Remember Swiss Fudge Cookies?
Yeah, me either.
Okay. I do. I just didn’t want to be alone. In case you didn’t know them. Or remember them. Or pine for them.
Like I do. I admit it. I’m woman enough to admit it.
Ever like anything that you don’t want to own up to, or not like something that it seems like everybody else likes? And if you own up to liking the unpopular thing, or admit to not liking the popular thing, you’re sure you’d be the subject of intense ridicule?
Yeah, me either. {there I go again}
I keep thinking about this book by Alexandra Robbins that’s been getting a lot Press lately: The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth: Popularity, Quirk Theory, and Why Outsiders Thrive After High School. Have you heard of this book? Me either.
But, seriously, Robbins attempts to understand and explain popularity and all its corollary issues by following the lives of 7 high schoolers from all different walks of high school life and popularity. Here are the categories {taken from the book’s amazon.com page}:
The Loner, who has withdrawn from classmates since they persuaded her to unwittingly join her own hate club;
The Popular Bitch, a cheerleading captain both seduced by and trapped within her clique’s perceived prestige;
The Nerd, whose differences cause students to laugh at him and his mother to needle him for not being “normal”;
The New Girl, determined to stay positive as classmates harass her for her mannerisms and target her because of her race;
The Gamer, an underachiever in danger of not graduating, despite his intellect and his yearning to connect with other students;
The Weird Girl, who battles discrimination and gossipy politics in school but leads a joyous life outside of it;
The Band Geek, who is alternately branded too serious and too emo, yet annually runs for class president.
Were you the one who wasn’t like the others? Were you happy in high school? Were you popular? Do popularity and happiness go hand in glove?
I haven’t read the book, but I understand from hearing The Author in Interviews that she was a “Floater” in high school {which sounds really gross when you have your mind in the toilet, which apparently I do}. It’s a term I know from Queen Bees & Wannabes: Helping Your Daughter Survive Cliques, Gossip, Boyfriends & Other Realities of Adolescence, by Rosalind Wiseman.
In Queen Bees & Wannabes, Wiseman defines a Floater as the girl who “has friends in different groups and can move freely among them. She usually has protective characteristics that shield her from other girls’ cruelty – for example, she’s beautiful but not too beautiful, nice, not terribly sophisticated, and avoids conflicts. … [S]he has influence over other girls but doesn’t use it to make them feel bad….”
Sure Alexandra Robbins, {apparently already a prolific author}, was a Floater. How else could she write this book? It sounds a whole lot like, “I didn’t have these problems, but if you do, here’s how to understand it and to handle it.” I dunno. I haven’t read the book, so maybe I’m dead wrong.
What are your thoughts about popularity in high school? Is it predictive of anything? What does popularity even mean? Where did you fit in when you were in high school? Does it still define who you are?
Floater still sounds gross to me. I know it’s really good, but it sounds less than good.
How about some Swiss Fudge Cookie clones? They’re buttery and soft, and your teeth leave railroad tracks in the chocolate when you bite through the center. Ooooh and ahhhh….
Have you heard the news? Only dorks eat gluten. :)
| Chocolate Thumbprint Cookies |
- FOR THE COOKIES
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose gluten-free flour
- 3/4 teaspoon xanthan gum
- 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces, at room temperature
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- FOR THE FILLING
- 6 ounces chopped chocolate (semi-sweet works well, but dark or milk would, too – I even used white chocolate, but I had to modify the cream to chocolate ratio quite a bit)
- 3/4 cup heavy cream
- Pinch (1/16 teaspoon) table salt
- Line baking sheets in parchment paper and set them aside. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer (or in a large bowl), whisk together the flour, xanthan gum, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Add the softened butter pieces to the bowl, and, with the paddle attachment, beat the mixture on medium-low speed until the mixture is combined and contains large crumbs.
- With the mixer on medium speed, add the egg yolk and vanilla extract, and beat briefly to combine (about 30 seconds). Turn the dough out onto a piece of parchment paper (it will be kind of crumbly), and press it together with your hands so that it holds together.
- Roll tablespoons of dough into balls, and place them at least one inch apart on prepared baking sheets. Place the baking sheets with the dough into the refrigerator for about 20 minutes (or the freezer for less than 10 minutes) until firm. Once firm, place the baking sheets into the preheated oven for 5 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Wet the convex (rounded) side of the bowl of a 1/2 teaspoon utensil, and press it gently but firmly into the center of each softened mound of dough. Return the baking sheet to the oven, and continue to bake for another 5 to 7 minutes, or until pale golden. Remove from the oven. If any of the divots have disappeared a bit, repeat the 1/2 teaspoon utensil process to ensure the presence of a cup for the filling.
- Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for a few minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Or stick ‘em in the freezer to finish cooling if you’re impatient like I am.
- Make the filling while the cookies are cooling {freezing until cool}.
- Place the chocolate in a medium-size heatproof bowl and set it aside.
- In a medium saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a gentle boil. Add the salt and stir to combine.
- Pour the warm cream over the chocolate in a slow and steady stream, whisking constantly until the mixture is smooth. Allow the mixture to cool for about 2 minutes before pouring into the thumbprints.
- Once the cookies are cooled and the filling is ready, carefully pour the filling into the well of each thumbprint cookie. Allow the filling to set before serving.
Store in an airtight container at room temperature for 3 days, or at least a week (read: two weeks for me} in the refrigerator.
If you bake these at a higher temperature (which you might, if you are not using an oven thermometer), they will burn.
I have NOT tested these with any substitutions. If I had to replace the butter, I would replace it with non-hydrogenated vegetable shortening. The heavy cream – that’s a really tough one for nondairy substitution. Have any ideas? Post them in the comments, please?
