In the spirit of the Love Issue, I wanted to share one of my favorite recipes. It was at Middlebury where I discovered how food could be a conduit of love and that it allowed me to create and foster spaces for my friends to find quiet moments together. I first discovered these moments when I lived in Hepburn my sophomore year. I lived in a suite on the first floor with this tiny little kitchen which had a stovetop, an oven and a counter the size of a small cutting board. My room was 107 square feet and shaped like a coffin.
I was taking a class called “Food in the Middle East” at the time and for the class, we were reading a cookbook about Turkish food. I impulsively decided to, in my tiny kitchen, cook one of the recipes for my friends. My room was so tiny that we had to sit in the hallway of the suite, legs overlapping in a giant pile to eat. There was something magical about the splayed limbs, the laughs and the smiles shared over something that I had spent so much time and effort creating. The food didn’t matter, what mattered was everyone simultaneously pausing their busy day and sharing this moment. 
I wanted to share my recipe for chocolate chip cookies with you all because it is my absolute favorite thing to make and the easiest way to show someone you love them without words. My approach to love is a lot like making chocolate chip cookies. I love making them because of how happy they make other people. They have a way of slowing time, creating moments of quiet in the midst of an insane day.
Since living in Hepburn, I have come to believe that it isn’t just cooking for someone that shows you love them, it’s putting aside your own stuff to let someone know you care about them, whether that is ignoring homework to spend time with them, going out of your way to walk them home or the most delicious option, making them dinner or chocolate chip cookies. I hope that you enjoy this recipe and that you share it with the people you love.
Ingredients:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon of salt
¾ tablespoon of baking soda
1½ sticks of unsalted butter (step 2 in the directions)
½ cup brown sugar
1 cup of cane sugar
2 large eggs
2 egg yolks
3 tablespoons of vanilla extract
½- ¾ cups chocolate chunks
1 cup of rolled oats
Directions:
Mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, oats and chocolate chips in a small bowl and set aside. Preheat your oven to 350.
Add the whole stick of butter In a small pan over low heat on the stove. This will take about 4 minutes but you are looking for the butter to take on a golden color and for the milk solids (the flecks in the butter) to take on a golden color as well. It should smell nutty and the butter should be completely melted.
Once the butter has browned, transfer to a heatproof, large bowl. Into the bowl, add the cubed ½ stick of butter and stir until it is melted.
To the butter, add your sugar and mix to combine. Then add your two eggs, and the two egg yolks (separate over another container if you want to save the whites). Add the vanilla extract to the mix as well.
Gently stir in the dry ingredients to the bowl with the wet ingredients. Mix until you don’t see any bits of dry flour. Cover the bowl with a dish or tea towel and place it in the fridge. Ideally, this should rest overnight or for at least an hour. It’s important to let the flour hydrate and to let everything come together. But that being said an hour in the fridge is fine!
Grease a sheet pan and form the dough into roughly two-tablespoon sized balls. Place them on the sheet with plenty of room for spreading. These are meant to be tall, gooey on the inside cookies. Bake for 8-10 minutes, checking at 8 minutes for whether the top of the cookie is golden brown. Let sit for 2 minutes before eating so they can set.
