintentionally) with emails or texts, we lose the opportunity to strengthen connections. Maybe even more important, we risk having our intended outcome go awry. Seeing and hearing the judges (aka friends) say 'Don't quit your day job' just might have been received very differently if it came in the form of an email. For me, facial expressions, body language, and tone communicate more than words. They always have, they always will.
