-
Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Cherry Cookies
Every once in a while, you stumble upon a special cookie recipe. It’s the kind that, once you’ve tasted it, you suddenly know: these cookies will forever be part of your core toolbox of cookies, just waiting to be baked at a moment’s notice. These cookies – chocolaty, gooey, mixed with a tartness from the cherries – have served me well since I discovered them. They satisfy a deep chocolate craving, whether that’s at a picnic, a dinner with friends or as a delightful snack during the low point of the work-from-home afternoon or after a long summer evening walk.
I have also been searching for the right recipe to once again dive into the cocoa supply chain. Yasmin Khan’s recipe for this recipe is perfect, since she was a human rights campaigner before becoming a cookbook author. While issues around trafficked and forced child labor in the West African cocoa industry generally make the headlines, deforestation is another important, if not as widely known, issue in the cocoa sector.
-
Levain Chocolate-Chip Walnut Cookies
Today’s topic is cocoa. Full disclosure: I spend a lot of my real working life working on issues related to child labor in the cocoa industry, which made it was really hard to keep this post short. (Sorry!) For weeks I’ve been searching for the right recipe for chocolate – something a little different, but not too difficult. Luckily, last week a friend raved to me about Levain cookies. Levain cookies come from New York City’s Levain Bakery, which apparently is very well-known. As a true Midwesterner, I had never heard of the bakery or the cookies, but was fascinated by the idea of a chocolate chip cookie the size of a small cake. I have no idea if these cookies actually taste like the ones at Levain Bakery, but I do know that they are incredible – and really intense. After giving away one, I pretty quickly received a text message: “Oh my God, that cookie is amazing.” They truly are. These cookies should be just cooked, golden brown on top and still gooey in the middle.
But enough about the cookie. Let’s focus on the cocoa industry, which like many commodities, has a largely hidden supply chain and a number of human rights issues. Cocoa beans are found in cocoa pods, which grow on trees. These cocoa trees can only grow in certain latitudes – between 20 degrees north and 20 degrees south of the equator. Much of the world’s cocoa – at least 60 percent – is produced in Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana. This includes most “bulk” cocoa that goes into candy, chocolate chips, Nutella, and most of what you probably buy. Unfortunately, the West African cocoa industry has numerous problems, including low wages for farmers, high incidences of child labor and forced child labor, and it is a leading cause of deforestation in Cote d’Ivoire.
