Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you know me, you know I can’t resist a community cookbook with worn corners and jagged, broken plastic teeth holding the pages together. Bonus points if features “cursive typewriter” font. It was these things that talked my into purchasing the combination “Big Y” local supermarket chain and 4-H club cookbook from 1985 that included this  recipe for Butterscotch Chocolate Chip Cookies.

Harwich Hermits

I am always on the hunt for old regional cookbooks, and naturally, I keep my eyes extra peeled for books celebrating the hearty and molasses-laden foods of my beloved New England.

When I find them, they usually aren’t in any shape to be used in the manner in which they were intended. Measurements are clunky (a teacup of butter), ingredients are dated (one yeast cake), and sometimes the amount of lard called for makes me shudder, but I still buy them.

Then sometime I get lucky and come across a book like this one, “New England Cookbook” by Eleanor Early, a 1954 gem that is old enough to be vintage, but new enough to be relevant. Better than its functionality, however, is its authoress. Eleanor writes with chatty charm that makes you want to lean in close. Each of the chapters has a fact-filled, amusing, and entertaining introduction, and nearly all of the recipes that follow have an anecdotal preface — something I love in a cookbook. Recipes are supposed to have a heartbeat and tell a story.

For example, before giving a recipe for Chicken Soup, Eleanor recounts the following tale:

I had a letter the other day from a friend in a reminiscent mood. The first paragraph was startling:

“So you’re going to do a cookbook…I remember the day you showed me how to make a lamb stew out of a bone I was going to give to Mrs. Harris’ dog, and the night you salvaged some chicken carcasses at Marie’s dinner party. With your New England thrift, I bet it will be a mighty economical book…”

The day I cheated Mrs. Harris’ dog has slipped my mind, but I do remember the chicken carcasses. Those chickens had not been picked at all. It would have been a sin and a shame to throw them away, and I took them home to make a lovely soup. Later I heard that some of the guests thought I was a little queer, although anybody who has ever made a good chicken soup knows that the richest stock comes from a meaty carcass.

You tell ’em Eleanor. I want to meet her for lunch, pull off my gloves by the fingertips, and have a serious discussion about how many potatoes are too many when it comes to chowder.

Some of the dishes have wonderful, weird names — things like Rum Tum Tiddy, Fannie Daddies, Sparkin’ Pie, and Jolly Boys. Still others are classic New England — Boiled Dinner, Johnny Cakes, Shaker Donuts, Red Flannel Hash, and Toll House Cookies.

As usual, I started a list to tuck into the front cover.

I could have opened up the book anywhere (well, anywhere but the chapter titled “Meat as the Yankees Cook It”) but I chose to start with Harwich Hermits. I love the spicy, molasses flavor of hermit cookies — a popular seafaring New England cookie  noted for its ability to last on long voyages — but had never made them myself. This recipe, named after the town of Harwich on Cape Cod, seemed like as good a place as any to start.

Don’t mind my unruly parchment.

The finished cookies (which are actually more like brownies in texture) were chewy, spicy, and packed with old-fashioned molasses and raisins flavor.  A perfect treat with a mug of coffee or glass of milk. Vintage cookbook success!

I am already looking forward to my next culinary date with Eleanor!

Harwich Hermits
Adapted from “New England Cookbook” by Eleanor Early (1954)

Ingredients
1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup molasses
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 teaspoon baking soda
2/3 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 cup raisins, chopped
1/2 cup currants, chopped
1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and grease or line a 9″ baking pan with parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and spices. Place the raisins and currants in a small bowl and toss with a tablespoon (or as needed) of the flour mixture until the fruits are lightly coated. Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and molasses and continue to beat.
4. Add the flour mixture gradually until just combined. Fold in the raisins, currants, and nuts.
5. Spread the mixture evenly into the pan and bake for 25 – 30 minutes or until deep golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
6. Cut into squares or bars while still warm.

View and print the recipe for Harwich Hermits.

Auntie Mella’s Italian Soft Anise Cookies

With a cake-like interior, glazed and sprinkled tops, and delicate licorice flavor, these easy Italian Soft Anise Cookies are a family favorite.

