Cookies are made for sharing

So why not Two Very Big Cookies™ for our first FRIENDSHIP FOOD recipe?

Hello! Hello!

When I told Mary Dodd, my recipe tester, that I thought the first FRIENDSHIP FOOD recipe should be a great big cookie, she said, “I knew that’s what you’d do!” Mary and I have been working together for a long time and we know each other well. But really — can there be a better start to this series of food made for kindness and sharing!

By their very nature, cookies are not singletons. We bake them by the batch, even if the batch is small. They’re the stuff of birthday parties — Gemma and I recently baked a bunch of heart-shaped cookies for her school party. And they’re the first thing we think of when we want to bake someone a thank-you (well, cookies or a loaf cake). While the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality in many parts of America, I’d go on a campaign to give cookies the job.

A plate of cookies says, “Welcome!” One big cookie says, “Hello, Friends!” Or, as Mr. Rogers might say, “Won’t you be my neighbor?” It’s an immediate invitation to sit together, to share food and to swap stories. And

I remember the first time I made a giant cookie for friends. It was in Paris, we were eight for dinner at our place, and I knew that what I was doing was risky. While my French friends think nothing of passing a baguette around the table and pulling off a hunk, I knew that the cookie would be different. The baguette is part of the culture; it’s not in the culture to put out a cookie that calls for reaching into the center of the table, breaking off a shard, allowing crumbs to scatter helter-skelter and then going back for more. On your own — no host passing the plate. In fact, there was no plate: I decided to put the cookie smack-dab on the table. After all, that’s where French people put their pieces of bread for all but the fanciest dinners (fancy dinners get bread plates).

The cookie was not a success. Until it was. Once my friends got the hang of it, and once they realized that they could munch away and keep their conversations going at the same time (conversation being the best and most important part of any meal), the entire cookie, down to the crumbs, was eaten with happiness.

The kind of victory only a giant cookie can bring — also, makes me want to live in Buffalo.

Over the course of my baking life, I’ve made many everyone-grab-a-piece cookies. I’ve always loved them. (Take a look at the Torta Sbrisolona I made for NYT Cooking — I’ve removed the paywall.)

And they fit so well with my idea for our FRIENDSHIP FOOD project. The inspiration for the series grew from my conviction (one that I think that you as bakers and cooks share), that making food together, eating food together, offering food to one another is a way to bring us together and put more kindness into the world. That’s why the recipes that I want to give you for this project are all recipes meant to be shared.

And in the spirit of sharing, I'll be donating a portion of this month's subscription fees to World Central Kitchen in honor of xoxoDorie readers. Since 2010, when disaster has hit anywhere in the world,

José Andrés

and his teams have been there — almost immediately — to help feed people most desperately in need. (I think the latest count is at about 400 million meals.) If you'd like to join me in making it a few meals more, you can make a direct donation at their website.

wckitchen

A post shared by @wckitchen

What could inspire friendship and community around food more than directly supporting organizations that provide food relief for people in crisis? My hope is that we can work together to find and support other groups as we make and share our FRIENDSHIP FOOD.

To kick-off our project, I’ve created an extra-large cookie for us, one that has a hint of summer freshness baked into it. It’s a giant butter-sugar cookie that pulls off the trick of being flaky and crispy at the same time. It’s flavored with lemon and ginger, so the taste is as snappy as the sound the cookie makes when you break it, and it’s topped with sliced almonds and sanding sugar, which form a crunchy crust with plenty of sparkle. The cookie’s great with tea, with coffee, with lemonade and even with rosé on the rocks.

The recipe makes 2 big cookies. I’m figuring that each serves 8, but it’s hard to tell with these kinds of things — the pieces you break off are so higgledy-piggledy, how can you ever know how many you’ll get? Or even if you or anyone around the table will be able to hold back?

What’s not hard to tell is how much fun you’ll have with these. And because you’ll get two, you can make one to share at home and one to give to a friend. This is what FRIENDSHIP FOOD is all about.

Oh, I’ve also included an audio version of the recipe — the next-best thing to baking together for real.

I’d love it if you’d share pictures of your cookies — and the friends who enjoy them — with all of us. In a few days, I'll invite you to my first ever chat thread just for us: It will be where we can post our pictures and talk among ourselves at our leisure about what we’ve made, how we’ve shared our bakes, how we played around with the recipe. Look out for the invite with the link, or come back and check this post to find it. I hope this will be a fun experiment for all of us, so don't forget to photograph your bakes — and shares!

// UPDATE: Here’s the link to join the chat

TWO VERY BIG COOKIES™ MADE FOR SHARING