Maker Monday: Empowering People with...Cookies

The Maker Movement is often associated with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math), and design challenges, and rightfully so. But sometimes it also involves empowering people by teaching them a skill, like sewing or coding. So why not a culinary skill?

I often make chocolate chip cookies for special events at the school, just to bring something special from the United States, but it seems I may have created a monster. People are always asking me to bring them, especially students who have already been in my class before. The thing is, I don't have a big enough oven to make them at home, and so I make them at my mother-in-law's house. But when I do that, I have to make enough for my classes and for the entire family who fills up a good chunk of the neighborhood block. One time some children on the street wandered inside saying, "I heard there was an American sweet in here!"

I find it funny that with all the amazing Brazilian docinhos--so many different kinds of sweets--that people here are absolutely in love with chocolate chip cookies, which in my view are normal and mundane. I prefer snickerdoodles or white chocolate, oatmeal, and cranberry, but folks here are in love with chocolate chip. I can't even find good chocolate chips here. I buy the fake ones in party stores, and, somehow, when combined with the real vanilla I insist on stocking up on, they end up tasting good. M&M's, though, are often a better substitute.

Sometimes I've joked that I could quit teaching and sell cookies, but, honestly, I don't enjoy making them enough to even think about doing that. I readily share and translate the recipe I use to anyone who wants it, but often, people really have to learn by doing. My sister-in-law is a great baker, and on various occasions, has observed and asked questions while I used her mother's oven. She's been trying it at home, and has just about perfected the oven timing and consistency of the cookies.

This semester, many of the binational centers in Brazil hosted the National Day of Making, a combined effort to empower Brazilians with the Maker Movement, introducing STEM/STEAM skills, as well as promoting entrepreneurship. Our center offered workshops to students as well as the public, in coding, mini-robotics, slime, and cookies. 

I helped three consecutive groups of kids and teens make cookies, using a borrowed oven, Brazilian ingredients, and a bunch of stuff from my kitchen. Part of me wasn't as excited about leading this workshop, because it wasn't as creative as many of the other things I do with students. And yet, knowing that this particular cookie recipe is always a hit, I thought it was important to share it with the public in hopes that they could make quality cookies at home, and, even sell them. My enthusiasm returned in full force when I was surrounded by little kids who were eager to learn some culinary secrets, and curious to learn them in English, too. 

As we mixed the ingredients, I encouraged those who were old enough to write down the ingredients in Portuguese and the measurements in metric next to the English instructions on the recipe. That way, they could take it home and make cookies there. Some kids had a high enough level of English that this wasn't necessary, but they learned how to level off a cup of flour, they learned what a cup of "packed brown sugar" is, as well as the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon. I admit, I didn't teach any math to convert the measurements, but my measuring cups and spoons show milliliters as well, so it was easy to write this down. Perhaps the most important part of this recipe is a mixture of hot water and baking soda, which makes a chemical reaction that makes the cookies both crunchy and soft.

photo by Beatriz Piacesi & ICBEU

photo by Beatriz Piacesi & ICBEU

One of my students told me that she had always thought making cookies was a complex and difficult process, and she walked away afterward impressed that it was much easier than she had thought. Sometimes people need more than a recipe to learn to bake or cook something--they need to see it done and try it out themselves. That's how I learned. When I was little, my mom would often give me a piece of pie dough to play with while she made her famous apple pies. Later on, my brother and I would core the apples with theatrical flair using a little device she had at the time. And then, many years later, I made my own pies, using autumn leaf cookie cutters to make the upper crust, winning a pie-making contest, and making international students happy.

My first Christmas in Brazil, I taught my new Brazilian family to decorate gingerbread cookies, and I thought it was cool that they had them representing soccer teams, combining different cultures. But after a Christmas where the excitement of decorating cookies had passed, and yet the family still wanted to eat them, and wanted them decorated beautifully by me alone, I decided to scrap the gingerbread and sugar cookies for now. If it's not a group effort and community experience, it's just not fun. Maybe this year I'll teach my little nieces to roll out candy cane cookies, which are much easier.

I also keep telling myself I should learn a good brownie recipe so that I can make them in my little oven and not have to put sheet after sheet of cookies in a borrowed oven, but something tells me I won't be able to quit making chocolate chip cookies entirely. It would make me extremely happy, though, to see folks making and even selling their own, relieving me of the effort. Professional baker or not, anyone can be a maker, and can take pride in seeing something their hands have made come into sweet form.

photo by Beatriz Piacesi & ICBEU

What culinary secrets have you learned, and how did you learn them? What kinds of simple making have empowered you or others? What kinds of making are better shared? I would love to hear your thoughts!