Cookie-Dough Nights
One-bowl strategy to generate 1001 personalities
“Do you like stories?” I asked my nephew, out of ideas to keep a Millennial entertained without Internet or digital screens.
(Yes, I’m up for challenges in 2018.)
He lifted his head from the phone, thumbs in mid-air.
That gaze made me feel the most annoying relative to hit the living room since Xmas. “Yes. But only those with good characters.”
Some Netflix guy cheered miles away, as I reached for another cookie-dough ball from the table between us.
Healthy, simple, the opposite of our conversation.
“And what makes a good character?” I was determined to find out, before my older sister returned from her apocalyptic grocery haul.
I could see him mentally curse at the snow for keeping his mum away so long.
He pointed at the round sweet bites, none of which he had tasted yet.
I quickly pushed the plate towards him. “Oh please, have some! I didn’t make them just for myself. Plus they’re sugar free, only four ingredients...”
“Exactly,” he interrupted, “that’s the answer to your question.”
Sweetness, Texture, Binding & Flavour
Sherazade’s younger sister ticked Night no. 1000 on her list. One more story to go, and they both would be free.
It had been hard at the beginning, to come up with a different cookie dough for Sherazade every night.
“Quick! I need to replenish my mental energy for conceiving new stories!” she urged her little sister.
But soon the Sultan’s entertainer learned to trust her smart sibling, who found a winning formula for 1001 sweet treat variations.
“It’s about combining four categories of ingredients,” she revealed around Night no. 444, when the magic balance of Sweetness, Texture, Binding & Flavour had finally been perfected.
That night, a super-inspired Sherazade left the Sultan so pleased with her new story, that he already agreed to set her free.
But Sherazade wanted more cookie dough.
So she made a secret deal with the Sultan, to keep on meeting until Night no. 1001 in exchange for sharing different sweet bites every night.
It’s still unclear whether the little sister eventually found out, but we can make a guess.
“So Sherazade generated characters based on her sister’s recipes?”
I wondered, as my nephew finally chewed on my sweet snacks. “I thought the other way round!”
Someone unlocked the front door.
“Does it matter? It’s a four-category structure, and it works. These taste good!”
My sister almost dropped her bags when she found us laughing like old friends and making ugly illustrations to our theory.
See them in Part 2! — Sweekly
