The Sustainable Cookie Story
How The Sustainable Cookie Came To Be
It was November 1st 20/20
There was an energy that morning that felt like it was teetering between tenuous restraint & a palpable positive outlook beaming out from behind the eyes and masked faces of those that walked gallantly through the park and streets of the East Village that gorgeous sunny Sunday morning, two days before The Presidential Election .
Leaving Thompkins Sq. Park with RhODy and his two & four legged besties I pitch out the idea that we go get a coffee and hang in the sun at Abraço the hip & trendy café in my neighborhood. The only café I will drop into when I do go for a café hang.
Abraço started in a tiny storefront on E. 7th St. just off of 1st Avenue, directly across the street from the place Jamie, the owner, graduated into beautifully. His loyal patrons are a community. Everyone here is a ‘Regular’. The original space was so small the clusters of coffee drinkers huddled around very thin ‘tables’ that looked more like an upright pallet or a bookcase.
The new space is painted all white, with the original bar which is probably equally as valuable as the real estate itself. Jamie brought in a beautiful communal table which anchors the back of the restaurant just in front of the half wall that separates the ‘front of house’ from the very quiet & efficient kitchen. A few modern lighting fixtures and niche areas with 2 & four top tables are off on the left side of the space where banquettes used to be in the original bar.
When I do the Abraço hang I always treat myself to their oil cured olive cookie. A splurge at $4. for a rectangle shaped cookie the size made by putting your thumb & pointer fingers of each hand together. I’d never heard of an oil cured olive cookie and because it’s so unique to this place I had to try it. After the 1st time I had the cookie which is I asked Jamie about the cookie and the only thing he’d share with me is that it’s his wife’s secret recipe from France.
Now, back to 48 hours before The Election day, sitting on a bench and at a small table basking in the sun w/a macchiato & an oil cured olive cookie I said to my friend, “What the hell paying this much for this cookie. I’m gonna start looking at recipes and make myself an oil cured olive cookie, today! Plus, what will also be so great is, you know how much I love cookies, if I’m making my own cookies I won’t be buying packaged cookies, therefore helping with my practice to do what I can to eliminate food packaging waste.”
Clearly it wouldn’t be your ordinary cookie I’d become crazed to make and then as I got into researching recipes and trying different techniques, oven temperatures & cooking times I knew I was on to something by about Chanukah time. Also it was at this same time that I came across the drawing of the olive tree that’s become the Recipes 4 Survival, Mindful Meals brand icon which symbolizes, heritage, roots & earthiness - to me.
The one thing I knew as I reviewed recipes was, I did not want to spend a fortune making the cookie meaning - no stick of butter recipe was going to work for me. This is not a shortbread based cookie.
It’s a Portuguese, heritage recipe that I’ve spent quite a bit of time adapting & perfecting to bring you & tudo o mundo, The Sustainable Cookie ™
DRG
May, XX.XX1