The holiday season is in full swing, parties are filling your schedule, and cookies are always in style. This year, I’ve got a very special cookie project for you. One for the drinkers, non-drinkers, and the stoners in your group (and even the ones who manage to do both without tossing their cookies). Whether you’re hosting or bringing a gift, bake a batch of cookie shots for the holidays. Here’s how to do it so they look cute too. 

A cookie shot, or more accurately a cookie shot glass, is cookie dough baked into the shape of a little cup. I had only eaten (drank? used?) experienced a cookie shot once before. It was four or five years ago, and I was both thrilled and confused. Would it be gross? Would a cookie even hold liquid? My boyfriend’s cousin had purchased them from Dominique Ansel Bakery (you might know the chef as the creator of the decadent cronut). So the question about flavor was answered—Ansel’s pastries are anything but gross—but how do you prevent leakage? Well, the inside of the cup gets brushed with a layer of melted chocolate. This adds more chocolate-y flavor, but also creates an impermeable layer on the inside. She’s a modern marvel. 

We had more than one shot, because the cookie doesn’t get soggy, and then we ate them. The cookie shots were incredible, and I’m sure we became very responsibly buzzed. It’s a fun way to do normal shots, and a hell of a talking point. All of these things are great for a party. But I never had them again. You see, Dominique Ansel knows his worth. That’s nice for him, but I will not purchase three chocolate chip cookies for 22 American dollars, regardless of their shape. Luckily, the universe heard my sorrow, and now I can make as many as I want at home. 

Products to consider:

• Cookie Shot Flexipan Mold from Williams Sonoma (49.95)

• Silicone Shot Glass Mold by Celebrate It ($9.99)

• Wilton Cookie Shot Non-stick Pan ($14.99) 

You can buy metal cookie shot pans specifically for this purpose or you can buy shot glass molds made of silicone. Most silicone molds are oven-safe up to 500°F, but double check on the packaging, of course. Nestle Toll House currently has a cookie shot sweepstakes going on too, where you can enter to win your own cookie shot kit. It comes with the Wilton cookie shot mold above, which is a non-stick, quality piece of bakeware. The real value is that it’s basically a 12-cup popover pan set, and I don’t have one of those yet. (Get ready for some popover recipes, y’all.)

Tips for making the perfect cookie shot

Once you get your mold and make your favorite drop cookie dough (standard chocolate chip is my go-to), you should be able to follow the directions to success. However there are some things I wish I had done better the first time. Here’s what I learned, so you can make sure everything goes well even on the first batch.

Don’t overfill the mold

Left: A cookie shot that had too much dough. Right: A cookie shot with the right amount of dough.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

I got greedy. It happens. I’m not proud of it, but I overfilled my cookie mold. On the bright side, no one’s going to be mad that they got the cookie shot with an extra-cookie-umbrella top. Remember, if there’s a leavening agent in your dough, it will expand. If you’re using the Wilton-style mold (where you fill the cavity and use a plunger), fill it only halfway up the mold. Plunging the indentation in the center drives the dough up the sides, but even then there should be a half-inch or more of space at the top of the mold. Dough in the other style of mold should also sit with a little room to grow.

Make sure they’re cooked crisp

Once I had baked the cookie shots for about 12 minutes, according to the baking directions and the pan instructions, I noticed the plungers were lifted as a result of the baking powder and probably steam. If that happens, just press them down again while the cookie dough is soft and let them cool. They won’t fight you. 

Once I twisted out the plunger, I could tell they were set, but still too flexible for a shot. Once they were cooler, but still warm, I gently twisted the dough in the mold and lifted it out while twisting. I gripped the top edge with four fingers spaced around the rim to prevent breakage. Then I put them on a baking sheet, and baked them at the same temperature for another five to seven minutes. They cooled on a wire rack, and were crispy and stable. I have only used the Wilton mold, so I’m not sure how evenly the silicone molds cook.

