Cookies You Can Believe In: Bake-In and Rally for Bake Sales
"Discarding the Sainsbury luxury packaging, I winkle the pies out of their pleated foil cups, place them on a chopping board and bring down a rolling pin on their blameless floury faces...with a firm downward motion,,, you can start a crumbly little landslide, giving the pastry a pleasing homemade appearance. And homemade is what I'm after here. Home is where the heart is. Home is where the good mother is, baking for her children."
Kate, the stressed out working mother in Alison Pearson's I Don't Know How She Does It (Anchor Books, 2002), goes to great lengths in the opening scene to pretend to make something homemade for her child's school event. She knows homemade is better than processed. But in New York City public schools, it is now against the rules to sell homemade baked goods in bake sales, those classic fundraisers that public schools need more than ever now, but OK to sell certain processed snacks.
Outraged parents are protesting against this policy on Thursday, March 18th, from 4-6 PM, on the steps of New York's City Hall. They're staging a bake-in: the rally will have one table featuring the approved [processed]food items and another table featuring banned homemade foods cooked by parents and their children, with the ingredients of all the food on both tables listed. The parents are protesting the infringement on both their ability to raise much needed money for their children's schools and the policy's choice of processed snacks over homemade treats.
I love the idea of this grassroots protest. A busy and stressed-out working mother myself, I'll admit that I sometimes feel like Kate, the mother who goes to great lengths to make purchased baked goods look homemade (though I haven't gone so far). So to me, the perfect bake sale item should be homemade, simple enough to make on a school night, and not too nutritionally sinful. A recipe that meets my bake sale-worthiness requirements is one I made for my daughter's classroom birthday celebration last year. I'm dedicating it to her friend Enzo, who is the rare child who is not a sweets eater. He loved these just slightly sweet sugar cookies so much, he still asks me to make them, one year later. Quite a compliment from a 7 year old boy. I made this batch to finally keep my promise to him.
If you're in New York, join the bake-in and rally on Thursday, March 18th from 4-6PM on the steps of City Hall. Kids are welcome. The more the merrier.
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Cookies You Can Believe In: Sugar Cookies for Enzo
Makes 4-1/2 dozen bite-sized cookies.
Ingredients
2-1/2 cups flour
3/4 tsp. salt
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
Optional: colored sugar or sprinkles
Technique
1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. cream butter and sugar together with a mixer until light and fluffy
3. add in the egg and vanilla, blend until smooth
4. add flour and salt.
5. using your hands, work batter into a ball of dough (will be the texture of pastry dough)
6. form batter into 1 inch balls and place onto a cookie sheet, and slightly flatten. (Dough may also be refrigerated for a few hours, rolled out and cut into shapes with cookie cutters.)
7. If desired, lightly sprinkle each cookie with sprinkles or colored sugar.
8. Place in 350 oven and bake until just golden around the edges, about 10 minutes.
Suggested bake sale price: 2 for $0.50
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Kim Gamble
kmbearden
Spectrum Voice
Susie Lindau
Lauren B. Davis
racheld
Salon.com
Comments
JulieShanti: thank you Julie! Cookies for a cause.
More power to the bake-in though, and your cookies look great, Linda!
I was saying....
If I were in New York, I would be there with my famous oatmeal cookes for sure.
Lisa: so true in so many ways.
Bellwether: they're just right with a cup of tea.
Patty Jane: I know, I wish I were in NY just for this rally, I love the idea so.
As for the sugar cookies, they're good. I liked the consistency and that they're not overly sweet. They reminded me of a biscuit they sell in Marseilles called a Navette (which has been around for about 200 yrs and is usually made with orange blossom extract).
Thanks for the dedication to Enzo! Truly sweet.
Füsun, you are too generous with your compliments. Please, try and also pass on the recipe. Bon appétit!
OnlyTheBlogKnowsBrooklyn.com
Again, thanks. Bake sales have always been a major fund raiser at our P.S. 321, from which my son graduated.
R!