Oh, way back around Christmas, and then again at Easter time, there was a Sugar Cookie Bar recipe on Pinterest being pinned and re-pinned and pinned again. It claimed to taste as good as frosted sugar cookies, but with way less effort.
And, I totally get the way less effort, time saving-ness of bar cookies over drop or rolled and cut cookies. Spread the whole batch in one pan with one fell swoop, or painstakingly drop mound after mound on multiple pans over the course of hours.
As a matter of fact, I used to be a huge proponent of bar cookies. And I still have a few recipes that I do on a regular basis that are bars. But cookies that are supposed to be cookies? Those I make as cookies.
And for several good reasons...(at least, I think they are good reasons)
I bake cookies as an act of love for my family. Chocolate is my love language, as is sugar. And I generously share the love. I joke that they will all be on the Biggest Loser someday having a heart to heart with Jillian about how they ended up in this place because their mom made them eat cookies. So, yeah...
I bake cookies because is it very relaxing for me. It forces me to be tied to my kitchen for an hour or two. And it puts me in a very chilled out, content, "this is the life" place. (except for Christmas baking day once a year. It's a marathon. There is nothing chilled out or relaxed about that day.)
I bake cookies because it allows me time to sit on my stool and read between batches-online reading and paper and ink books. I read novels and things that stretch my mind. It is relatively uninterrupted 6-7 minute chunks. You can make headway when baking cookies.
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| I got this puppy at IKEA for $25. Probably the best $25 I have ever spent-there. |
I bake cookies because it gives me time to weekly (optimistically) or bi-weekly(realistically) scrub my sink between a batches. It is the perfect time to powder it down with cleanser and give the sink a nice clean aura.
I bake cookies because it gives me time (if I'm feeling ambitious or simply grossed out) to clean the stove top and counter tops and cupboard fronts. Since I have to be in the kitchen for the period of time anyway, I may as well use the time to keep grease splatters, and food spills, and dirty finger prints down to a dull roar.
I bake cookies because I love to eat them. And individual cookies are good portion control-if you stick to one or two. Fresh with milk, or not so fresh-with milk.
I bake cookies because I am an individualist. I believe in the moral worth of the individual. And in equal opportunity for all. And...
Are you a bar cookie person or an individual cookie person? Why? Let's discuss cookies in the comments.