I feel like I am supposed to say that the foods I remember most from my childhood were prepared from memory by my grandmother over the course of an entire Sunday, pressing pinches of love onto my cheek with one hand while she stirred and stirred the contents of a bubbling kettle with the other. I could try to make my memories fit, but it just wouldn’t be true. It’s not that my family doesn’t cook; it’s just that we don’t cook “like that.”

In truth, the foods I remember most were store-bought bagels, crisp and buttery from the toaster on tiny white paper plates, and any kind of macaroni — especially Mama Rosie’s cheese-stuffed ravioli with milk and garlic bread. The ravioli was frozen, but the 2-inch high mound of parmesan on top was always fresh, grated by hand from a wedge in the fridge.

I still love bagels and macaroni, but because I can get them anytime, they don’t conjure up a memory sigh. The things that do are rare — the foods that only came out once or twice a year at family parties. Auntie Mella’s Italian Cookies are one of those. She was married to my Uncle Artie, my grandfather’s brother, a warm, teasing man who made a game of standing right next to me when I was small, but looking over my head and asking the room “Where’s Aimee?” while I jumped up and down, waving my hands, yelling “I’m right here!”

Uncle Artie on the right, posing with my Papa at our 1992 family picnic.

My mom likes to tell me that he once asked me, the way you do when children are learning the names of relatives, “Do you know who I am?” and I said that I did — that he was Uncle Artie. When Auntie Mella asked me the same question a moment later I said “Sure, you’re Uncle Artie’s friend!”

Technically, I was correct.

Her cookies were firm and perfectly round, like mushrooms, but once bitten revealed a soft, cake-like interior. The tops were coated with a hard, shiny glaze and covered with minute, colored sprinkles. What child can resist the sight of all those sprinkles?

I didn’t recognize the aroma or flavor, but it was not the vanilla, chocolate, or peanut butter cookies I was used to. If I had known the delicate, sweet taste in my mouth was anise (the flavor in black licorice) I might have stuck out my tongue and said I knew I didn’t like it, but I didn’t know, and they had those sprinkles, so I tried one. And I loved it.

I’ve been dreaming of Auntie Mella’s cookies for years. She passed away before I developed my passion for baking, so I never had the chance to tell her how much I loved her cookies and how much they reminded me of being little and underfoot at family parties where all the people I loved were alive and happy and laughing and teasing one another after a baptism, or at our annual summer picnic.

Our annual family summer picnic celebrated its 61st anniversary in 2011 – our last in Saugus.

I tried to make them over the years. Tried to find recipes in tattered secondhand community cookbooks or online, my eyes scanning the list of ingredients and method of shaping and glazing, looking for something I recognized, but none of them ever looked or tasted right. None of them were Auntie Mella’s.

Then, last weekend, I tried again. Unlike the other times, I updated my Facebook status with my plan, and a half hour later my mom called. She had the recipe I was looking for. Auntie Mella’s daughter, my mom’s cousin Anne Marie, had written it down for her on an envelope a few years ago at a family event. She knew it by heart. My mom read it out loud to me over the phone, and in about an hour, I was biting into one. An actual dream come true.

Out of the oven they don’t look like much, but they smell wonderful, and it’s nothing a little glaze can’t help.

They came out just as I remembered them. How often does that actually happen? I ate my fair share (never mind the number), then shared the rest with my friend Heather, mom, and Nana. Food is arguably one of the strongest links we have to memory, so I plan on celebrating the memory of my Auntie Mella, the whole wonderful Italian side of my family, and my own childhood memories by making these cookies, and making them often.

Try these soft anise cookies for yourself and see how delicious they are!

Auntie Mella’s Italian Soft Anise Cookies

Ingredients
3 eggs
4 teaspoons baking powder
2 teaspoons anise extract
3/4 cup sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup milk

For the Glaze
2 cups powdered sugar
3-4 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon anise extract

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, extract and baking powder.
3. Add the vegetable oil and milk, then the flour, one cup at a time, until well combined. Chill the dough for 20 minutes to help with stickiness.
4. Pinch off walnut-sized pieces of dough, and roll smooth between your palms.  Arrange the balls of dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until bottoms of the cookies are a light golden brown.  The tops will still be pale.
6. Remove from the oven, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
7. Combine the glaze ingredients in a bowl until just smooth.  You want it more thick than thin, but still runny.
8. Dip the tops of the cooled cookies into the glaze (just enough to coat the tops), then return to the wire rack, allowing the glaze to drip down the sides of the cookie.
9. Top with sprinkles before the glaze hardens.

