"The magical cookies or cookie scenes are what I call those sparks in a story that makes you WANT to write."
–Susan Dennard, "HOW I PLAN A BOOK, PART 3: SCENE-LEVEL PLANNING"
As we talked about what sort of cookie Truthwitch would be, she said it'd be one with a bunch of ingredients, many mismatched, because Truthwitch was made up of so many different things: concepts and characters and favorites. We decided that if there could be an "everything bagel" surely there could be an "everything cookie". A magical everything cookie, of course :).
"Every scene in your story must be a magical cookie scene."
–Susan Dennard, "HOW I PLAN A BOOK, PART 4: COAXING OUT THE MAGICAL COOKIES"
Aside from what food the book would be, the foods mentioned in the novel (because I always tab the foods as I read ;) ) include a stew called borgsha (maybe like borsht?) with goat meat, a "chocolate volcano" of bubbling chocolate poured over fresh strawberries, cream-filled pastry, green apples, pale bone broth with dry bread, dates, and hot porridge. I'll type up a food list with page numbers on tumblr and link to it here. Stay tuned!
Note: The recipe below uses a chocolate chip cookie dough as the base (adapted from Handle the Heat), and then you add in whatever other ingredients you want like bacon bits, M&Ms, nuts, granola, dried fruit, caramel bits, golden puff cereal (I'd like to try the caramel and puffs next time), mini marshmallows, etc. Just have fun with it!
Also, after I made these cookies, I discovered that Susan Dennard eats gluten-free and that she shared a great gluten-free chocolate chip cookie recipe by Ambitious Kitchen on her tumblr. So by all means, if you'd like to go that route use that recipe for the base cookie dough (I'm super curious to try it!), and then add in the magical "everything" ingredients (gluten-free, of course) ;).
Truthwitch Magical "Everything" Cookies
Ingredients:
Cookie Dough
1/2 Cup (1 stick) Butter, room temperature
1/4 Cup Granulated Sugar
1/4 Cup Dark Brown Sugar, packed
1 Egg
1/2 tsp. Vanilla Extract
1 1/4 Cup Flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/4 tsp. Baking Soda
1/4 tsp. Baking Powder
"Everything" Additions
1/3 Cup Real Bacon Bits
1/3 Cup Mini M&Ms (to add some fun color)
1/2 Cup Granola Crumbles, broken up small (adds a really great texture)
1/3 Cup Dried Currants or Chopped Dried Cranberries (or a 1/3 cup combo of the 2)
1/3 Cup Chopped Macadamia Nuts (or other nut of your choosing)
Potato Chips or Tortilla Chips (I used cheddar & sour cream b/c that's what Smalls likes. Might try little tortilla or nachos next time)
Popped Popcorn (I used a bag of pre-popped, Buttered Pop Secret, but I'd like to try kettle corn next time)
Directions:
1. In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter & sugars until fluffy & well combined. Thoroughly mix in the egg & then the vanilla. In a seperate bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda & powder) & then add it little by little to the wet ingredients, mixing on low, then medium, each time you add some, until all of the dry is smoothly incorporated. Lastly, stir in the magical "everything" additions until evenly distributed, & then cover the bowl with plastic wrap & chill in the fridge for an hour.
2. Pre-heat your oven to 350ºF & line a large baking tray with parchment paper. Remove the dough from the fridge & use a tablespoon to scoop little, uniform heaps of dough onto the tray about 1" - 1 1/2" apart. Break some of the potato or tortilla chips into ~1/2" pieces & poke a few into each dough mound. Press a few pieces of popcorn onto each dough mound as well, along with a few extra mini M&Ms to give some color on top. Slide the tray into the oven on the middle rack & bake for about 10-12 minutes, or until the cookie edges are golden brown. Remove from oven & let cool for a few minutes on the tray to solidify, & then carefully transfer the cookies to a cooling rack.
Hey Ms. Diana,
ReplyDeleteHave you ever heard of the movie "Another Country" starring Rupert Everett and a young Colin Firth from 1984? It's not sci-fi, but it is really intriguing in that it is set in a boy's boarding school in the 30's, and it deals with issues like sexuality, adolescence and the english class system, all with great characters and stuff along those lines. You can't get it on netflix, unfortunately, so you have to go with the DVD, which you can order on Amazon. Trust me, it is an excellent movie that is really underrated. Go check it out! There's not that many sex scenes in it though, but I really think that it is an adult movie (that appeals to teens) that you should check out yourself.
I love your blog too, but I think you should not just stick to YA and Middle-Grade (I'm 17 and I read a lot of adult novels, but I don't mind a good YA), and that you should really broaden your horizons and read adult fiction, since it can be just as cool as YA and stuff (Despite the fact that you don't really like sex or stuff along those lines, I think you can deal with it if the book is very well written, heck, Forever is a YA novel by Judy Blume and it is very frank in talking about stuff.). Why not start off with "Swamplandia!" by Karen Russell, since it deals with teens growing up in an alligator-wrestling park in Florida and one of them heads down to the underworld to go rescue someone. Finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, really good, go read it.
And no, I am not saying that you should get rid of YA and Middle Grade (I don't even know WTH "Middle Grade" means, to be honest.), it's just that...you should push yourself outside of your comfort zone and likes, as you never may know what you may encounter. So, please, try reading some more adult novels, please.
I still really like YA novels. But then again, it's just a preference. I don't think you need to branch out if YA is just your preferred reading style. Come on, I'm sure it's not as if you've never read an "grown up" book before!
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