Week 10: Lemondoodles

Snickerdoodles were one of my children’s favorite cookies growing up. The soft eggy cookie dusted in cinnamon sugar was a real treat for the mouth and a nice departure from the standard chocolate chip that often filled our cookie jar. Eight years ago Brilliant Daughter and I came up with our own riff on the classic snickerdoodle, developing a chaidoodle that incorporated typical chai spices. Looking back I realized that chaidoodles were one of the early posts in the first year I began this blog (2006).  Eight years later, combing through my mountains of saved recipes, I came across this recipe for lemondoodles, which I believe came from Melissa and No. 2 Pencil blog.  And because we are notorious lemon lovers and I still have Meyer lemons on the tree, it made perfect sense to test it out.

Start to finish, these cookies took about an hour, with ingredients that are found in a typical pantry and refrigerator. The only tricky part is browning the butter, but as long as you stand over the stove and watch and stir carefully, it only takes a few minutes. That means you can’t answer the phone, change a diaper, or run outside to turn off the sprinklers. It is wise to be patient and appreciate that solid butter turning into a golden nutty liquid. Other than that, it is a simple recipe that mixes up easily in either a stand mixer or your everyday handheld mixer.

I’ve made a few adjustments to the recipe. First, in the topping, I chose to use a microplane instead of a zester. A microplane allows for small, delicate curls of lemon peel, which I felt would integrate better with the sugar, infuse more flavor into the topping, and would react better when baking. A zester would create long strands  that would either require straining before using or would not attach well to the cookie and possibly burn or turn bitter in the baking process. And because I was using Meyer lemons, which have considerably more flavor in the peel than your standard Eureka lemon, I only needed to use the zest from 2 lemons, rather than 3.

I also tried to different baking times and temperatures. The original recipe called for 7 minutes at 425 degrees, but my other “doodle” recipes call for 10 minutes at 400 degrees. I found that there is not a huge difference, but the 7 minute/425 degrees version was a bit lighter in color and softer on the outside. The insides of both were similar. So make your life easier and go with the 7 minute version.

I should point out that these are large cookies and spread out, so do not crowd on your baking pan. I cooked only 8 to a pan, which was perfect. It takes a bit longer, but with 2 pans in the oven at a time, you only need to do the process twice.

Pair these with a nice cup of oolong, English Breakfast, or Earl Gray and enjoy yourself!

Kitchen Remodel: Office Space Bonus

In the course of remodeling the kitchen, we inadvertently remodeled the adjoining room. Initially designed as a dining room, the previous owners had used it as a family room, dark with paneling, recliners, TV and shag rug. We renovated the space when we moved in, tearing out the paneling and carpet, retexturing the walls, and making it into my home office (that also did double duty as a guest room).

For several years early on this room served as the unofficial office for the small publishing company I worked for, with three of us busily tapping away on keyboards. Then the room became the bedroom for Electrician Son, the one we “adopted” in high school. Most recently it has served as my primary office, as I am a freelance writer and editor. It’s pretty handy, being right next to the kitchen to test recipes, cook dinners, and bake cookies. Closed off enough to work without distraction, but near enough to the heart of the home. Now that has all changed.

This new space, designed to be the dining room when we eventually put the house on the market, is open to the kitchen. We tore out one wall, moved it 5-6 inches into the adjoining room and rebuilt it as a pony wall. The original plans called for a granite countertop bar to sit on the pony wall and extend into the adjoining room. We found the cost to be prohibitive. While the granite itself was only $190, it would be $400 to mill the four edges and another $250 to install. Plus we would have had to pay for a deck to be built, making the total cost about $1000. Not in the budget. So we went for a black IKEA countertop with a stainless steel edge that only cost $99. It really blends well with the granite and black and stainless appliances and we were able to install it ourselves.

So now we have what they call a great room, combo kitchen/dining/living space. I no longer have any privacy but I do get to see my brand new kitchen as I work from my new desk, which puts a smile on my face all day long. My old desk, a cheap Office Depot model, fell apart when we moved it. Since the budget was limited, I got creative again and headed to IKEA. I found a black 6-foot desk top for $45 and some brushed stainless legs. The legs were actually too wide for the desktop, so we angled them, adding a bit more visual interest.