Cookies are best served they day they’re made.  Once covered the trapped moisture will soften the glaze and the colors from the sprinkles will bleed.  Still tasty, but not so pretty.

Makes around 40 cookies.

Click to view and print the recipe for Auntie Mella’s Italian Cookies.

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies

After the chocolate chip cookie, I don’t think any cookie in America is more beloved than the peanut butter cookie.

Yes, I know there are versions of chocolate chip peanut butter cookies, and peanut butter cookies made even more peanut-y thanks to the addition of chunky peanut butter or chopped, salted peanuts…but for me, this classic version is still the best.

Ever wonder why peanut butter cookies have their distinct “criss-cross fork” pattern on top?  Peanut butter cookie dough is very dense, so pressing down on it before baking helps the cookie cook evenly.  The earliest mention of the fork-press method dates back to the Schenectady Gazette in 1932, a trick quickly adapted and popularized by giant flour producer Pillsbury throughout the 1930’s, and the method stuck.

When the craving for a good peanut butter cookie hits, whip up a batch (this King Arthur recipe is a winner), pour a glass of cold milk, and surrender.  It’s an American tradition!

Classic Peanut Butter Cookies
Adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3/4 cup smooth peanut butter (do not use natural)
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 to 3 tablespoons water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, and salt.
3. In a separate bowl, combine shortening, sugars, egg, vanilla, and peanut butter until smooth.
4. Slowly add the flour mixture to the peanut butter mixture until well combined.  Add the water one tablespoon at a time until the dough comes together.
5. Place rounded tablespoons of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2″ between each.
6. Use a fork to press a criss-cross shape onto each tablespoon of dough.
7. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until the edges are just beginning to brown.  Do not overbake or your cookies will be too crisp.
8. Transfer to a wire rack to cook, then store in an airtight container.

Yield:  24 cookies

Print Version

Citrus Basil Butter Cookies

Confession – I am ardently in love with fresh basil.  Head over heels.  Smitten kitten.  I want to marry it.  All of those things.

Basil is wonderful in many Italian dishes and paired with its BFF’s, tomato and mozzarella, but basil is also a marvelous ingredient in buttery cookies, especially when you also add in the citrus tang of lemon and lime zests.

I found this recipe a little odd.  The dough comes together in a food processor, similar to making pie dough.  The recipe said the dough would form “moist clumps,” but mine wouldn’t hold together to form a ball, so I added in 2 teaspoons of milk to make it wet enough to shape into balls.

The extra milk is probably why the cookies stayed a little moist in the middle, so if I make these again I will poke a few holes in the center of the cookies with a toothpick before I bake them .

Overall, if you love basil like I do, you will want to experiment with these cookies so you can enjoy the burst of fresh basil, citrus and butter when you bite into them.

Citrus Basil Butter Cookies
Adapted from Bon Appetit

Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup powdered sugar, plus more for pressing  cookies
1/2 cup (1 stick) chilled unsalted butter, cut into cubes
2 tablespoons sliced fresh basil  leaves
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest, plus 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon finely grated lime zest
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons milk
Sanding sugar (optional)

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• Combine the flour, sugar, butter, basil, zests, lemon juice, and salt in the bowl if a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.  If you don’t have a food processor, whir in a blender.
• Slowly drizzle in the milk until dough just comes together.
• Roll tablespoons of dough into balls and arrange on baking sheets, leaving 2″ between each.
• Take a flat-bottom measuring cup and lightly cover it in additional powdered sugar, then press onto each ball of dough to lightly flatten it.
• Sprinkle tops of the dough with coarse sanding sugar, if desired.
• Using a toothpick or piece of raw spaghetti, poke a few holes in the center of each cookie.
• Bake until the edges are brown, around 12-15 minutes.
• Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Yield:  16 cookies

Print Version

Cherry Pecan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

If there was ever a perfect cookie for me, this is it.

These gifts from heaven are chewy, brown sugary, the size of hamburgers, and loaded with tart dried cherries, toasted pecans, oats, and chocolate chips.

Truth be told, I would have liked these just fine without the chocolate chips, but since I was bringing them to a picnic, I thought I should be courteous and include them…since most people seem to like chocolate.

