Sesame Brown Butter + Halva Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Like a happy hug of sātmya amidst the whir of the modern world.

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Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
Dosha: Vata

I had been saving this lovely little chunk of Seed+Mill Cardamom Halva for something special, and in the swirl of this year it had sunk into the bottom of the pantry; the foundation beneath all of the boxes of pasta, quick noodles, the rotating bags of rice, cans of tomatoes and SO MANY jars of ghee we’ve gone through in this whirlwind year, as I’ve been learning to feed our family of two-hungry-people-turned-three-hungry-people-who-sometimes-eat-like-four-hungry-people.

I’ve been doing a bang up job of cleaning out and whittling down the stash of various dry goods, condiments and special little ingredients that have kept a delicious parade of meals marching through the kitchen…because it’s spring. Because it’s time to refresh and restock. And because it was really time to find the halva and to do that special thing with it – like these Sesame Brown Butter + Halva Chocolate Chunk Cookies.

Cookies + Sātmya

I’ve been thinking a lot about sātmya (pronounced saht-ME-yuh) lately, the Sanskrit word that means “habit” or more specifically, that which is wholesome when used consistently over one’s lifetime. Among other factors, our genetics and life circumstances influence what makes a food, habit, or place sātmya for each of us. What is sātmya for you, might not be sātmya for me, and vice versa.

The Ayurvedic concept of sātmya suggests that we eat the foods that nourished our grandmothers and great-grandmothers, as well as those foods that nourished us and held us in childhood. The concept also encourages us to life a lifestyle that, when continuously used, sustains and fortifies us. When we eat, drink and live in ways that are sātmya for us, we thrive.

We could dive deeply into this notion, exploring where our ancestors were from, the diets they ate, the way they habituated into eating certain foods with specific customs. Were we vegetarians? What was our digestion like? Did we eat lentils? Or spices? Hypothetically, if our ancestors digested it well, we are predisposed to do so as well.

But for the purpose of halva-studded chocolate chunk cookies, the point I want to make is that those rituals that make us feel well-cared for is also honoring sātmya. For me – and maybe for you – my mother – baked non-stop when I was a small person, likely just as her mother and grandmother did before her. I would play in the Tupperware cupboard at her shins while she mixed cookies, made bread, and more. And there’s still something about baking on a rainy day, after a busy week, that feels like the best coming down, the best hug.

These halva-studded cookies

As I was mixing up this batch, late in the afternoon on a rainy-turned-snowy day, Pete walked into the kitchen and announced that this was the time of day when he craved a brown butter chocolate chunk cookie. What a lucky guy! There are lots of recipes for halva-studded cookies out there, but this one is mine. And now, yours. There aren’t any tricky ingredients (save for the halva, maybe) and no crazy tactics. Halva is a sesame candy common in the Middle East and Mediterranean, and it’s a completely addictive confection. Ayurveda loves sesame, and loves sugar (btw – it’s cooling for inflammation!)

The recipe here is straightforward; you mix up the dough in a big bowl with a wooden spoon, and it makes enough cookies (particularly if you double the recipe as I did) to keep some dough in the freezer at the ready, for all of those late afternoons when you really WANT a brown butter chocolate chip cookie, but don’t have time to whip one up from scratch.

You might be asking what a straightforward cookie recipe – without any apparent “health hacks” is doing in this library…but I hope that question stays far from your mind. It’s important to me that this recipe space is sprinkled with favorite formulas just like this that remind you that you don’t need a “health food recipe” to eat in a way that serves your body well. Sometimes making up a batch of cookies, then eating them with a glass of warm milk by the fire IS so good for you. Taking the time to make a batch of these cookies from scratch – amidst the whir of the modern world – is a radical act of self-care that I hope you indulge in often, my friends.

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