I also purchased a large cubed bookcase from IKEA to fill up one wall. They replace two sagging bookcases, which we found a new home for. We even added frosted window film to the large 4x8’ window in a decorative pattern, so we don’t have to look at the neighbor’s wall. It still lets in a lot of light but allows privacy. And given the cost of window treatments, it was the best option. Two boxes of Gila window film (4x6.5’) and an install kit cost less than $100, whereas shades or drapes would have been three times that. I really didn’t want to use drapes anyway, as the window is framed in the Craftsman style, with a wide 5 .5” header and 4.5” sides. It matches the kitchen windows and not something I would want to hide.

So my previous office space now houses a countertop eating area, desk and filing cabinet, my husband’s small leaning Crate and Barrel desk, the bookcase and a couch (which still converts to a bed for nieces and nephews). You can sit on the couch and talk to the person(s) working in the kitchen. You can sit at the bar and watch the kitchen wizardry that goes on while you nosh on cheese and swill some wine. You can smell the aromas of simmering stew, chaidoodles baking in the oven, or even the dirty dishes in the sink. (Oops!)

While I lost all privacy, I gained light and beauty (because it really is a beautiful kitchen) and a more efficient office. I have a great space for friends and family to hang out in while we cook, and it expands the area in which to use when we throw parties. So now the question is: When is the next party?

Chaidoodles

At the risk of being accused of bastardizing a classic, Brilliant Daughter and I reinvented the old-time favorite snickerdoodle to incorporate flavorful chai spices. (Brilliant because she came up with the idea in the first place.)

Snickerdoodles were one of the kids’ favorite cookies growing up. I didn’t make them as often as say, Tollhouse Chocolate Chip, as they required hand rolling in a sugar/cinnamon mixture, which was a bit more time consuming and meant my eyes were less attentive to active children (though they did like to help me roll the cookies in the sugar—hands caked in cinnamon by the end). But these cookies were always well received, not only by my own kids, but by the neighborhood kids as well. Snickerdoodles are a rich buttery-eggy tasting cookie with a slightly crisp sugar/cinnamon outer shell. The ingredients are basic, the dough easy and quick to make, with the only requirement that you hand roll the dough into balls and coat in sugar and cinnamon.

We were debating the origin of the snickerdoodle, or at least the hilarity of the name, and to further educate ourselves we found the following information at the James Beard Foundation: Foundation Snickerdoodles are: A cookie with character. There’s no question that these simple, old-fashioned, cinnamon-dusted sugar cookies are delicious, but culinary historians have a difficult time reaching consensus on the origin of their funny name. Sherry Yard in her Secrets of Baking contends that snickerdoodles are named after a character from an early 20th century children’s story. Apparently, Snickerdoodle (nephew of Yankee Doodle and cousin to Polly Wolly Doodle) was a tiny guy who drove a peanut car and heroically solved big problems—much like a snickerdoodle with a glass of milk can do on a rough day. Others argue that snickerdoodle is merely a nonsense word like doodly-squat, a word that gave rise to the song “Yankee Doodle Dandy.” Still other historians believe that snickerdoodle is, in fact, a very old name that comes from a New England tradition of giving little cakes and cookies fantastical names, such as Jolly Boys, Tangle Breeches, and Kinkawoodles. Snickerdoodles resemble many cookies that have come from England and Germany, but New Englanders usually get credit for their creation in the 18th or 19th century when a slew of similar spice cookies was popular. The recipe for these homey cookies reveals their age: it typically calls for cream of tartar and baking soda—not baking power as a more modern recipe might.

My snickerdoodle recipe is old and loved and I have never wavered from it. But we have been experimenting lately with flavorings for bread pudding, and the last one in the test kitchen was a chai bread pudding because we are a chai-loving household. Introduced to us by our Nepali friend Raj, it is a winter staple, warm and frothy, its scent permeating the whole house as it simmers. So there was a natural progression of thought, at least in our mind, with the bread pudding, chai, and snickerdoodles. Combining two of our favorite things to make something new seems to be our mission these days. So, we took the basic recipe, adjusted the rolling mixture, and saved ourselves some time by scooping the dough with a small ice cream scoop.

So, without further ado, we offer you the Chaidoodle:

1 c butter, softened
1 ½ c sugar
2 eggs
2 /34 cup flour
2 t cream of tartar
1 t soda
¼ t salt

Cream together the first 3 ingredients. Sift dry ingredients together and add to creamed mixture, incorporating well. Shake together the following in a lidded plastic container:

3-4 T sugar
1 t ground cardamom
2 t cinnamon
¼ t clove
¼ t ginger
¼ t allspice

Roll dough into walnut-size balls, or scoop with small ice-cream scooper, and drop several at a time into the lidded container. Shake to coat, and place on ungreased cookie sheet or silpat. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, or until cookies puff up and flatten out and are slightly brown.

