I have rediscovered my cookbooks since moving, and in particular one. It’s called Dungeness Crabs and Blackberry Cobblers: The Northwest Heritage Cookbook by Janie Hibler. It is a historical compilation of recipes from all over the northwest, complete with stories, old photos, and the original recipes. Hibler will explain when necessary where she tweaked the recipe for today’s standards, but still gives the original by it’s side for your own comparison. There are recipes for Flaming Raspberry Souffle, Moist Prune Cake with Ginger-Cream Frosting, Basque Walnut Pudding, Blackberry Cobblers, Grilled Albacore with Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Fresh Rosemary, Roast Chicken with Barley-Mushroom Stuffing in Blackberry Sauce, Focaccia with Smoked Salmon and Basil Mayonnaise, Dungeness Crab and Spinach Raviolis, and September Harvest Chowder… just to name a few 
. Hungry yet? Yeah, me too. But this book was also an eye opener to the vast bounty of food that really is available in this region. I knew this of course, but sitting down and flipping through these pages was hard proof and it brought me to my senses! (pun intended 
I am also fascinated with old recipes. Not only are you tasting pretty much what they tasted, but you are reading what they read, and going through some very similar motions to make that dish. Depending on when and where the recipe came from, it can tell you a lot about the living conditions, the time period, and even the psyche of the people who ate it. There is a general fascination, I’ve found, with people who have their grandmother’s recipes or even great-grandmother’s. Through those recipes we find bits and parts of our selves via their history. These women (mainly) share a lot more with us than just genetics and if you look, taste, smell, and feel closely with their food you make, you might discover some of these secrets.
There is an old family recipes from my dad’s side for Apple Kuchen (Apple Cake in German). My grandmother went through a long phase where she had to modify all of her farmhouse cooking training to meet the needs of my diabetic grandfather–butter turned to margarine, she stopped using salt, things like that. But this recipe did not change and she would make the full fat and butter version no matter what. This recipe has not been altered since it came from the old country almost two hundred years ago–so as I make it, I imagine my great great great grandmother doing the same in Austria, my great great grandmother making it along the Oregon trail out of the back of her covered wagon, my great grandmother making it in her outdoor kitchen beside their sod house and eventually in their wooden clapboard farm home, and finally my grandmother learning to make it as a little girl and teaching me what her mother taught her. The funny thing is is that both of my parents are pretty nonchalant about food, my mother, her mother, and her mother before that all hated to cook and my dad never really took to the kitchen. But I loved it, so I was in there a lot…I still am!
So when I found this recipe for Fort Vancouver Ginger Biscuits in Hibler’s book, I couldn’t resist. She writes, “Imagine a buttery ginger cookie that’s so tender it melts in your mouth, and you’ll know what lies ahead when you make these delightful “biscuits,” a British term for cookies that can be sweet or savory. The recipe comes from Rick Edwards, park ranger at Fort Vancouver, Washington, who developed it from the list of ingredients recorded in the original Hudson’s Bay Company records of the fort.” And this cookie seriously does melt in your mouth. I upped the ginger by another teaspoon, and I always throw in a little more cinnamon than what’s called for, but I LOVE spicy ginger cookies. And these are incredible.
Fort Vancouver Ginger Biscuits, by Janie Hibler
3 cups unbleached flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
4 teaspoons ground ginger
24 tablespoons butter (1 1/2 cups)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup molasses
Preheat oven to 375 F and lightly grease a cookie sheet.
Blend the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and ginger together and set aside. In a large bowl mix the butter, sugar, and molasses together and stir in the dry ingredients. Make sure the butter and thus the batter are still cold.
Roll out on a lightly floured board to 1/2 inch thick. Cut with a 2 inch round cookie cutter (or glass) and place 1/2 inch apart on the cookie sheet. Bake for 6-8 minutes, do not over bake.
Variation:
I used only a cup of butter instead of a cup and a half and substituted the rest with some milk. I rarely do this but I feel like I have been on butter overload these past few weeks for some reason! Then I just took balls of dough from the bowl and rolled them between my hands instead of rolling it out. I put the balls on the pan and had to bake them for 12 minutes because they were thicker, but they still turned out great and super moist!
