Chocolate Stimulus Handouts

Have you, like me, lost count not only of the number of bailouts Congress has doled out since last December, but the amounts? There was the first Bush “initiative” to the banks, then the one to save Fannie & Freddie’s combined butts, then came the auto-makers and then this latest one of, what? $700 billion? Did I miss one somewhere? Now there is talk of another one of 1 trillion? How many zeros is that exactly?

This week’s congressional haggling over the stimulus bill, yet more money desperately needed to get the economy percolating again, was an embarrassment: the Republicans had nothing to contribute except stale sound bites that were about as exciting as chewing gum that’s lost it’s flavor. How many times do we have to hear them slap “earmarks” on anything and everything they don’t like, and “national security” on things they do?

As for the Democrats, with Obama making one bold pronouncement after another, they can’t seem to keep up with his vision. You would think after 8 years of being (mostly) in the minority, they would have picked up some strategy tips from the Republicans, but I guess it’s hard when you’re being told to play nice by the president.

You have to have pity not just on Obama but on poor Congress who must feel like they’ve stumbled into panhandler’s hell. Everyone is crying for something.

I know how they feel. A few nights ago I left work late, hurrying, head down anticipating a freezing cold blast only to be slapped into focus by balmy (relatively speaking, that is)  weather.

Surprised I looked up from the rivulets of slush, and saw a well-dressed young woman standing in front of me, crying. “Can you give me money for a train ticket home?” she whimpered.

This is not the first time I have been asked this. Most of the time, a disheveled  individual who can barely stand up asks for $.50 to take the bus up north, way north making the request less than credible. Or someone sitting outside a Tim Horton’s Donut shop asks for enough change to buy himself breakfast; or someone sitting beneath a blanket in front of Port Authority in New York says nothing, his fetid and filthy condition saying it all.

Usually I give something: a dollar to the guy going north, no doubt to the liquor store;  a crisp apple to the New Yorker, only to have him grimace and shout at me “You think I can eat this? I don’t have any teeth!”;  coffee and a donut to the guy in front of the coffee shop who snarled at me “F!@#&ing C$%^! I asked for money.” You’d think I would have learned my lesson but as long as someone asks, I am inclined to give, just like Congress to big business.

But there was something different about this young woman. First of all it was her attire; secondly she seemed really in distress, and thirdly, she said  “I need to go home. You can call my mother. She will pay you back.” Something like the car companies saying “if you give us the money, we will make those fuel efficient cars we’ve never made before.” Yeah, right.

“Where do you live? I asked. She mentioned a town I had never heard of near a town that I knew.

“How much do you need?”

“$8.10,” she said.

“How much money do you have?” I persisted.

“$.25″ was the reply, tears streaming down her face.

“Why so little?”

“Because I just left my boyfriend and don’t want to go back. I have nothing. I just want to go home. If you call my mom, she will pay you back,” she repeated. It occurred to me to ask for her mother’s number but that would have prolonged the encounter and suggested that I didn’t trust her. I couldn’t do that. Instead, I opened my wallet, gave her two tired five dollar bills and hurried home to dinner. Kind of like Congress signing the latest bailout bill and…heading home to dinner… only with 12 more zeroes.

Now I know how Congress feels: It’s hard to say no these days.  Will the stimulus work? Did she make it home?

Some things we have to wait to find out, some things we’ll never know. What I do know is that on this recipe there is broad consensus: it’s awesome.

Chocolate Stimulus Handout Cookies

Yield: Approximately 12 blobs

2 oz/56g Unsweetened chocolate
5 Tbsp/60g butter
2 1/2 oz/70g bittersweet chocolate
1 Tbsp cocoa
3 eggs
1/4 cup/50g sugar
1/4 cup/55g brown sugar
pinch salt
1 tsp finely ground espresso coffee
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup +1 Tbsp flour
135g/4 1/2 oz bittersweet chocolate chunks
1/2cup/94g cocoa nibs
2.5 oz/70g chopped walnuts

1. Preheat oven to 350.
2. Melt the unsweetened chocolate with the butter and bittersweet chocolate.
3. Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Add the salt and espresso.
4. Add the eggs, and vanilla. Mix until glossy.
5. Add the flour and mix until just incorporated.
6. Add the chunked chocolate, nibs and walnuts.
7. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour.
8. Drop 1/2 cup scoopfuls on a parchment lined baking pan.
9. Bake 10 minutes. Do not over-bake! They will puff and be soft in the center.

10. Cool on the sheet. Remove with a metal spatula.

11. Store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature for about a week.