Cookies come in all different shapes and sizes. Everyone has a favorite cookie whether its peanut butter, chocolate chip, or oatmeal raisin. Familial recipes used to bake these particular cookies usually date back to past generations. When I was eight years old, my mom first introduced me to her grandmother’s seven-layer cookies.
Ten years ago, my third grade teacher announced that our class was going to have a bake sale for the Atlanta Humane Society and that everyone needed to bring some baked good. I rushed home excited to start baking with my mom and sister. I was all prepared to make chocolate chip cookies when my mom suggested that we try something different: seven-layer cookies. I was in awe and began contemplating how one cookie could have seven layers. My mom said we needed to go on a grocery store run in order to make them. We all piled into the car and drove to the nearest Publix.
My mom started going through the aisles with the cart. She picked up a box of graham cracker crumbs and butter, bags of chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, coconut, and pecans along with a jar of sweetened condensed milk. When we got home we laid all of the ingredients out on the counter and my mom asked me to count and make sure we had seven ingredients, sure enough we did, so we started baking.
My sister and I began to sprinkle the graham cracker crumbs along the bottom of the pan, while my mom melted a tablespoon of butter in the microwave. Then we mixed the graham cracker crumbs and butter together to create a solid base for the cookie. Next, my sister and I added the chocolate chips and butterscotch chips to the pan. Followed by the addition of the coconut and pecans. The final step, and most difficult step, required my mom to pour the jar of sweetened condensed milk evenly over the coconut and pecans. After that, we placed the pan in the oven heated to 350 degrees.
Forty-five minutes later the base hardened, the sweetened condensed milk melted over the top of the cookie, and the tips of the coconut browned. We divided the pan up into about twenty-five cookies. When we took them out of the pan, we could see all seven layers of the cookies. We placed them in Ziploc bags and I brought them to school the next day for the bake sale, at which they were sold immediately. However, before we gave them all away my sister and I each got to try a cookie. It was delicious. The combination of flavors and textures made the perfect cookie; the crusty graham cracker layer complimented the gooey top layer along with the crunchy nuts and chocolate chips.
Years later when I attempted to make seven-layer cookies by myself, I realized that there was no written down recipe. My mom simply added the ingredients without thinking. When I asked her how much of this or that to put onto the pan, I received answers like: “a hand full” or “until the graham cracker crumbs are covered.” She taught me that baking is not always about the precise measurements. Rather, it is about improvisation and experimentation with different ingredients in order to create a dessert that is sweet and delicious.
Seven-layer cookies have become a signature dessert in my life. I will always remember the first time I made them with my mom and sister. Now, my family makes these cookies for holidays, parties, and even just for fun. They are delicious, quick and easy cookies to make. I recently discovered that the staff at the Dobbs University Center, here on Emory’s campus, occasionally makes seven-layer cookies for students to enjoy. Although they do not taste like the ones my mom makes, they are a nice reminder of home.
photo by: treataweek.blogspot.com
