Chunky Breakfast Cookies

November. Atlanta Magazine called. They want to feature Set the Table in a two-page spread. ATLANTA MAGAZINE. The publication that every restaurant owner and food person in the city reads. They want to photograph the girls cooking. They want to interview me. They want to tell the story of a church kitchen where twenty-four girls (now thirty-six, with the East Point location) learn to cook because a woman named Tamika Washington started a program after her mother died and the program became a movement and the movement is still moving.

The interview happened Saturday. A photographer (same church kitchen, morning light, girls in aprons, flour on counters). A writer (a woman named Patricia who asked questions that made me talk for two hours). I told her everything: Mama. The cancer. The Folgers can. The scrambled eggs. Destiny. Diamond. The TEDx talk. The cookbook. The line. She said, "This is more than a cooking program." I said, "It's a table. It's always been a table. The table just keeps getting bigger."

The article will run in the January issue. With photographs. With quotes from the girls. With the story of Brenda Jackson and the can and the daughter who didn't stop. The story is going into a magazine. The magazine is going into waiting rooms and coffee tables and dentist offices across Atlanta. The story will be read by people I'll never meet in kitchens I'll never see and the reading will be a kind of cooking — the words feeding the reader the way the food feeds the body — and Mama will be in the magazine the way she's in the can: permanently, fragrant, undeniable.

The morning Atlanta Magazine came to photograph us, the girls made these. Flour on the counters, aprons on, the smell of oats and cinnamon filling that whole church kitchen while Patricia asked me questions I’d been waiting years for someone to ask. Chunky Breakfast Cookies aren’t fancy — they’re exactly the kind of recipe I reach for when I need something that can feed thirty-six girls, hold up on a Saturday morning, and still look beautiful on a counter while a photographer moves around the room. Mama would have had a batch of these ready before anyone even asked. That’s the kind of cook she was. That’s the kind of cook we’re trying to be.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 14 minutes | Total Time: 29 minutes | Servings: 18 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/3 cup coconut oil, melted (or unsalted butter)
1/3 cup honey or pure maple syrup
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup natural peanut butter or almond butter
1/2 cup raisins or dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1/3 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut (optional)

Instructions

Preheat. Heat your oven to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Mix the dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the oats, whole wheat flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until evenly combined.
Mix the wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together the melted coconut oil, honey (or maple syrup), eggs, vanilla extract, and nut butter until smooth and fully incorporated.
Combine. Pour the wet mixture into the dry mixture and stir with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula until a thick dough forms. Fold in the raisins, walnuts, chocolate chips, and coconut if using. The dough will be chunky — that’s exactly right.
Scoop. Use a 2-tablespoon cookie scoop or large spoon to portion dough onto the prepared baking sheets, spacing cookies about 2 inches apart. Press each mound down slightly with your palm — these cookies don’t spread much on their own.
Bake. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, until the edges are golden and the tops are just set. Do not overbake — they firm up as they cool.
Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or freeze for up to 2 months.

Nutrition (per serving)

Chunky Breakfast Cookies — The Kind of Recipe That Feeds a Room Full of Girls and a Whole City’s Worth of Readers