Why Do I Still Make Those Irresistible 1, 2, 3 Cookies?

The other night I made two batches of my 1, 2, 3 cookies, oatmeal and chocolate chips. I used to make them a couple a times a month. That's when my kids were young and living at home. I'd keep them fresh in metal cookie tins. And yes, they do stay fresh and delicious for a few weeks, if nobody eats them. That's because they only have three basic ingredients:

• 1 part (by weight) sugar
• 2 parts margarine
• 3 parts flour

And you can then add cinnamon, vanilla or chocolate chips or nuts or seed or whatever...

• Just melt the margarine
• mix all the ingredients
• spread on the baking pan lined with baking paper
• bake in medium oven, like for a cake until slightly brown
• take out, cut and cool, and you're in for a treat

The oatmeal version takes a bit more skill, since you need less oats than flour or it's too dry. I combine some oats and flour (and also some cinnamon) and just can't tell you exactly how much. Al I can say is that it always is delicious. 

Oh, and I use fine whole wheat flour and dark brown sugar, so how can it be bad? And when in doubt, a bit more sugar... 

And to answer my question. Why do I make them when they always tempt me to eat them? Irresistible is an under-exaggeration.  My kids still love them, so I make the cookies for special family occasions. 

Making My Famous Classic 1, 2, 3 Cookies Sans Scale

Traditional Jewish memorial
Yartzeit candle

Tuesday, when I was sms/negotiating/planning my dinner out with son #1 on my mother's second yartzeit, Jewish anniversary of death, I reminded him that his birthday is in a week. He replied:

"Make me cookies."

Now I knew exactly what cookies he was referring to. They are simple 1, 2, 3 Cookies. The basic ingredients are measured on a food scale and must be in the right weight proportions (I always multiply by two or three,) such as:

• 100 grams sugar (dark brown is best, gives great flavor)
• 200 grams margarine
• 300 grams flour (whole-wheat gives great flavor)
• however much flavorings as you want, such as cinnamon, chocolate chips, sprinkles etc

Or you can measure with ounces:

• 4 oz sugar
• 8 oz margarine
• 12 oz flour

I highly suggest that you base the recipe on the weight/size of a stick of margarine wherever you live. In Israel they are 200 grams with 50 gram markings, if I'm not mistaken. 

When my kids, especially the boys, were little, I'm make the cookies very frequently and almost always had a tin or two of cookies. This son and his best friend loved them so much that he taught his friend's mother how to make them, and she still serves them. In their house the cookies are named after my son.  

Now, to be honest, I hadn't made those cookies in many, many years, and I don't even have a food scale anymore. I didn't even have most of the ingredients ready for use or in the house. The dark brown sugar was frozen solid and I had no oats to make that version which he had specifically requested. And I haven't bought margarine for many years. I bake my cakes and cook with oil.

So I told him that I'd make them next week. But right after that I realized that my husband had left the house before giving me cash which I needed, so I called him and asked him to wait at the bus stop and ran down the hill. That meant that I'd be passing the grocery store. So after getting the cash I zipped in and bought all the missing ingredients and then got to work on my son's early pre-birthday surprise.

Melt margarine in strong/heavy pot on low flame; turn off flame before fully melted. Mix all of the dry ingredients together, and then add margarine. 

chocolate chip

Since the dry ingredients, flour and sugar, were all in full bgs, I was able to estimate the percentage I had to pour into the bowl. I do have a pretty good "eye" for those things. The bags of sugar and flour here are a kilo, which is 1,000 grams, so 200 would be less than a quarter of the bag and 600 would be over half. 

It worked fine for me, though not everyone has my talent. 

oatmeal-  *substitute one third of the four with  regular
oats, not instant

The batter is spoon mixed, and if it's a bit too dry, you can always add a bit of oil and/or an egg. It (the cookies) keeps better without eggs.

When the batter is mixable, moister than a crumb topping, spread it on a baking pan lined with baking paper and pat down well.

Bake in a medium oven until it smells like "baked cookies" and the color has changed. If you've discovered after they are ready and cooled that they are still soft, then return them to the oven and bake another ten minutes.

Cut immediately after taking out of the oven when still hot. They will harden as they cool.

They were perfect!!!

Not Exactly The Recipe, But...

There are many good cooks who stick with making "food" and stay away from the "more exact science" of cakes, cookies and breads.  I, too, used to think that cakes, cookies and breads were like chemistry formulas.  If you changed one of the ingredients or quantities you'd be stuck with an inedible disaster. But I have discovered more and more that it's not true.

One of my favorite cookie recipe, OK the truth is that it's my favorite cookie recipe is for the 1, 2, 3 cookies.  One of my sons would do almost anything for them.  The key to making them is to have a kitchen scale and to weigh each of the three basic ingredients to make sure that

• for every 100 grams of sugar, or 4 oz you have
• twice as much of melted no salt baking margarine
• three times as much flour

You can add cinnamon, chopped nuts or a squirt of vanilla plus chocolate chips for flavor.

• Mix all the ingredients, doubled, tripled etc.
• spread packed on a lined baking pan and bake in medium heat
• cut immediately after taking out of the oven

Well, I had decided to surprise my kids by making them for Purim.  At the last minute I rushed into the supermarket and bought a package of margarine.  Oops! I only bought one, totally forgetting that I always triple the recipe.  And to complicate things further, I couldn't find my kitchen scale.

I was stuck, but I'm too stubborn and determined and risk-taking creative to let that minor/major problem to stop me when I'm trying to make my grown up kids happy.  To get 900 grams of flour I just poured from a 1 kilo (which is 1,000 grams) bag and left a bit in the bag.  I then poured what seemed to be less than a half of a bag of brown sugar, since 333 grams is a bit less than 500 grams.  I added a couple of eggs and enough oil until I got the right consistency.  And I added lots of cinnamon.

Then I baked it as usual.  Sorry, but I don't have a picture.  And the final result was that they didn't even notice the difference.  It tasted exactly like they remembered.  If I hadn't told them that I had made a change, nobody would have known.