#INTRO

The summer that felt like it would never end has somehow slipped past, and these days the cooler autumn air feels refreshing. I hope we all stay well and get to savor this season of high skies and hearty appetites. With low-carb baking on your side, you can have a delicious autumn with a strong body and a light heart, don’t you think?

Ever since our first group purchase this past January, at least one squishy has been tucked into every desk drawer at the Foundation. I assumed it would be a passing fad, but by now it seems to have settled in as a pretty respectable steady seller. The popularity of these tactile toys also lines up with the ‘Physical Time’ trend that’s been gaining ground lately. People have started responding to time spent moving their own bodies and waking up their senses, rather than to time spent on a digital screen. (Source: Careet https://www.careet.net/1979) You could call it a way of living that fills your days with real everyday experience you touch and feel for yourself, rather than with the world inside a screen. I suspect it’s a kind of rebellious impulse felt by people living in an age when anything at all can be experienced quickly and easily.

Slowly Building Up More ‘Real Experience’

These days I’ve been preoccupied with the same idea myself — ‘let’s live a real life.’ It’s not that there’s anything especially fake going on, but sometimes, when I’m staring blankly at videos flicking past on my phone, I get the feeling that I’m floating unsteadily in mid-air. Sometimes it feels like I’m wandering somewhere up in virtual clouds, my feet never touching the ground of the real world. Barely able to digest the flood of information that pours in through every kind of summary floating around social media, we don’t even try to ask what the most important questions are. It’s like getting so used to ultra-processed food that you forget what the raw ingredients taste like. So I’ve decided to keep my wits about me and experience more of the ‘real.’

Of course it’s hard to experience everything firsthand. Even so, I’m trying to cut down on passively taking in experiences that some stranger has processed several times over. I started by watching films or series from beginning to end at normal speed, instead of plot-summary videos. (For someone who used to watch every video at double speed, that’s an enormous change!) I also go to exhibitions in person and take trips, and if a class catches my interest, I sign up and try it for myself. Even if it’s a little slower, I’ve found that seeing and hearing things for myself leaves room for thoughts that are entirely my own. When I take an experience I’ve had firsthand and interpret it in my own way, my mind settles, and the memory stays with me longer.

For me, baking is one of those ‘real experiences’ too. Choosing the ingredients, touching the dough with my hands, shaping it, smelling it bake in the oven, and tasting the finished dessert — I get to take part in every step myself. Especially on days when my head’s a jumble and I’m feeling on edge, focusing on the sensation in my fingertips while I bake settles me. For me, baking is making a delicious dessert and, at the same time, ‘real time just for me,’ when my body and mind get to rest.

A Low-Carb Levain Cookie Recipe That Wakes Up Every Real Sense

The Levain cookie I’m sharing this time is a dessert that’s extremely special to me. Even now, whenever I eat one, I’m back to being the person I was seven years ago, who used up every penny of six months’ part-time savings on a trip to New York. The warmth of that freshly baked cookie, finally handed to me after a long wait outside the shop window on a winter’s day, the sweet smell that brushed past my nose, the taste — all of it is still as vivid as if it happened yesterday. The Levain cookie I had then was more than a simple dessert; it has stayed with me as a memory, keeping every moment and sensation from that trip intact.

The ‘Low-Carb Levain Cookies’ I’ve made as my own attempt at a healthier version are a ‘real dessert’ too, one that satisfies all five senses just as fully as the ones I had in New York. Rolling the dough into little balls feels like handling a slime-squishy (*a blend of slime and mallangi, the Korean word for a squishy toy; it has little bounce, so it briefly holds whatever shape you press into it), and once the chocolate chips and walnuts are in and the dough is shaped, you’ve got mouth-watering cookies before you know it. From the moment you let the freshly baked cookies cool a little and taste one yourself, your hands and body take part in every step: choosing the ingredients, making the cookies, and eating them. That, too, is part of this dessert’s appeal. For me, the memory of that Levain cookie in New York seven years ago adds to all this, so the whole thing goes beyond a simple dessert and becomes an experience. Here’s my recipe for ‘Low-Carb Levain Cookies,’ good if you make them and eat them right away, and just as good if you freeze a big batch of dough and bake them whenever you like.

#OUTRO

We live in an age when anything at all can be experienced quickly and easily. However, little can replace the time you spend touching the dough with your own hands, waiting in front of the oven, and tasting a freshly baked cookie. For what’s left of this year, why not make time to see, hear, make, and taste things for yourself, even if it’s a little slower? More interesting things are happening outside the screen than you’d think.