Cheers!
The end of summer has always brought with it some transitions–the weather, a new school year, fall activities and harvests to name a few. This fall brings with it some pretty major transitions–I am moving into a new house in a few days (and will explain my lack of posts for the next week or so!) and am looking for a new job. This summer was a big transition in itself–ending a two year master’s stint and readjusting back into a normal pace of life–which, by the way, has been incredible .
During my day, I like to ease from one activity to the next, taking small steps to adjust to something new–I even call it “ease-of-transition”. I think it is helpful to try to give yourself a little bit of buffer time or maybe something that indicates to not just your mind but your body that you will be doing something new. For instance, tea does this for me. In the afternoon, I will have a small pot of green tea with something small and sweet (like biscotti)–it’s like a tiny pause–and it is tremendously helpful for readying not only my mind but my body for something new I need or have to do. These pauses are ways that I simply be nice to myself–I can tend to push myself pretty far when it comes to working or doing something, especially when I am concentrating hard. So it is nice to set up these little moments to give yourself a break; I’m (still) always surprised when I work better after them too!
I am the same way with packing–my main activity for the next several days. We all know that one of the most despised activities on the planet is moving–not necessarily the end result because that can be fantastic–but it’s the packing, going through all your stuff, having to decide what stays and what goes, what goes to good will and what goes in the trash, it’s a lot of work. So, to ease my mind a little, I find that doing a little every day keeps me going, otherwise if I try to do it all in one major swoop I can get totally overwhelmed.
September will bring with it a whole new slew of transitions: new house, (looking for a) new job, new neighborhood, new routine. It’ll be nice to settle in both figuratively and literally! I can’t wait to bake and cook with the abundance of fall either, there will be some good things to come for sure . I wish you well if you are in any transition! And if you are, it may help to take a pause for a minute even if you don’t think you need one–it always makes me that much more efficient and ready!
Cheers!
Vanilla Bean (taking a break) Biscotti
recipe adapted from Alice Waters
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Measure and stir together:
2 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour 1 teaspoon baking powder 1 vanilla bean’s pods–split it down the middle and use a butter knife to scrape them out
In another bowl, combine:
3 eggs, at room temperature (this is really important, it will take more than twice the time if they are cold–a quick trick is to put them in a bowl of hot water from the tap for about 5 minutes) 1 cup sugar 1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)
Beat together until the mixture forms a ribbon. Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
On a parchment paper lined baking sheet, form the dough into 3-inch wide loaves, about 3 inches apart. Smooth the loaves with damp hands. Make for 25 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove the loaves from the oven and let cool for about 10 minutes. Lower the oven temperature to 300 F. Cut the cooled loaves into the 1/2 inch thick, turn the cookies over, and cook for another 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
Bon appetit!
This weekend we made a trip up to explore Seattle and it’s surroundings. One of the first things we did was take the ferry out to Vashon Island. This one-stoplight wonder of a place charmed the socks off of me. Our first stop was the Vashon Island Growers Market (held every Saturday). There we found delicious treats like this fresh frittata with chard and lotus blossoms. We found it at the Sun Island Farm booth, run by a lovely family with the dad making frittatas and the mom and kids running the “front”.
Another booth I stopped at was Barbara’s Chocolates. I was lured over because, well, there were baked goods there. However, I was pleasantly surprised to find these delectable little chocolates that were divine. Barbara told me she makes them fresh in her production kitchen and decorates them right on Vashon!
We then wandered over to the islands Tea House. The owner told me that when she serves people tea in a proper teacup, they act differently, as opposed to a mug or a little Japanese cup. She said they become a bit calmer and definitely quieter as they sip their tea out of a dainty teacup. How interesting! I’ve wondered about that myself…
Vashon surprised me! I honestly didn’t know what to expect when we went there (initially to check out some of Andrew’s old haunts and the abandoned K2 complex) but am so happy we did. I love impromptu connections, stories, and exchanges that happen; the warm and grounded people on Vashon were truly fantastic.
