I just finished baking 770 cookies.

Crazy, right?

My husband thinks so, especially because I think it’s downright fun, and it’s somehow calming in the wee hours of the night. Plus: It’s worth doing.

When my daughter Kate was in college, I used to order her chocolate chip cookies from a friend in town who had a not-for-profit business where she made cookies and donated from her profits to faith-based ministries. The cookies were great, and the concept was even more heartwarming.

Soon after Kate graduated, my friend Lisa quit baking. I was heartbroken. She had started her business as a ministry to help raise funds for mission trips. She felt like baking was a skill she had that God could use. And He did.

She challenged me to take on the ministry. That was a few years ago, and Simply from Scratch bakes on with the same mission: baking cookies for a cause.

That’s why I’ve been a cookie machine recently — because as everyone knows, you can’t make cookies in advance. They have to be fresh. I’m not busy like this all the time, but only when I get an order from my banker. Or, in the case of the 770 cookies, from a company that gives lots of cookies to its clients.

Cookie therapy
I love the quiet of the night when I bake. I love the accomplishment I feel when the boxes are ready and dressed in their holiday best. I even love my Kitchen Aid mixer because it makes me think of my mom, who made sure I got my own as a wedding present. Most of all, I love knowing I’ve made a difference in someone’s life, just by doing something simple like baking cookies.

I think back to 4-H and how it taught me the basics of reading a recipe and making something from scratch. I get teased sometimes that a dietitian shouldn’t think of cookies as a business, something not-so healthy, but I know in my heart, a cookie can bring a smile and make a difference.

The 770 cookies will result in a check to our local food bank, and that makes me feel good. My husband sometimes reminds me — when I crawl into bed exhausted — that I could just write a check, but I don’t think it’s the same. I truly think when you bake, you give. And when you give, you make a difference in the world.

A recent article in The New York Times even has a name for bakers like me — “cookiers.” And there are many of us.

“There are tens of thousands of people across the United States who may identify themselves as cookiers, and even more if you include ambitious parents who attempt to customize sugar cookies as an inexpensive way to mark a child’s birthday, and those who ponder cookie decorating only now, as Christmas nears,” according to the article.

Some sell cookies to neighbors and friends. Others have turned their garages into commercial enterprises. Many give them away as gifts. There are even those who’ve become famous for their cookies.

I’m not looking to become famous or even profit from this. I just hope to bring a bright spot to someone’s world.

So here’s my recipe for chocolate chip cookies. (I also do peanut butter and peanut butter chocolate chip. No others.) My recipe is very similar to the one on the back of the Nestle Toll House chocolate morsels package, with a few additions such as oatmeal, butter-flavored shortening and a little lemon juice. Not surprisingly, this makes a lot of cookies — 78 on my last count.

Chocolate Chip Cookies
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
p butter or butter-flavored shortening
4 tablespoons water
4 eggs
2 cups oatmeal
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice
5 cups all-purpose flour
4 cups chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Cream together sugar, brown sugar and shortening. Add water, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Add eggs one at a time. Then add oatmeal. Mix the baking soda, salt and flour together and add to the first mixture gradually. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Bake for nine minutes at 375 degrees until golden brown. Let cool on baking pan for two minutes; then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Makes 78 cookies.

Fargo is a dietitian for Hy-Vee in Springfield, Ill. Send recipe ideas to her at [email protected].