Emily Dickinson's poems, when they were discovered after her death, were famously written on anything she could get her hands on. Notebooks, sure, but the chest of poems in her room also held torn envelopes, chocolate wrappers with poems on their backs, and, luckily for us, a handful of recipe cards. Last year we wrote about Dickinson's newly discovered recipe for Cocoanut Cake, but this recipe, for Cocoanut Cookies, actually has a poem written on the back:
It's hard to say why coconut cookies might conjure up this meditation on distance and loss (though, as we point out in our piece on the origin of the word "coconut," the nut does have some connotations of distant spookiness), but Aife Murray, the author of Maid as Muse, a new book on how Dickinson's servants might have influenced her poetry, points out an interesting comparison:
A lovely thought, and a useful one, for the next time you're trying to explain to an uncomprehending friend why you just love a certain cookbook. And here's the cookie recipe (great for a book group meeting):
1 Pound Sugar
1/2 Pound Butter
1/2 Pound Flour
6 Eggs
1 grated Cocoa nut
You might have to play around with the temperature and timing (since Emily didn't provide any), but ten minutes at 400 degrees is probably a reasonable place to start.
Note: This recipe has not been tested by the Bon Appétit Test Kitchen.
[via Amherst College, Four Pounds Flour]