If you use a bean flour blend as an all-purpose gluten-free flour, these will not behave the same in preparation or baking, and will not taste the same. It’s a fact.
Love you. Mean it.
xoxo
Nicole
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A “floater” just sounds like someone in denial of their real place in the hierarchy.
I have wondered that myself, Tetsuo. :)
xoxo
Nicole
lol…only dorks eat gluten…ok, so i’m a dork but i cook gf for my hubby! so i’ve noticed (twice now) a picture one your page and below it, it says “Chicken Bones”. when i click on it, it tells me the page doesn’t exist! it come up under the recipe in “you might also like”…what’s up with that? i wanna see what it is :)
I have a question for you. When it calls for 6 oz of chopped chocolate, I know it is calling for the “bars” of chocolate, but honestly, I have always used chocolate chips instead. Does it really make a difference? I use Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate chips. They are sooooo yummy! Oh, and an interesting fact about heavy cream. Most people who are allergic/sensitive to milk actually have the issue with the milk proteins. Learned this from our dr when I couldn’t figure out why my girls could eat butter. She said about 99% of people could have butter since it is made from the fat, not the proteins. So, I took it a step further since butter is made from the cream, I figured they could eat the heavy whipping cream. Needless to say, I make the BEST ice cream! :) And this is a real blessing since one can eat only goat’s milk, 2 others only rice, and the 4th only almond. Ok, off to do some baking! :) Cookies anyone?
Hi, Kadren,
Yes, you can definitely use your chips. I indicated chopped chocolate because chips tend to be kinda waxy – but the Ghirardelli chips will be better than most. About the allergies – yes, an allergy is always to the protein in the food. So if there is a food derivative of it that doesn’t contain the protein, the allergy won’t be triggered. I had never thought of heavy cream in this way. That’s awesome! It would be such a shame to be without heavy cream. There is no real substitute for it. Nothing else makes the grade.
Always good to hear from you! Let us know how the cookies turn out!
xoxo
Nicole
Never thought about the wax factor. Learn something new every day! :) Will do on the cookies. Have to work out first. I haven’t done that in about 8 weeks since I got a horrible cold that lasted 4 weeks. The past 4 weeks I’ve just been lazy. hee hee hee. Time to get back to it!
Hi, Kadren,
Good luck with the workout!
xoxo
Nicole
It was short, but wonderful! :)
High school wasn’t as bad as junior high. In junior high, I was a flat-out Loner, but by high school, I was the heavy-metal version of the Band Geek blended in with the Gamer. I wish Goth had been prevalent then. Buffy: The Vampire Slayer would have been helpful, too, for the “high school is on a Hellmouth” metaphor. In looking back, I know now that I did have friends, but there were still months in which I didn’t know what to do with myself at lunch. By senior year, I had acted in some plays and worked on the school newspaper, too. I didn’t care about popularity as much as I cared about having real friends with whom I hung out outside of school. My standards were impossibly high, due to the Betsy-Tacy books, no doubt.
The cookies look lovely. I’m staying away from them right now, not because I think they’re uncool, but because they will tempt me to do unwise things– like smoking, cutting class, and toilet-papering the science lab! :)
xo, Farida
Hi, Farida,
The not-knowing-what-to-do-with-oneself-at-lunch thing cuts straight through my heart! That was always the big fear, right? I swear I can feel that feeling like it was yesterday. What if all my friends are out of school in the same day. What will I do with myself?! I think I’ll have to be sick that day. How awful.
I can’t believe smoking is still up there with cutting class, but I bet it is!
This recipe will be here, waiting for you, if and when you decide to print it/make it. I have to say, they’re really, really nice. :)
Always lovely to hear from you.
xoxo
Nicole
OK, so apparently, both our minds are in the toilet as “floater” makes me think of the same thing. Not a term I would want to call myself. Not sure what type I really was. I had a close group of friends – we definitely didn’t run with the popular crowd but we weren’t the dorks either. Just the nice girls that were super close and did our own thing, and we’re still best friends today which I think says a lot. We enjoyed high-school, but mostly because we enjoyed each other…school was just another place where we got to hang out together. :)
I love thumbprint cookies, and I haven’t had them in so long. These look delicious!
Hi, Heather,
Ew. Floaters. I don’t buy that the author of that book was a floater anyway. I think so-called social floaters are like unicorns anyway. But you sound like you had the most ideal high school experience. I keep in touch with exactly {pause to count} … zero people from high school. My oldest friendships are about 12 years old, from my years practicing law. They’re keepers, though.
Thanks for visiting! ‘Seeing’ you here is like seeing your school teacher in the supermarket. Context! Context! So lovely of you to stop by. See you back in context. :)
xoxo
Nicole
Hi Nicloe,
I tried to print one of your recipes and clicked on your print button. I ended up with the whole article including comments. Is this maybe a malfunction of my printer or have other people had this experience? I enjoy your writing style!
Barb
Hi, Barb,
Not all of the recipes on my site have printable recipes. Currently, only the ones from the past few months have a print f unction on the recipes. I have not yet gone back and reformatted my older recipes to be able to print, as such. This recipe works just fine for me if you click on “print” in the recipe.
I hope that’s helpful.
xoxo
Nicole
I can’t wait to make these!!! I.Need.Chocolate :)
Hi, Heather!
Let me know how they turn out! After making these, I can’t imagine putting jam in thumbprint cookies. Jam! no. Chocolate ganache? Yes.
Good to ‘see’ you, as always. :)
xoxo
Nicole
Hey, just FYI- you have 3,999 fans on facebook!!!!
Hi, Valerie,
Thanks! It went up to 4,000 (I have been watching facebook this afternoon b/c I didn’t want to miss it!), and then down to 3,000 (was it something I said? ;) and then back up to 4,000. I pulled the trigger when it first hit 4,000!
xoxo
Nicole
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