Hot Cookie - the Archive

Apricot Chews with a lightly toasted coconut topping. "Do you want a partner in crime for this new project of yours?" Laurel was planning a party for her 93-year-old neighbor who had moved to a retirement community. Betty had lived in Laurel's neighborhood since 1966. "Ooh, sounds like fun. Do you know when she moved into her house, or when she was married?" I asked. "We could make cookies from those years. Can't wait till Friday." The fruit gets jammy and sticks to the sides of the saucepan after simmering 30 minutes. Lucky me, I got to make another batch of the 1944 Cinnamon Sugar Crisps (see cookie # 4). Laurel's neighbor Betty was married that year. I had the dough ready to go. Laurel seemed in awe of my rolling pin and cutting techniques. I hadn't noticed before, but I'd improved. The soft dough of those crisps do have a learning curve, and I'd rolled, cut, and rerolled before. I cut the shapes and Laurel applied s...

The finished bars - full of promise. "Graham crackers!?" In what I think of as a fairly well-stocked pantry, I haven't kept graham crackers since my children were about five. "Doug," I called to my husband, "I'm going to buy graham crackers." In the aisle of my basic neighborhood grocery store, I was horrified to learn that graham crackers, something I'd considered wholesome snacks, no longer hold up to health food standards (partially hydrogenated cottonseed oil and high fructose corn syrup). My image of graham crackers as nutritious snacks lies in its history. Sylvester Graham, a Presbyterian minister, invented them in 1829. It turns out he promoted his "Graham bread," made of coarse whole wheat flour, to curb excessive lust. He also preached temperance and a vegetarian diet. Little did I know this was the heritage of one of my own favorite snacks as a child - I couldn't get enough of these crackers with butter and jam...

When I stepped on the scale at my fitness center last year, my aerobics instructor sidled up to me and stage-whispered, "That is the tool of the devil." I know what she means. Daily fluctuations make a daily weigh-in both inaccurate and frustrating. What looks like a loss one day - due to last night's skipped dessert, or exercise-induced dehydration - disappears with a normal caloric intake the next day, or a little extra salt that causes you to hold onto water. Yet, the TV reality show "Biggest Loser" uses the scale as its only criterion of success. Is the scale a tool of the devil or the only tool that matters? Well, neither. The scale is a tool by which I hope to track a general downward trend, but slow consistent weight loss comes with the ups and downs. As well, I have learned that muscle is denser and heavier than fat. Herein lies the paradox: converting fat tissue to the same volume of muscle tissue is likely to increase your weight, if only t...

Light, airy, with deep spice on the back of the tongue, these are the first cookies from the book to which I could become addicted. Molasses is the star flavor.  But add cinnamon, a rich brown color, and the bear shapes, and nearly everyone asks if they are "gingerbread" cookies. No ginger in them. Use a spatula to transfer cookie to cookie sheet. They are crisper and lighter, thinner (gotta love thinner) than gingerbread you'd use to make houses. In 1944, Gourmet Magazine suggested sending these to soldiers abroad. I could see how they'd hold up to travel, so I sent some to my daughter, at school in Evanston, Illinois. I also shared with my teammates at the Granite Curling Club (where I've been a member for 25+ years), and at a meeting with my research colleagues. They were a hit. Do you detect a strategy to avoid eating them all myself? Brush cookie tops with water and sprinkle on sparkling sugar. My rolling pin got another workout, but this dough, ...

Filling are Sour Cherry Lemon Jam by Earth & Vine Provisions on the left, and my friend Gitte's Tangerine Marmalade, right. Rolled cookies require two extra steps that I try to avoid - refrigeration and rolling.  If I wanted to roll out dough, I'd make a pie.  But I promised to make all these darned cookies, or pretty near all.  Out came the rolling pin. With 2 1/2 cups of oatmeal, you'd imagine a hearty good-for-you cookie that would be representative of the 1940's, when this recipe appeared in Gourmet Magazine . You'd be half right. The cup of butter nixes the healthy thing, and gives these a high-fat pastry texture. This recipe also calls for pastry flour, a low-gluten flour and second-lowest in protein content of the four most common flours (cake, pastry, all purpose, and bread). Pastry flour contributes to a light texture that breaks apart easily. I was never good at reading all the instructions before beginning a task.  I had just added the baking...

Cookies stamped with star design and ready for the oven. I continue to try the earliest recipes. I mixed up these refrigerator cookies the night before, a lesson in delayed gratification. When I sliced off the cookies from the cylinder, the dough was still soft, so I poked them into round shapes. I still wasn't impressed by their appearance - simple, flat and round. I remembered the way I'd used the bottom of a fancy glass to press a star pattern into sugar cookies when I was a kid. So, I buttered the bottom of a crystal perfume bottle, dipped it into sugar, and pressed each cookie, dipping again into sugar for each one. Much prettier. This is the kind of cookie I would have welcomed when I tried to protect my children from super-sweet desserts.  They call for part honey, part sugar.  They are only slightly sweet, soft and cake-like out of the oven, with the floral scent of my blackberry honey. They cool to a crisp graham cracker texture. They call for shortening, but the...