Boat Cookies

It's my humble opinion that every home needs a go-to cookie recipe, and since our home is a boat, I bring you boat cookies. In Minnesota, these were best for long, cold, wet, wintery days that required an enormous amount of energy to keep warm. These prevented the meat from being sucked off your bones from all that heat generation. On the boat, these are good because the dough stores well in the fridge or freezer, allowing me to make small batches and likewise keep the cabin cool by only having the oven on for a short time. Also, our boat is designed in a way that keeps you no more than 15 feet from freshly baked cookies at any given time. I'm not sure Bob Perry thought of that in the boat design. Thus having a lot around wouldn't be the best for our health.

I originally planned to save boat cookies for another post but then I saw a version of my own recipe on Smitten Kitchen and I just had to make some. A recipe idol of mine, Deb has a way of writing that makes you want to make delve into your icebox and bake something immediately (although there are quite a few things that make me want to do that). I'm not even upset that the recipe is so very close to mine because honestly, everyone's recipe is just some variation of a classic recipe. 

I had a notion to start baking these at 11 pm knowing I'd be up in a few hours anyway due to approaching storms. Instead I decided to get as much sleep as possible before the anchor alarm's jaggedly tuned horns went off once the storms would start. Consequently, I had dreams of food (this time winter squash and blueberry muffins), something that happens often when I fall asleep reading recipes. 

The storms were strong but quick, depositing what felt like inches of water through our hatches in the few minutes it took us to bumble around the boat at 2 am in a wet stupor, the anchor alarm blaring. 

We all woke up a little hung over from the interrupted sleep and thus I felt the morning called for baking cookies. 

Boat Cookies:

• 1 cup butter at room temperature (I use salted so I don't have to add extra salt)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup Xylitol (or white sugar if you're not into xylitol)
• 2 eggs
• 2 T ground flaxmeal soaked in 6 T water
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup almond flour (optional and can be substituted with regular flour)
• 2 cups flour

Bake at 350 degrees and no matter what Kai says, leave them a little raw in the middle!