(Self) Exploration in the Kitchen: Bacon Jam, Citrus Marmalade, Chai Spread

I learned two things yesterday in my kitchen: (1) I love to experiment and (2) I am an overachiever. Now some might say “Duh!!!”, but I have always looked at my productivity as maximizing the use of my time and being able to multitask on a very high level. I think I was just using euphemisms, as the word “overachiever” has a harsh tone to it, a bad connotation, if you will (and if you do think of it in a good context then it sounds like you are “tooting your own horn,” as my Nana used to say).

I started out the day innocently enough, planning on making use if the year’s first batch of Meyer lemons. My Meyer lemons are finally starting to get ripe, which means the ritual of making and canning lemon curd is on the agenda this month and next.

Once I haul out the canning kettle, jars, lifting tongs, funnels, pots, pans, bowls, and all the ingredients, it seems logical that I should make the best use of them by canning more than just the curd. Makes sense, right? Well, it started out with a citrus marmalade, fell into a bacon jam, and ended with a chai spread. What began at 10am ended at 4pm, with a very tired Mrs. B and 20 glorious jars of goodness. 

The lemon curd is a recipe I have been making for more than 20 years; one that didn’t have directions to can it, so I called into the Chef Narsai David’s radio show one day—at the insistence of my father—to ask how to preserve my precious curd. It’s been an annual ritual ever since. The recipe can be found here on my blog, or in my little cookbook, Eat Drink Merry.

The citrus marmalade was born out of a need to use the oranges that had arrived in my CSA box, some limes that I had on hand and, of course, the Meyer lemons. I turned to several of my canning cookbooks for inspiration, and chose to freeform a recipe, not measuring anything. I used the fruit, along with orange juice, orange blossom water, sugar, and some honey. The marmalade turned out pretty good, still having that bite (or bitterness) along with the sweet. The orange blossom water was very subtle, and I might try to add more next time around. 

The bacon jam has been in my recipe To Do file since December of 2010. I am not sure what took me so long to make it, but it is friggin’ delicious and next time I will make a triple batch. As I set about to make it, Brilliant Daughter complained about the name. She didn’t want to call something savory “jam.” (She also believes dessert shouldn’t have any kind of cheese in it.) We searched our vocabulary for a suitable word and settled on confit, although in the strictest sense, it is not really a confit. But it sounds fancy and more appropriate for this savory thick mixture.

 

I used a pound of my home-cured and smoked bacon, which upped the quality of the jam considerably, in my humble opinion. The original recipe was on Not Quite Nigella, but I altered the recipe a bit, using a red onion, more garlic, Sriracha, smoked paprika and a last splash of red wine vinegar. I also deleted the fresh ground black pepper, as the jam had enough kick without it. How do I know? Because I constantly tasted it. I mean constantly. It was all I could do to not eat it all. I fixed Mr. B and myself a sandwich with it: whole wheat bread, toasted, a light swath of mayo, and a thick slab of cheddar cheese. Butcher Son asked if we were supposed to eat it on a peanut butter sandwich. Hmmm…. Maybe I will just try that too!

After the bacon jam was finished, I got the inspiration to try and fashion some sort of chai spread. For Christmas, a friend brought me a jar of this luscious café au lait spread she found at the Ferry Building. It’s wonderful on morning toast or crumpets. Because my family loves, LOVES, chai, I thought I would try and make a similar spread.  

I started by steeping cardamom pods, cloves and cinnamon stick (all lightly smashed with a pestle), along with an inch of fresh sliced ginger, in some water with loose black tea leaves. After boiling for 15 minutes, I had a strong reduced base, to which I added a cup of sugar and a cup of heavy cream. I simmered for 10 minutes and then tempered 6 beaten eggs and poured them into the mixture. I stirred on a very low heat for a very long time. I got some small globs when I turned up the heat, but my immersion blender took care of those nicely. Once it had thickened, I poured into jars and processed for 15 minutes. 

Mr. B and I couldn’t wait for morning to try the chai spread on French toast, so we sliced a baguette and gave them a generous schmear. Yummy. Not exactly the same consistency as the café au lait spread, and the color may not be terribly appetizing (your basic beige), but it is a tasty chai addition to my recipe files (see chaidoodles, chai bread pudding, chai-spiced cinnamon rolls). 

Pretty productive and tasty day for  me, along with the blueberry muffins I made for breakfast, all the living room baseboards and trim that I sanded, and the grocery shopping I did. Guess I’m going to have to own the moniker of “overachiever” and wear it proudly!