Alaska: Tongass Forest Cookies

THE BEST COOKIES OF ALL TIME*

For Alaska, I wanted to try Agutuk (Akutaq), which was described by the internet as:

This is the most Alaskan of desserts, though only a few hardy travelers try it. Native Alaskans create this “Eskimo Ice Cream” by mixing seal oil, reindeer fat, snow, and berries. The ingredients are hand-whipped until they form a foam. Sugar is not traditional but adds fluffiness.

This food was originally eaten for survival rather than as a treat, and recipes have been passed down through generations of Native families. Other traditional ingredients include moose, caribou, and fish. Modern variations often include Crisco.

ASN, the party pooper, wanted none of this, complaining that she wouldn't be able to find reindeer fat. THE INTERNET defeats ASN. (She was unconcerned by the utter lack of snow in Raleigh, apparently.)

So we decided upon Tongass Forest Cookies, which sounded positively yucky, and which the internet admitted had no origin story. But, some people somewhere decided to name the cookies after a forest in Alaska, so we were off!

I hate coconut, and there were just too many ingredients in the cookies for them to be any good. I used this recipe, which apparently differed a lot from the recipe ASN used.

http://www.thespicedlife.com/2013/08/tongass-forest-cookies.html

Here is a good time to mention that I modified the ingredients to be simpler because I am lazy (white and dark chocolate chips were good enough for us!) and I maybe possibly got distracted and mis-mixed the cookies. I then placed them into the fridge to set. A day later, I took them out to make and found this hardened lump that was essentially a rock:

There was no cooking that crap. But I let them sit out for two hours, and used some elbow grease, and finally got to these:

THESE COOKIES ARE SO GOOD. I love them with all of my heart. I don't know what it is-I dislike almost everything in these cookies, but together is a sweet spot. Don't skimp on the salt on top-the salt really makes these cookies.

I am suddenly very jealous of S. Palin. Did she grow up on these? If she got these, and can see Alaska from her house, she clearly won childhood. Alaska for the win.

*False. But they were surprisingly delicious.