Code of the Street and Tollhouse Plays Dress Up Cookies

For my last month of summer, I decided to start some light-hearted reading that I've been meaning to get to for a while: Code of the Street: Decency, Violence and the Moral Life of the Inner City by Elijah Anderson.

While I've never read any of Professor Anderson's work before, I had heard his name because a number of his publications use Philadelphia as an example of inner-city violence and social codes. While I'm only a few chapters in, the book takes a creative and unique approach to addressing the issue of inner-city violence, especially by youth, and the influence of poverty, hopelessness, and drugs on the social organization of inner cities. The opening segment of his book traces the changing demographics and social codes along Germantown Avenue in Philadelphia-- a place that I have always felt perfectly exemplified Philadelphia's block-by-block differential in safety and diversity. Anderson's work is informed by years of field work in inner cities, and his research incorporates not only academic perspectives but also the words and lives of the people he studies. I'm excited to learn more from him.

After a few chapters of Code of the Street, I decided I would try to do something actually uplifting. It happens to be my coworker's birthday, and she mentioned that she hated cake... so I thought I would try to make her something a little more creative.

Tollhouse Plays Dress Up (Bittersweet Chocolate Chip Rum) Cookies

This is actually just the classic Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe, with a few minute adaptations: more brown sugar (and less granulated), bittersweet chocolate instead of semi-sweet morsels, and dark rum for a sweet little kick.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 c. flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
2 sticks butter, softened
1 c. dark brown sugar
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 tbsp. Meyer's dark rum
2 eggs
1 package Ghiradelli bittersweet chocolate baking chips (60% cacao)

Method:
In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Sift and set aside.
In a separate bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until creamy. This gave me the chance to use the electric mixer I picked up at a yard sale in Woodstock, NY for the first time--

Add eggs one at a time-- and look at it swirl!

Add vanilla and rum to taste. My grandpa always told me his secret to baking was to double the vanilla in everything. And this evening Ian and I were discussing his glorious rum french toast recipe (to follow shortly, hopefully after Saturday brunch). He told me that his recipe actually calls for either vanilla or rum-- so I thought I'd combine the suggestions and try both.
Add chocolate chips, and drop by rounded spoonfuls (what does this mean? I don't know. I did blobs, and they look perfect. Because they're cookies, and they will look perfect no matter what) onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 for 9-11 minutes, cool for 2 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to cooling rack.
Tollhouse really knows what it's doing. But even cookies deserve to play dress up once in a while.