(From the Vashon Growers Market, we wandered into town where the islands one stoplight resides. I noticed some great signage that happened to belong to one of the islands art galleries, Valise. I chatted with one of the owners who was extremely warm and helpful and gave us tips about some other great places to see.)
(A great malt shop I was told! but this is the sign is the only thing left of it!)
The color pink has a specific taste. It’s light, sweet, and just ever so slightly cherry, maybe even rose, just hinting at those flavors. Yes, the color pink becomes so much more than just a color when it’s involved in food. It tastes like the warmth from a hug, a feminine hug, like a mother or grandmother; or the smell of a newborn’s neck, ever so slightly sweet, light, and fresh; or the feeling of a lover’s kiss who has been gone a long long time, nourishing, sweet, and sensual. The color pink has elements of all these tastes in it for me and last night I read that someone else had their own thoughts on the taste of pink as well. So I had to try her recipe (which ultimately was her friend Jimmy’s recipe) for Jimmy’s Pink Cookies. They are fantastic, a perfect shortbread crumb that crumbles then melts in your mouth as you chew. The frosting is decadent with just a hint of cherry or rose that makes them taste, well, more pink!
“Academic baking” as a friend likes to put what I do (and I got a huge kick out of), definitely has it’s perks:). Especially when you are one of my friends living within walking/biking proximity of my home because you will more than likely be getting these goodies. A girl can try to eat all this stuff by herself (and trust me, I’ve tried) but actually, I the enjoy sharing part almost as much as the baking. Now, back to the “academic” part…thesis writing calls!
Jimmy’s Pink Cookies (Molly Wizenburg)
For the cookies:
3 sticks (12 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup powdered sugar
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
For the frosting:
8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
6 tablespoons (3 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon kirsch, rose water, cherry extract, or maraschino cherry juice (I actually used more maraschino cherry juice flavor as it’s a diluted compared to the rest and it was delish)
red or rose food coloring
To make cookies, combine the butter and powdered sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, and beat, first on low speed, and then slowly increasing to medium, until light and fluffy.
In a medium bowl, combine the flour and salt, and whisk well. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating until the flour is just absorbed. Add the vanilla and beat well to incorporate. Lay a sheet of plastic wrap on a large clean surface and turn the dough out onto it. Shape into a disk, wrap well, and refrigerate for one hour.
On a clean, floured surface, roll th dough out to a thickness of 3/8 inch. Using a cookie cutter, cut the dough into whatever shapes you would like. (I personally use a drinking glass for circles). Jimmy uses a much bigger cutter, often in the shape of a heart.
Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 1/2 inches apart. Bake them one sheet at a time, keeping the second sheet in the refridgerator until the first one is done, for 16 to 20 minutes, or until the cookies are pale golden at the edges. Do not allow them to brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and cool completely on the pan.
To make the frosting, combine the cream cheese and butterin the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed until smooth. Add the powdered sugar and beat on low speed to fully incorporate, then raise the speed to medium/medium high and beat until there are no lumps, scraping down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula as needed. Add the flavoring and a few drops of food coloring and beat well. The frosting should be a pretty shade of pink. Taste, if it needs more “pink” flavor, go ahead and add more. Generously spread onto the fully cooled cookies.
Stored in an airtight container, pink cookies will keep in the refrigerator for up to 3 days–and they are delicious cold–or you can freeze them indefinitely.
Yeild: 20-24 (3 inch) cookies
Bon Appetit!
I’ve been making chocolate chip cookies since I was 8. Actually, it was one of the first things in the kitchen I learned how to make on my own and took it to a whole new level. As an avid chocolate chip cookie eater and baker for practically my whole life, I have tried many recipes and only one passes the test. Today, I will share this secret weapon that I whip out in any and all occasions. I need to distract myself and make something easy in the kitchen? Chocolate chip cookies. I have an impromptu dinner party to go to? Chocolate chip cookies. A friend of mine needs a pick me up? Chocolate chip cookies. I need a pick me up? Well, you get the idea.
