Good things come to those who wait? I don’t know, dudes, I am pretty fed up with waiting. Waiting for the rest of the baby goats to get borne, waiting for my folks to get to Maine, waiting for writing callbacks and baker interviews and payments for freelance work and the results of applications to seminars, waiting for my path forward to come into focus—basically, of flinging a lot of energy into the universe and just waiting for it to bounce back. And I’m tired of it, and more than a little tired of being one-dimensional at the hands of the ubiquitous grey area wrought by always waiting.
When I was a fresh-faced college graduate gleefully nervous about my future, my sister counseled me to just choose something. “Well,” she said, “people tell you to take your time and that your life will make itself known, but I don’t know if that’s true. You won’t be 22 forever—better to just pick something now and go for it. Think about the successful people you know already. Are they innately talented or mostly just hard workers? Direction is everything. Just pick.” Meanwhile, her best friend and sometime sage giver of advice said, “Always be flirting. Always be open to something better.” Though those weren’t mutually exclusive bits of advice, I was haunted by but ignored the former, went for the latter, and it might have all been fine and well if the past few years hadn’t been so full of waiting. And beyond a handful of jobs, at this point, I don’t even really know what is that I’m waiting for. Start a business or go to graduate school? Take a writing seminar or get another full-time job? Move to Philly or stay in Maine? Close a door or close a window? It’s unclear to me how waiting ever became the answer to any of those questions.
Good things can be persnickety and elusive, but I’m pretty sure they much prefer being chased down over being waited for.
And bear with me, even though this might come off as lame, but these corn cookies are a totally quotidian example of waiting around for a payoff that would have come much sooner had you gotten off your butt and done something about it. The recipes hails from Momofuku Milk Bar, and has been calling to me since late last summer, when Apt. 2B Baking Co. paired them with roasted blueberry ice cream (roasted!). I was on the farm then, as now, and could only find freeze-dried corn—the essential ingredient—online. For some reason that wasn’t good enough, so I let the recipe fall away, occasionally remembering that these cookies exist and getting annoyed that freeze-dried corn wasn’t raining down the halls of my home. Luckily, finally, Joey spotted some freeze-dried corn at Target, of all places, in bags that are affordable and contain only just a smidgen more than needed. Hurrah! They baked up similar to a sugar cookie with pronounced corn flavor: crunchy on the outside, soft in the middle, nibby, and somehow reminiscent of breakfast cereal.
So do yourself the favor of not waiting around for the good stuff to happen, particularly when it comes to the stuff you can control, such as these cookies. They are delicious and worth every effort!
Corn Cookies
Adapted from Christina Tosi, via Apt. 2B Baking Co.
Masa harina and corn flour are not the same thing; kernels for masa have been treated with lime water before being ground. Corn flour is easy enough to find at Whole Foods or even Safeway, and as I mentioned, freeze-dried corn is all up in the Target these days. You can also buy it online, or check your local health foods stores to see if they carry the “Just Corn” brand. If you're in New York, you can also buy corn powder direct from Milk Bar! I’ve been curious about making these with freeze-dried cherries or strawberries instead, maybe with barley or buckwheat flour in place of the corn. Let me know if you do!
16 tablespoons softened butter
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 large egg
1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup corn flour (not cornstarch or masa harina)
2/3 cup freeze-dried corn powder, ground from about 2.2 ounces of freeze-dried corn
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons Kosher salt
1. Using a food processor, grind your corn kernels into a fine powder, and set aside. Combine butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Cream on medium-high for two to three minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl, add the egg, and beat for seven to eight minutes. The mixture will be light in color and very light and fluffy.
2. With the mixer on low speed, add the flour, corn flour, corn powder, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Mix until just combined.
3. Using a 1.5- or 2-tablespoon scoop, scoop rounds of dough onto two cookies sheets. Pat the tops of the cookies slightly flat, and wrap the pan tightly in plastic wrap. Chill at least one hour before baking, or chill overnight (that’s what I did!). Do not bake the cookies from room temperature.
4. To bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Arrange the chilled dough on buttered or parchment-covered baking sheets, a minimum of two inches apart. Don’t cheat here! These cookies definitely spread out, so be sure to arrange them properly. Slide sheets into the oven and bake for 13 to 15 minutes. The cookies will be very light brown around the edges and still bright yellow in the centers when done. Cool completely on the baking sheets and transfer to an airtight container for storage. These cookies can be stored at room temperature for up to five days.
