2019-04-01 Taste and Travel International

MAKES ABOUT 40 COOKIES

Airport Cookies

LUNCH IN Oak Farm Vineyards’ sleek private tasting

room included some fabulous, coconutty chocolate chip

cookies supplied by Lodi’s Airport Café. Back home, I

tinkered with my own choc-chip cookie recipe and came

up with something pretty close. With humble thanks to

Airport Café for the inspiration, here they are.

Butter 1 cup,

softened

Brown Sugar

1 cup, packed

Granulated

Sugar ½ cup

Eggs 2 large

Vanilla 2 tsp

All-Purpose

Flour 2 ¼ cups

Baking Soda

1 tsp

Semi-Sweet

Chocolate Chips

150 g

White Chocolate

Chips 150 g

Macadamia Nuts

chopped, ½ cup

Sweetened

Shredded

Coconut ¾Ģāƫ1,

1 PREHEAT the oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with

parchment paper.

2 BEAT the butter, brown and white sugar, eggs and vanilla

in a stand mixer until fluffy.

3 SIFT together the flour and baking soda. Add to the

mixer and mix until just blended and no streaks of flour

are visible. Add the chocolate chips and macadamia nuts

and mix just long enough to combine.

4 DROP rounded tablespoons of cookie dough onto the

baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Top each cookie

with coconut, pressing down gently but not enough to

flatten the cookie. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until just

starting to brown. Watch toward the end of baking that

the coconut doesn’t burn.

5 ALLOW the cookies to cool on the baking sheets for

5 minutes then transfer to wire racks to finish cooling.

It’s common to see owl nesting boxes on poles sticking up in the
vineyards around Lodi. The “Lodi Rules” govern every aspect of the
grape-growing and winemaking industries, from labour practices and

water usage to pesticides and biodiversity. It’s a voluntary certification
program — audited by a third party organization — that nearly every

winery subscribes to. There’s a strong sense of community among Lodi
winemakers, the majority of whom are small-scale producers and family-
owned businesses.

One of the bigger wineries in Lodi belongs to brothers Michael and
David Phillips, who owe their success to a single bottle of wine. Their
family has grown row crops — including grapes — since the 1850s. They

opened a winery in 1976 but production was modest until the lads made
a zinfandel that set their world on fire. Inspired by their Catholic

APRIL–JUNE 2019 TAST E& TRAVEL INTERNATIONAL 27

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LINGERING IN LODI QUENCH

Cook

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