Two Cookies A Day Keeps The Stress Away

24 February 2013Tokoni A, Hope ’13

Early each morning, we roll out of bed, eat breakfast and stumble our way to class. With some hesitation, we pull out our school books and get ready to face the day ahead of us. Admittedly, morning classes can be a challenge sometimes. It can be a bit of fight to stay strong under the weight of our eyelids and to absorb all the knowledge and skills being presented. Fortunately for us, 11:00 am comes around before long, promising a much-needed break and – of course – freshly baked cookies. This heavenly-allotted twenty-five minutes has proven to me that there is one ingredient that guarantees the success of a Brentwood school day: Cookie Break.

11:00 am on a weekday morning at Brentwood brings swarms of students into Crooks Hall seeking a quick snack and a drink before classes resume. We are greeted warmly by Lisa B and one of our prefects. Their job is to hand us our reward for conquering the first half of the school day: two freshly baked, delicious cookies. Worry not, dear parents, healthier snacks are available too! An appetizing array of fresh fruits and vegetables are brought out for us every Cookie Break to enjoy with a steaming cup of tea, or a glass of milk.

How is it possible to make enough cookies to feed 450 hungry students, five days a week? The kitchen staff, miraculously, manages to bake 800 cookies every weekday. This tremendous task consumes roughly three hours each day, with approximately 150,000 cookies baked in a school year! Should you ever require 800 delicious cookies, here is a recipe from our kitchen staff for the Brentwood student’s body most popular, chocolate chip:

Chocolate Chip Cookies

8 Pounds Margarine A
3600    Grams White sugar A
2950    Grams Brown sugar A
            
50 Eggs B
1/3 Cup Vanilla B
            
2.5 Tablespoons Salt C
7 Tablespoons Baking soda C
9000 Grams    flour C
                                                                                    Preparation
-Combine group A and mix on medium speed until light and sugar is dissolved.
-Add group B one at a time and mix until smooth.
-Mix group C together and add to the above in the mixer until just mixed.
-Add to this base mix any of the variations below.

Variations:
Chocolate chip; Add 3000 grams chocolate chips
Oatmeal; reduce flour to 6600g and add 2400g whole oats
Orange chocolate chip; substitute orange extract for vanilla, reduce flour to 8550g and add 450g cocoa powder(sifted), 3000g white chocolate chips and juice and zest from 5 oranges.

I had the privilege of meeting those who bake the cookies, and I was impressed when I saw how proud and dedicated they were to making these cookies. It really was not until then, seeing the huge mixer and stacks of cookie sheets, that I realized how truly lucky we are to have these delicious treats baked for us daily. As the executive chef, Mr. Napier, says, “A cookie a day keeps the stress away!”

So Brentwood students, next time it’s 11:00 am and your stomach is grumbling in the cookie line, remember the hours of work and dedication that our food services staff has put into your morning snack. You have survived 3 hours of classes, but they baked 800 cookies.

And Grad ’13, Carpe Diem, because no matter where you study next year, the food plan probably doesn’t include Cookie Break. 😉
Tokoni A, Hope ’13