I’m sitting here in the front room listening to quiet music—I’ve spent an exhausting few days rearranging all the furniture downstairs: dismantling an entire wall of glass-and-metal bookshelves laden with what felt like 100 books. I moved my small white tulip table from the breakfast room into the airy nook by the front door, making a bright spot to sit and write that overlooks the street and the water just beyond.
In the space where the table used to be, I’ve set up my bike (and will put a treadmill if I can ever find one in stock, thank youuu 2020)—the slate floor and glass walls of the room make it feel like you’re outside almost, especially when it rains and you look through the gray mist to the garden beds and small backyard.
Shifting my space around is reliably energizing; the house feels different and I do too in a tiny way, like my emotional perspective has mirrored my physical one. After weeks of construction and a large amount of dust covering everything I own, the chimney in our very old house has been rebuilt from the inside, allowing us to light a fire for the first time in almost a year.
I’ll light it tonight, listening to it crackle away merrily while I get dressed before dinner, but for now I sit in the daylight doing some odds and ends: pay a few bills, wrap the three Christmas presents I hadn’t gotten around to sending in time, try to decide between these notecards and these ones, and research how to 1. roast duck in the oven (for le bebe, in an attempt to give him new tastes and flavors—why I have a spare duck breast languishing in my fridge is a long story involving a very fancy NYE dinner and some extra ingredients) and 2. cook paella (for those of us over the age of 9 months).
I’m also making a quiche because while we’re at it, might as well dirty every pan in the kitchen, right? Actually—I’m making a quiche (broccoli with Jarlsberg) and a second quiche crust (to be filled with kale later in the week). Should you decide to join me on the life plan to subsist primarily on quiche and biscotti in 2021, please see recipes here and here.
Today is cold but has turned beautifully sunny; it started off damp and drizzly, which is sort of nice weather for getting up and out into the elements for a pre-8 AM run, as I usually do and did today. I like breathing hard through cold weather or rain or sleet because it feels so nice to come inside afterwards.
This morning I did a tempo run—a hard slog of long (5+ minute) intervals at a fast race pace punctuated by short 1 minute recovery jogs. (Nothing makes the sensation of ordinary jogging feel as pleasurable as trying to near-sprint for 5 minutes and then getting to slow down.)
I finished with my second frigid polar bear plunge of 2021, and a hot shower, and a warm baby’s wet mouth against my neck.
And now I’m cocooned in the soft hours of the afternoon, searching for a novel to read next (Rich in Love? Reef by Romesh Gunesekera? Mrs. Bridge by Evan S. Connell?) and noticing how the idea of the evening—a mess of sweet potato puree on the high chair, dinner at the table, an episode of The Crown with the lights off, an old Sunday NYT crossword—starts to take shape and form, moving nearer, becoming less of a vague shadow and more of a delicious pleasure about to unfold.
If your evening need a small nudge to hold as much anticipatory enjoyment as it can, I recommend making dessert and having to wait for it to cool. Does the trick every time.
(Obviously you could make something fast and simple like chocolate pudding or brownies or a one-bowl cake. But you could also make homemade Twix bars with a shortbread base and a caramel layer and a dark chocolate coating. Your call.)
Note: The majority of baking recipes will call for unsalted butter—that’s because the salt content of butter varies greatly so you have more precision and control if you use unsalted butter and add salt yourself. However, shortbread recipes tend to use salted butter—partly because they taste good on the more savory side and partly because the shortbread dough is so low in moisture that it’s harder to ensure an even distribution of salt, so using salted butter helps with that. If you don’t have salted butter, use unsalted and add 1 teaspoon salt to the dough along with the flour.
Homemade Twix Bars
Adapted quite loosely from King Arthur
For the shortbread
16 tablespoons (227g) salted butter, at room temperature
1 cup (113g) confectioners' sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
For the caramel
1 cup (198g) granulated sugar
1/2 cup (106g) brown sugar
1/2 cup (113g) corn syrup
1/2 cup (113g) evaporated milk
1 cup (227g) heavy cream
1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
For the chocolate
3 cups (510g) dark chocolate, melted
1 tablespoon coconut oil
To make the shortbread: Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F. Line a 9” x 13” pan with parchment and lightly grease the parchment.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter with the confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until fluffy and smooth. Add the flour and beat until the dough is smooth and no longer looks dry.
Press the dough evenly into the prepared pan, prick it all over with a fork, and bake for about 35 minutes, or until the top is a pale golden brown.
Remove from the oven and let cool completely (it helps to run a knife or offset spatula around the edges of the bars while still warm just to encourage them to loosen later).
While the bars cool, make the caramel: Combine all the ingredients in a medium, heavy-bottomed pot over medium-high heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture reaches 245 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Remove from the heat and pour the caramel over the shortbread layer, smoothing it to make it even.
Pop the entire pan in the refrigerator and let it chill until the caramel is fully cooled, about 30 minutes to an hour.
Once cooled, use a very sharp knife to cut the bars into long strips, about 1” x 4” each. (You can also cut them into small squares for dipping, or you can skip the dipping and just pour the chocolate over the top as a single layer.)
Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil over a double boiler or in the microwave until smooth. Using tongs, dip the bars into the chocolate and set them on a wire rack over a tray to catch the drips, letting them cool until the chocolate sets.