Get your hands dirty

Here’s the interior I coated with chocolate using my finger, and another “glass” with sprinkles on the edge.
Credit: Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

In order to hold liquid, the cookie must be coated with chocolate or icing on the inside. At first, I figured I could use a pastry brush to swipe chocolate along the inside of the cookie shot. Silly me. Not only is a pastry brush too big, but you need to ensure there are no holes in your coating. A brush is not dependable for that. 

Use your finger. Melt down any old chocolate or use icing. Scoop with a spoon, or use a piping bag (or zipper bag with the corner clipped), and put a teaspoon or so inside the shot glass. Use your finger to smash chocolate all the way down into the bottom corners and up the sides while you rotate the glass for complete coverage. Hey, you can always wear a food-safe rubber glove.

Let the chocolate cool in the fridge for 10 minutes or so, and the shot glasses are ready to roll. Different cocktails will pair well with different cookie doughs, but you can’t go wrong with dessert shots. Whiskeys pair well with chocolate cookies. Add Baileys, a white Russian, or a mudslide. Try coffee-flavored mocktails, a chilled espresso, or kick it old school with milk. Then you’ve already got your snack in hand. If you can help yourself, I suggest eating it slowly and taking incrementally smaller shots as the night goes on. 

Source: LifeHacker – Holiday Cookie Shots Are Fun for Drinkers and Stoners Alike

The screenshot above, taken from CBS’s broadcast of Sunday’s football game between the Las Vegas Raiders and the Kansas City Chiefs, caused an online controversy after it was posted on Twitter on Sunday night. It seems to depict a double-dose of racism—a white kid in blackface wearing a traditionally native American headdress—and people were (understandably) appalled at such a blatantly racist image. But a look at the context of the photo reveals that this is a photo illustrating the impossibly complex maze of racism in America.

The missing context in a seemingly racist photograph

Given the disturbing history of blackface, it’s not surprising that people would react with anger at the sight of it on national television. But a straight-on picture of the fan reveals that only half of his face is painted black. The other half is red. Red and black: the Chiefs’ colors.

Credit: HistoryInc/Twitter

Maybe a white person painting any part of their face black is problematic regardless, but intent is important, and the makeup seems more likely to be part of the tradition of sports fans painting their faces with team colors than a reference to minstrel shows. If he’d been an Eagles’ fan, it would have been green and white, and we wouldn’t be talking about it at all.

But it gets even more complex when you consider the “cultural appropriation” of the feathered headdress. Wearing Native American gear is generally regarded as a shitty thing for a white person to do, but the young fan in question is reportedly Native American himself. His grandfather, reportedly, is Raul Armenta, who sits on the board of the Chumash Tribe in Santa Ynez, Calif. The Chumash didn’t wear feathered warbonnets though—that was a plains Indian thing, a group thousands of miles from the Chumash’s west coast home. See what I mean by complicated? Inter-tribal-cultural-appropriation aside, I think most people would agree that this fan’s attire at the game was perhaps not the most sensitive choice, but it’s far from a hate crime.

How racist is the NFL?

The knee-jerk reaction of many to the fan’s appearance during the game was “The NFL is racist.” True, the NFL has a troubling history of racism, but the NFL isn’t football. The early days of the game itself point to the possibility of a more egalitarian professional football league that never came to be.

Organized football was always racist—this is America after all—but the contributions of both Native and African Americans to the formation of the sport are undeniable, and the early days of collegiate and pro football were less segregated than the NFL later became. Black players and player/coaches were vital to the success of early college football powerhouses like Nebraska, Ohio State, and Cornell beginning in the late 1800s, and Charles W. Follis (aka “The Black Cyclone”) led the Shelby Blues to an 8-1-1 season in 1904 in the professional Ohio League.

It was different down south of course, and this was pre-integration, so there weren’t many African American students at universities to begin with, but football in its early days was seen by some as an exemplification of American equality. Ideally, it was open to all who were courageous enough to step onto the gridiron, no matter who they were. But real life has a way of failing to live up to lofty ideals, especially when things become more structured and racism becomes institutionalized. In other words: Enter the National Football League.

