Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's "Chocolate Chip Cookies"
There’s a whole story to these cookies — one I’ve relayed to collegiate audiences and pretty much anyone who says sexism in politics doesn’t exist. Not only are these cookies a story of sexism, but they’re also so indicative of who Hillary Clinton is — a baker?
No.
An ambitious winner. A winner isn’t one who always win (obviously; she was the loser of a major election), but it’s the mindset.
Chef Hillary Clinton
Democratic Senator from New York
Favorite Food/Homespun Recipe: Recipe
Notable:
wearing sunglasses in memes; earning the most popular votes ever for a female presidential candidate
Quotable:
“You know, I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was to fulfill my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.”
As always, I followed the recipe word for word, no alterations:
INGREDIENTS
Vegetable oil for baking sheets
1.5 cups unsifted all-purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 12oz package semisweet chocolate chips
INSTRUCTIONS
1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease baking sheets.
No butter for Hillary, which was controversial (in a silly way) in the 1992 Family Circle Bake-off with Barbara Bush. That’s where this recipe came from — after her quote above, Family Circle decided to host a cookie bake-off for potential First Ladies. Hillary entered and she entered hard, essentially focus grouping the best recipe she could find because she wanted to beat Barbara Bush at her own game. And she did. This recipe was victorious.
In this strange way, it didn’t really soften Hillary’s edges, which was part of the point her entering; it just showed how much ambition she had.
2) Combine flour, salt and baking soda on waxed paper.
3) Beat together shortening, sugars and vanilla in large bowl with an electric mixer until creamy. Add eggs, beating until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture and rolled oats. Stir in chocolate chips.
4) Drop batter by well-rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until golden.
5) Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire rack to cool completely.
Now, this original recipe makes 7.5 DOZEN cookies, so maybe scale back unless you’re feeding the neighborhood.
Voila! If you want to hear the full story on Hillary’s bakeoff with Barbara, go to the Cookin’ with Congress Instagram or TikTok. Recipe said 8-10 minutes, and it took the full 10. Maybe I put a touch too much vegetable oil on the cookie sheet? Maybe my daughter’s sugar measurements weren’t…perfect (she’s 5 and measured the sugar for me). Yeah. Probably that. Still, they held together and browned nicely.
Verdict:
I loved the addition of oatmeal, didn’t mind the lack of butter, and probably needed to make another five dozen, sure.
