Tahini and White Chocolate (Lactation) Cookies

Plus thoughts on raw milk and Trump

This week’s recipe is a sweet treat that can be ready within the hour, and let me tell you, never before have sweet treats meant so much to me as they do in post partum. Next month I have multiple Christmassy recipes for you which I’ve been testing and tuning over the last few weeks among the baby burping, and pram pushing… Further down I’m sharing thoughts on how raw milk came to unite ethical ‘foodies’ and Trump’s health secretary.

Before I gave birth I was a bit scared that because of my all-consuming desire for a baby, I would probably end up being cursed with post natal depression. Sod’s law said that the reality of parenting might look totally different to the baby-bliss I had dreamed about. While pregnant, I kept trying to remind myself to prepare for this possibility.

But (touching multiple woods), so far this hasn’t proved to be the case. I haven’t felt depressed. Fortunately, I have felt a fulfilment that is hard to put into words. And when me and Charles received what I genuinely take as the great post-partum compliment of ‘not looking too shell-shocked’, I beamed.

But, while I don’t like to complain, because this is the life I chose (and luckily I love it) it would be completely disingenuous of me to pretend it’s not really very hard. My brain seems to work in a different gear now, and it takes me longer to get thoughts clear in my head, let alone on paper. This week in particular has been physically exhausting. We travelled back by public transport from the West Country to London on Monday and I have dragged poor Eli around South East London on all modes of transport every day since. My wrists are sore from pushing and steering a 12kg pram one-handed while I have the poor kid in the carrier, and my back and shoulders ache from feeding in ill-fitting places. The poor kid can’t catch a break and I’ve finally knackered myself out. So I hereby vow to make the next few weeks different and slower!

And it starts here, with these Lactation Cookies. They are not something I had heard of before this year. When our baby was one-week-old, my good friend Ruth kindly brought me a batch. I ate one a day for 2 weeks, and they were exactly the easy-to-eat-with-one-hand sweet treat that I needed. They also made me realise how delicious a homemade biscuit can be. Thanks Ruth. So here, I present to you my own version, suitable for people with and without boobies (and babies).