The NFL wasn’t fully segregated to start with. In the two years after the league (then called the American Professional Football Association) was formed in 1920, not only were there a handful of Black players, African American hall-of-fame running back Fritz Pollard was the head coach of the Akron Pros. But even though the NFL’s segregation was never explicit, it may as well have been. A “gentleman’s agreement” among team owners in the mid 1920s limited the number of Black players allowed to play in the league, and by 1934, there were no African American players left in the NFL. It wasn’t until 1947 that the league was reintegrated.

These days, the NFL owns up publicly to its racist past, and proudly proclaims its intention to “End Racism” on end zones and team uniforms, but how they’re actually going about the racism-ending is unclear. It is clear that race isn’t a barrier to entry in the NFL any longer, nor is it a barrier to stardom—Patrick Mahomes is a household name. But on the other hand, there’s the dual attorneys-general investigation of the league for racial, sexual, and ageist discrimination, the Colin Kapernick situation, and on and on. There’s also the league’s relationship with Native Americans.

Native Americans and football

Native Americans have been intertwined with football since the game began, and not as racist mascots. Jim Thorpe, a member of Sac and Fox Nation did more to popularize football in its early days than just about anyone. Thorpe lead the Canton Bulldogs to unofficial professional world championships in 1916, 1917, and 1919. Thorpe cut his football teeth on Glenn “Pop” Warner’s squad, the Indians, a team of Native Americans from the Carlisle Indian Industrial School. If you like the forward pass, you can thank the Carlisle Indians, who perfected the play, leading to a 14 year record of 167–88–13 playing against well-funded college teams like Yale and Princeton. But again, it’s complicated: the Carlisle School may have had a great football squad, but the institution’s focus on assimilation as an antidote to segregation was part of the US’s ongoing cultural genocide against Native people, and the football program could be seen as part of that.

Native Americans were ultimately “thanked” for their contributions to football with organizations like the Washington Redskins, who clung to their racist name until 2020, long passed the point that any “but it was a different time” arguments had any merit.

As for the K.C. Chiefs, the team is named for H. Roe “Chief” Bartle, the mayor who brought pro football to Kansas City in 1960, so the squad’s name isn’t based on Native Americans. But the organization definitely used (and uses) harmful, stereotypical Native American imagery heavily for promotion. So do the fans; just look at the “Tomahawk Chop.”

In response to accusations of insensitivity, in 2014 the Chiefs initiated a dialogue with the American Indian Community Working Group, a collection of leaders from American Indian communities around Kansas City, and took many of their suggestions on how to seem less bigoted and dial down the cultural appropriation. One of the rules the Chiefs say they adopted is “the outright banning of headdresses and face paint at the stadium on gameday.” I guess they aren’t too strict about that one.

Source: LifeHacker – What People are Getting Wrong This Week: The Chiefs Fan Wearing ‘Blackface’

When you’re used to the speed and efficiency of an electric kettle, waiting for water to boil on the stove can feel unbelievably slow. And if you’ve someone who has granted precious counter space to what’s essentially a single-use appliance, you probably rely on it for everything from making hot beverages, to boiling water to transfer it to a pot on the stove, to making instant oatmeal or noodles.

When it comes to keeping the kitchen clean, you probably focus on the visible messes, while ignoring the device you use to boil water—which, after all, you may use to clean or sanitize other items in the room. Unfortunately, electric kettles (or any kettles, for that matter) are not self-cleaning. This is especially true if you have hard water, as mineral deposits might stain the bottom, build up on the filter, and leave streaks on the outside (particularly those with a stainless steel exterior). The good news is that deep-cleaning your electric kettle is much easier than you might think. Let me walk you through the process.

