August 4: chocolate-covered digestive cookies
By: Leah Romm
Tags: Cooking, Procrastination, Baking, Digestive Cookies

I have always been a methodical person who finds comfort in understanding how and why something works. This might be why I enjoy baking so much: it gives me a behind-the-scenes look at pastries, cookies, cakes, bread, and other delicious creations that, until recently, have seemed too magical to make on my own. The more I bake — the more exposure I gain to various techniques and ingredients — the more appreciation I gain for the baked goods I eat from local bakeries or restaurants. I love buying a baked good and studying it, trying to understand how it was made, looking up a recipe, and gaining an understanding of how ingredients and methods meld to create what I’m about to consume.

My partner loves digestive cookies, both for their taste and for the nostalgia that accompanies eating a snack he frequently ate as a child. He’s got a sweet tooth, and loves to buy a pack when he sees it at the grocery (and if he doesn’t add it to the cart…I do.) His love of these cookies is contagious, and now I love digestive cookies, too!

Part of why I love them is because they remind me of Hit cookies, which I used to eat as a child. Hit cookies are not digestives, necessarily, but the shape of the cookies and the added layer of chocolate make them pretty similar. I’m actually not sure that I ever ate digestives as a kid, but the first time I had them in recent years, I was instantly transported to the thrill of eating one or two allotted Hit cookies, sometimes in the car on the way to an early ice skating practice.

So, when Sohla El-Waylly released a recipe for digestive cookies last year, I was overjoyed! I intently watched her Instagram story, a step-by-step guide to making these beloved biscuits. I studied the ingredient list, the recipe, the role of wheat germ (something I had never heard of before), which “gives these cookies their hearty, nutty crunch while also keeping them tender and crumbly.” But I could never find wheat germ anywhere — not at Whole Foods, not at any of the small local groceries in our former or current neighborhood, not at the Safeway near my parents’ house when I’d come to visit.

I could easily have made the digestives using ground flax or toasted rolled oats — in fact, in her Instagram highlight, Sohla emphasizes how flexible and forgiving the recipe is (they’ll be fine if you use a substitute for wheat germ! you can swap in vegan butter! an alternative milk will work well!). And yet… I couldn’t bring myself to try them without wheat germ. Did I have a good reason? No. Was it a very me thing to get hung up on? Absolutely.

Well, yesterday I finally found wheat germ. I was at Church Produce, my favorite little grocery shop in my neighborhood. They keep items like oatmeal, flaxseed, chia seeds, and muesli on some shelves in the back, and I always make it a point to check for wheat germ. Until yesterday, I had never seen it in stock. I do not exaggerate when I say it felt like winning a very small, but very meaningful lottery. I was giddy at the thought of finally — finally! — trying the digestives recipe.

So, that’s what I made today: homemade, chocolate-covered digestive cookies. The recipe is simple and straightforward (Sohla is one of my favorite recipe writers!), and the process of coating the cookies was so (so!!!) soothing. Seriously, I could have probably spent the whole afternoon covering freshly-baked biscuits with melted chocolate. (Lesson learned, though: you really should wait until the cookies have cooled to prepare the chocolate — I had to reheat the chocolate a few times because it started solidifying before I was done covering all 36 cookies.) I’ve got some work to do to improve my chocolate-spreading technique, but I’m really delighted with how they turned out. And the cookies themselves are so delicious; they have this incredible roast-y flavor that is delicious in its own right, with chocolate or without!

no cookie cutter, no problem (look at that beautiful dough!!!)

I felt such relief when I finally made these cookies, strangely — it felt a little bit disproportionate, really. But I think, at a deeper level, making digestives felt very much like crossing off an item that has been on a to-do list for so long, you can barely remember when you added it, or why. You just know you need to do it, and that you’ll feel a lot better when you do. (It’s an added plus when the end result is so delicious!)

Indeed, this whole “challenge” I’ve set up for myself seems, in some ways, like one giant act of checking items off the proverbial to-do list, one frantically put together as I watched day after day pass by where I could only muster up energy to do my work (and then, barely). During my ever-increasing revenge-procrastination (mine occurs outside of bedtime, too…), I’d find myself mentally bookmarking recipes I wanted to try, and then growing more stressed at the realization of how long that mental list was. Every new post from NYT Cooking was another reminder that I didn’t have time to even make even a basic dish for dinner, much less bake for fun. And even when I did find some time, I was usually too depleted to make anything. Please don’t ask me how many times I ordered nachos over the last 5–6 months.

Today, I made chocolate-covered digestives — an act that was, on the surface, pretty simple, but, at a deeper level, loaded with complex meaning and reflection. After nearly a year and a half, I checked these little biscuits off my seemingly-endless culinary to-do list — and reminded myself that, even though it doesn’t feel like it on my most busy or stressful days, my kitchen will always be there when I’m ready to return.

right before popping them in the fridge for the chocolate to harden

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What I listened to while cooking: the discography of Cesária Evora, with whom I grew fascinated after recently re-discovering how fantastic Stromae’s song “ave cesaria” (an hommage to Evora) is

What I read today: “How Toxic Diet Culture Is Passed From Moms To Daughters” by Deanna Schwartz, for Teen Vogue

Recipe: https://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/digestive-cookies