Did you know that?

 Bakers and lunch ladies agree that the ice cream scoop delivers consistent perfect portions, though I prefer using mine for cookie dough versus mashed potatoes.

The picnic was with some of my favorite Boston food bloggers (and ladies in general)…Fiona from A Boston Food Diary and Jen from Beantown Baker.  We met up in a Brookline park last week, along with Jen’s lovely friend Katie, to enjoy the late summer sunshine. 

Naturally, there was A LOT of delicious food.  This doesn’t even include the desserts.

We washed it all down with Jen’s homemade Blueberry Lemonade, which I am sure will be making an appearance on her blog sometime soon.

During our lunch there was a squirrel that wouldn’t stop coming right up to the table.  It would approach, then rock back onto its haunches like a meerkat and watch for any indication that it was going to be fed.  At first we laughed, but then the laughter got a little nervous, until Fiona and Katie started scooting away.

“Excuse me, ladies.  Care to share?”

Naturally, I befriended the squirrel and gave in after an hour and threw it some Maple Pear Tea Bread, which it thoroughly enjoyed.

I wasn’t about to share these cookies, though…they were too good.  Make some yourself and see!

Cherry Pecan Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/4 cups old-fashioned oats
1 cup toasted pecans, chopped
1 cup dried tart cherries, coarsely chopped
3/4 cup good quality chocolate chips (I used Ghiradelli) or 4 oz. of chopped bittersweet chocolate
12 Tbsp. unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), slightly softened
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
• In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.  In another medium bowl, mix together dried cherries, toasted pecans, oats, and chocolate chips.
• In the bowl of a stand mixer, or in a large bowl using an electric hand mixer, cream together butter and sugar until fluffy.  Add the egg and vanilla, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula if necessary.
• On low-speed, slowly add the flour mixture until just combined.  Then turn off the mixer and fold in the oat/cherry mixture with a rubber spatula.
• Using a scoop or measuring cup, divide the dough into 16 even portions.  Form each portion into a ball, then place it on the cookie sheet and lightly flatten it with your palm or the bottom of a glass to 1 inch thickness.  Place the balls 2 1/2 inches apart on the cookies sheets.  I could only fit 6 of each on mine, so I had to re-use a cookie sheet once it had cooled for the final 4 cookies.
• Bake the cookies for 12 minutes, then remove the baking sheets and rotate them front to back and top to bottom.  Continue to bake until the edges are golden brown 8-10 minutes longer.  It’s okay if they look a tad underbaked in the middle.
• After a few minutes, transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

Yield:  16 large, delicious cookies.

Print Version

Biscoff Bars

In my recent Key Lime Pie post, I mentioned that my cousin Jaime opted to use Biscoff cookie crumbs instead of graham cracker crumbs for the crust, which showcased their signature caramel flavor.  I have since realized that not everyone knows what Biscoff cookies are, but they should, because “Europe’s favorite cookie with coffee” is a title worth celebrating!

Italian Clove Cookies

Allow me to share a story…

My parents host our family Thanksgiving. I’m not sure how it came to be, but my participation includes going home the day before to help my mom prepare the food and get the house ready for guests. She says I get to be her “special helper.” I tell her it’s not that special, but I show up every year anyway. Last year I wanted to make my mom her favorite cookies, Italian Clove Cookies. I had never made them before, so I didn’t know that the dough is very thick and that her recipe would call for an awful lot of it. Long story short, I broke her hand mixer and she didn’t get any cookies. Oops.

America’s Test Kitchen Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

Is anything as iconic in the realm of hand-held American desserts as the chocolate chip cookie?

As I learned when I made Team Toll House Cookies, the first chocolate chip cookie was made in 1930 by Ruth Wakefield at the Toll House Inn in Whitman, Massachusetts.  The Toll House recipe is a classic, and since I am a sucker for tradition (especially ones originating in New England), it’s always been my go-to recipe.

My friends, I think it might be time to rethink that.

Vermont Maple Cookies

 

March is a dreary month in New England.  We are sick of snow and desperate for sunshine and warmth, but nature isn’t quite ready to commit to spring.  It’s lions and lambs all month long…warm and summery one day, and snowing the next. 

The one redeeming thing about March in New England is two little words…maple syrup.