Usually when you enjoy cooking something, you’re able to enjoy it.

Abby Dowling is a history professor at Mercer University who was never given the chance to bake her family’s traditional peanut butter cookies with her grandmother. Ironically, for Dowling, she was allergic to peanuts.

In our families, most of us know one dish that keeps you close and intact. The pasty and sticky texture of peanut butter was just that for Dowling’s family. For Dowling and her family, baking and cooking was a way to stay close.

This is the recipe card passed down from Dowling’s great great aunt all the way down to her. On the back Dowling’s great great aunt wrote a note to Dowling’s grandmother. “I brought you a recipe that kind of reflected my family and the way we interacted with each other,” said Dowling.
Dowling didn’t outgrow her allergy until she was in her late teens and college years. When this happened, there was only one word to describe Dowling: Excited. She had always knew about the recipe, but was never able to indulge in the cookies. She began to eat and bake any and everything peanut butter.

When a loved one dies, typically you’d want to keep something of theirs to feel connected; the recipe was just that for Dowling. She searched high and low for this specific recipe. It was a significant item for her to hold on. She was always in the kitchen baking with her grandmother, so finding the recipe and being able to bake it now makes her feel close.

Dowling now has a 6-month old daughter. She wants her daughter to experience the recipe the same way she does now. She wants her daughter to grow up knowing this recipe. Getting kids to start using their hands at an early age, is always productive. It’s not as tedious as chocolate chip cookies or Dowling’s favorite, salted chocolate chunk cookies. Ada, Dowling’s daughter, will get used to using her hands and experience a family tradition by preparing this recipe. Dowling’s desire can only be accomplished if Ada isn’t allergic, like her mother was. If she is, hopefully she will have the fortunate outcome of outgrowing it too.

Dowling says she was filled with unlimited joy to finally be able to eat her great great aunt’s peanut butter cookies. These cookies aren’t as sweet as the modern sweets we encounter now. They give you a sneak peak into the taste buds of that century and either way it’s the memories she wants to keep in contact with, not the sugar rush.