I found myself in the kitchen yesterday while avoiding writing any more thesis. And lo and behold, guess what found it’s way from my mixer to my oven? Yep, you guessed it, chocolate chip cookies! Seriously people, this is a tried and true recipe that I have been using for years. I don’t take any credit for the creation of it, that was all Neiman Marcus, but man are these good. A crispy edge with a gooey center, the chocolate bits are perfectly melty but not scorching when you bite into one right out of the oven. These are to be enjoyed soon after they’ve been baked as they tend to firm up a day or so later, but dang, they are still good then too. Ok, enough of this banter. It’s time to go and make yourself some of these, you won’t regret it!
THE Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe (from here)
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Yes, the oatmeal cookie is making a return! I found this recipe and couldn’t resist trying it! These cookie are accompanying me to a print exchange that is happening tonight. I am so excited to get 35 original prints from the local area artists who all participated! The prints I included with my silkscreen partner and collaborator Chelsea H. were from the Recommendations: Winter series, the red suit and socks prints. (You can find the whole series on our Etsy site, plainMade Design.) I love these prints:).
These cookies were the perfect combination of sweetness, acidity and sourness (from the California apricots), a touch of creaminess from the white chocolate, and a well rounded texture from the combination of the latter two and the oatmeal. Bon appetite!
Oatmeal Cookies with Dried Apricots and White Chocolate (recipe adapted from Martha)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old fashioned oatmeal
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
8 oz (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
8 oz white chocolate, chopped
7 oz dried apricots, preferably California, chopped (1 1/2 cups)
Preheat oven to 350 F. Cream butter and sugars with a mixer until light and flufy. Reduce speed to low. Add salt, vanilla, and eggs, and beat until well combined. Stir in chocolate and apricots.
Drop heaping tablespoons of dough onto ungreased (but parchment is fine) baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches apart. Bake until cookies are golden brown around the edges but still soft in the center, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cookies cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes. Transfer to wire rack, let cool. Cookies will keep covered for up to one week.——- They are really great with a cup of Earl Grey tea in the afternoon!
I re-found an old recipe my Grandmother had typed up for me (yes, typed). She started giving me recipes when I was a young girl, very young, like 6. My mother kept most of them, so I come across them from time to time in my collection. This one, called Amish Sugar Cookies, I found interesting as first, the recipe is huge! It makes 4 dozen cookies. I think she had it in mind to make a ton so she could decorate them with her grandchildren. I was easily able to half the recipe. Then, it calls for dreaded margarine and cooking oil! Thinking back, I know she substituted these things for shortening and butter as my grandfather became diabetic later in his life. In the 80’s it was still all the rage to eat margarine as a “healthy” substitute, or so I remember her saying. Instead of cooking oil, I used earth balance shortening and the cookies came out beautifully.
I think it’s interesting how the Amish, would never have used margarine or cooking oil (whatever that is!) but would have reveled in the full fat of the butter and lard the original recipe calls for. I also think it’s interesting how I, as the grand daughter, am changing the recipe back to it’s original form, from a version that was meant to be “more healthy.” It’s like bringing back the meaning of a sweet thing, a baked good, nourishment, and food full circle in my family. Because I am sure that whoever made this recipe up, made sure their families didn’t over indulge on them or made them that often, making them a treat and a healthful choice (as other means of nourishment) by default.
Amish Sugar Cookies
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup non-salted butter
1/2 cup earth balance shortening
1 egg
2 1/4 cups all purpose, non-bleached flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 – 1 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract
Cream sugars, butter and shortening until a light yellow color. Add the egg and extract, beat well. Add and mix the dry ingredients. You can either roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface and with a cookie cutter or a small cup, cut out the cookies; or, you can take a teaspoon of dough, roll it into a small ball in your hand and flatten it with the end of a cup dipped in sugar on the cookie sheet.
Bake at 375 F for 8 minutes or until the edges are slightly browned. The tops shouldn’t brown, they will be white like little full moons.
Cheers!
Move over December, January has taken your spot as the official month of cookie baking! Since I was inundated with final projects and deadlines galore, I missed the cookie bake-off that December traditionally is. So, I am making up for lost time this month before my final semester begins and I am swamped with thesis work. Plus, I am heading into the screen print lab and there needs to be treats involved so oatmeal cookies it is. This recipe was inspired by Martha, but I believe there to be better recipes out there. Any suggestions you may have for the best oatmeal cookie recipe you’ve ever tasted, feel free to send them my way .
Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup packed light-brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
3 tablespoons milk
2 large eggs
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup raisins
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter with both sugars, and beat until light and fluffy. Add vanilla, milk, and eggs, and mix well. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Remove bowl from the electric mixer, and stir in oats and raisins. Place dough in the refrigerator until firm, about 2 hours or overnight.
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line several baking sheets with parchment paper, and set aside. Scoop out 2 tablespoons of dough, and shape into a ball; place on one of the prepared sheets. Repeat with remaining dough, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Press down to flatten into 2-inch diameters.
Transfer to the oven, and bake until golden but still soft in center, 16 to 18 minutes, rotating the pans between oven shelves halfway through baking. Remove from oven, and place on a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week
The Committee of Efficiency and Morale is my favorite pen name thus far for the book series we have been working on. It has a certain militancy about it which I like the irony of because the aesthetics we have been using are so soft and beautiful. Everyday that we have been in the print lab, I have found myself bringing in a treat. The moral is high, especially when treats abound! The latest cookie, Gingersnap Jammers is what I call them, were inspired from a recipe by Martha. I knew I wanted a crunchy cookie, something buttery with a little hint of spice, and I wanted to use jam, so here is what I made:
Gingersnap Jammers
8 tablespoons tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
2 cups sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 large egg, beaten
1 cup raspberry jam with seeds
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter, shortening, and 1 cup sugar on medium speed. In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.
Add maple syrup to butter mixture; beat to combine. Beat in egg until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low; slowly add the reserved flour mixture, a little at a time, until well blended.
Place remaining cup sugar in a bowl. Measure 2 teaspoons dough; roll into a ball. Roll dough in sugar; transfer to sheet. Repeat, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes. Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool. Form and bake the remaining dough.
Spread about 2 teaspoons jam over half of the cookies; place a second cookie on top of jam-covered ones, making sandwiches. Serve.
Sometimes, a girl just needs to bake. Especially when a kitchen has not been available for over two weeks! I saw this recipe for Orange Butter Cookies in the New York Times a few weeks ago and decided I’d give them a try, giving myself a break from playing typographer for the book I am working on. They are delicious little buttery treats with a citrus twist. Enjoy!
ORANGE BUTTER COOKIES
1 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 2/3 cups cake flour or more all-purpose flour (cake flour gives a finer texture)
1/2 teaspoon baking sodA
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
2 packed teaspoons freshly grated orange zest
1 large egg plus 2 large egg yolks, at room temperature
FOR THE ICING:
1 orange
1 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 to 4 tablespoons whole milk
2 drops almond or vanilla extract
Pinch fine salt.
1. Position two oven racks in top and bottom third of oven. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. In a bowl, whisk flours, baking soda and salt together. In a mixer, cream together the sugar, butter and orange zest at medium speed until light and smooth, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of bowl frequently. Add egg and mix. Add one egg yolk and mix. Add remaining egg yolk and mix. Stir in dry ingredients just until combined.
3. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto parchment, leaving more than 1 inch between cookies. Press each one down lightly with 2 fingers to flatten to a thickness of 1/2 inch. Leave any ridges and valleys on top of cookie intact, but smooth the edges.
4. Bake about 15 minutes, rotating cookie sheets halfway through. Cookies should be pale but baked all the way through. Cool on sheets 5 minutes, then transfer to a rack and cool before storing in airtight containers up to 1 week.
5. When ready to serve, make icing: Bring a small pot of water to a boil. Peel orange, being careful to remove only outer orange zest, and cut into thin strips. Blanch in boiling water 1 minute; drain. Sift confectioners’ sugar into a bowl. Whisk in 2 tablespoons milk. Whisk in more milk if needed to make mixture thin enough to spread. Add extract, salt and zest, and whisk to combine.
6. Place cookies on a rack and drizzle icing over each one (make sure there is some orange zest in each spoonful). Icing will settle into cookie crevices; let harden.
Yield: About 4 dozen cookies.
Note: Instead of icing, cookies can be sprinkled with coarse crystal sugar before baking.