How to clean an electric kettle with citric acid

There are different ways to deep-clean an electric kettle, and after trying many of them, the citric acid method is the one I find to be the most effective, while requiring the least effort. Before we get started, this is your reminder that while the insides of these kettles are designed to come into contact water, their electric components are not. In other words, never submerge your kettle in water, and avoid getting the part(s) that connects to the power source—typically the bottom, or a component on the side—wet at all.

First, peek inside the kettle and take a quick mental inventory of the stains and mineral buildup so you know what you’re trying to remove. Here’s the inside of mine before cleaning it:

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

I’ve seen much, much worse—like limescale that had accumulated into barnacle-like formations covering the heating element and inside of the spout—but there are some mineral depots on the filter, and my water has left its signature rust-colored stains on the bottom.

Now, let’s actually get started cleaning it.

Fill your kettle roughly halfway with water, then add two small scoops/spoonfuls of powdered citric acid. (I just eyeball everything.)

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

Technically, you can use white distilled vinegar or lemon juice in place of citric acid, but I’ve found of the three, citric acid is best at removing the rust-colored stains my water leaves behind. Plus, although I love vinegar, I don’t always want the smell of hot vinegar wafting through my apartment, and even if you buy bottled lemon juice, using this much can get pricey, so citric acid wins. Still, to try either of those alternatives, fill the kettle one-quarter of the way with water, then top if off with white vinegar or lemon juice until the kettle is filled about halfway.

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

Whichever acid you’ve chosen, you next want to boil the water and the acid in the kettle. When it’s finished, and has cooled off a bit, open the kettle and remove the little filter from the inside of the spout (if you have one). It usually clips on or snaps into place, and is easy to remove. (Below is a picture of mine, still locked in place before I started cleaning.)

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

Drop the filter into the kettle—which is still filled with recently boiled water and your acid of choice—close the lid, and let it sit for around 20 to 30 minutes. Don’t boil the kettle again: Just leave it. In fact, unplug the kettle.

Next, remove the filter from the kettle water (use a pair of tongs if the water is still hot), and set it aside. While you’re in there, check the inside of the kettle to assess your stain- and limescale-removing progress. Before dumping the water, use a bottle brush to scrub the sides and bottom of the inside of the kettle, in case there are mineral deposits or a layer of film that needs some more loosening.

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

If you don’t have a bottle brush, you can use a wooden spoon. Pretend you’re thoroughly stirring something—making sure the spoon scrapes the bottom and sides with each rotation.

After all of that, dump the water and rinse out the kettle. If there is still limescale, stains, or a film present, sprinkle some citric acid inside the kettle. When it mixes with the remaining drops of water in the kettle, it’ll form a paste. Use a clean cloth or sponge to work the paste into the remaining stains or deposits until they’re gone. Rinse the kettle again, then fill it halfway with water, and boil it.

While it’s boiling, rinse off the little filter and remove any remaining mineral deposits, using a toothpick on stubborn areas if necessary. Rinse it off with clean water.

After all of that, here’s how my kettle turned out:

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

When the kettle has boiled, dump the water, and leave the lid open while it cools and dries. When it’s not too hot, replace the filter, then close the lid again. Now it’s time to tackle the outside of the kettle.

Hopefully, at this point, you’ll only need to wipe the outside down with a clean, damp cloth to get rid of any stains. Kettles with plastic or ceramic exteriors are likely done at this point. But if yours, like mine, is stainless steel, the mineral content in your water has probably left some streaks. In this case, use your usual method of cleaning stainless steel cookware or appliances. I just gave mine a quick wipe with a dry microfiber cloth, which worked well enough. If it hadn’t, I would have put a drop of olive oil on the microfiber cloth and buffed out the remaining streaks.

Credit: Elizabeth Yuko

I don’t clean my electric kettle on any kind of schedule; I typically wait until I notice stains on the bottom, or I spot a tiny white fleck of mineral deposit in my cup of tea (which has only happened once). As long as you occasionally take a peek inside your kettle when you’re filling it, you’ll know when it’s time to clean it again.

Source: LifeHacker – Your Electric Kettle Is Dirtier Than You Think