Have You Tried A Gingerdoodle?
I’ve been baking this year. And y’all have my son to thank for it.
It’s been a long time since I’ve enjoyed baking at all, but this year that love has started to come back and I can’t tell you how much I’ve missed it and how happy it’s made me to get in the kitchen and make a mess again.
Earlier this year, my son came to me with a recipe he’d seen on X or YouTube for No-Bake Boston Cream Pie Bars and asked if we could make them. We not me. So, I said yes and the next day, we made them, devoured them and the next week, made another batch.
After those, he asked if we could make Brookies. I again said yes, and we got in the kitchen a couple of days later and spent a couple of hours making brownies and chocolate chip cookie dough and in the end had the most amazing and decadent brownies/chocolate chip cookie bars ever.
There’s a whole list of things we want to make, but there are things I want to make too, just because I’ve missed it so much.
I’m not much of a cookie baker, but I was browsing Pinterest and found a recipe for Gingerdoodles. Snickerdoodles + Gingerbread spices = Gingerdoodles.
They were gone in less than two days. And they were delicious. Soft and chewy and just wonderful.
Being in the kitchen for me was something I’d do when I was stuck on a story. I’d bake cupcakes or brownies or cookies or bread or muffins. I’d do it all from scratch because following a recipe allowed my brain to work in one way and relax in other ways. When all was said and done, I had usually figured out where the story needed to go and I had some sweet treat to show for it. Baking was a form of therapy for me.
But somewhere along the way, over the last decade or so, I’d lost that, even more so the last six or seven years.
A lot of things have happened, have changed in my life, in all our lives and I was just barely hanging on, just trying to make it through the days. Writing was overwhelming. Baking was overwhelming. Most everything to me was overwhelming except taking a drive and standing on top of a mountain and looking out at the Blue Ridge and breathing some air that wasn’t threatening to choke me.
Baking these last few months has been a real joy and I haven’t been able to say that about anything at all in a very long time.
The other thing that’s been a real joy… Writing. I’m finding my way back into creating stories, creating characters, creating love where before there was nothing more than…nothing.
Joy is necessary. Joy is something I’ve been missing and right now, we could all use more than a little joy.
The next two things we’re going to bake are Buckeye Brownies and Gingerbread Latte cookies. Sourdough bread is on my list, too, but I might have to wait until December or January to start on that.
Oh, and here’s a picture…
You’ve gotta wonder, too… What books are all these treats going into because if we know anything at all about me, treats and coffee make it into my books and if I’m in the kitchen this much…
Anyway…
What are you baking this year?
Lissa
