Behind the Recipe -- Jeri Quinzio

Maple Parfait at UCPress blog

To see my new blog and recipe for maple parfait, go to the University of California Press blog --

http://www.ucpress.edu/blog/

I tell the story of Rufus Estes, once a slave who rose to cook for the country's elite and to write a wonderful cookbook. His recipe for maple parfait would make a great New Year's dessert.

Here's to a wonderful 2010.

Cookies for Christmas

 



Every family that celebrates Christmas has its own special traditions. In my family, Christmas always meant lots and lots of cookies. Some days before the 25th, my mother, my sisters, and I always spent an afternoon making them. We made anise-flavored snowballs, pizzelle, and crispy, deep-fried butterflies that we dusted with powdered sugar.

We always made some cookie-cutter cookies. They were not necessarily a particular flavor or recipe. What was important was that the dough could be rolled out and cut into the shapes of candy canes, stars, Christmas trees, and so on. After baking them, we decorated them with frosting and nonpareils. We made a mess, but we had fun. And we wound up with a great supply of cookies.

I continued the cookie-making tradition with my own kids when I grew up. We made most of the traditional cookies. but I like experimenting with new recipes as well. I’ve made festive-looking, and great-tasting, dried cranberry and pistachio biscotti. Ginger cookies flavored with both powdered and candied ginger. I remember coconut cookies with a little piece of chocolate embedded in the center as being particularly good.

One year, I found a recipe for Christmas wreath cookies. I don’t remember where the recipe came from. They’re just simple, basic butter cookies decorated with chopped pistachios and a dot of strawberry jam in the center. They do look like mini wreaths, and they’re tasty. The combination of pistachio and strawberry is good, and the butter doesn’t hurt either.

My father came to our house for Christmas dinner that year, and of all the foods and desserts we had, he particularly liked the wreath cookies. So I made them again the next year, and the next. Sometimes I made enough to give him his own tin full of Christmas wreath cookies to take home. No matter how many other cookies I made, I made them for him.

I find that now, several years after his death, I still have to make the wreath cookies. We all like them, but we like all sorts of cookies. It’s our memory of his liking them that matters. Which is how traditions become traditions.

Christmas Wreath Cookies

One-half cup butter, softened
One-third cup granulated sugar
One egg yolk
One-half teaspoon vanilla extract
One-half teaspoon almond extract
One cup all-purpose flour
One-half teaspoon salt
One slightly beaten egg white
Three-quarters cup finely chopped pistachios
One-half cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 300. Grease two cookie sheets or line with parchment.

With mixer at medium speed, beat butter until creamy. Then add sugar, egg yolk, and extracts. When they’re well mixed, add the flour and salt gradually until a soft dough forms.

Using about one teaspoon of dough for each cookie, roll into a ball and dip in the beaten egg white, then into the chopped nuts.

Place each one on a cookie sheet. Then, with your fingertip, make a small dent in the middle of each one.

Bake for 25 minutes. While the cookies are still warm, put about a half teaspoon of jam in the center of the cookies.

Store, tightly covered. Makes about three dozen. Enjoy.




 

Sodas -- Some Like 'em Hot

Winter is the cruelest season for ice cream makers. It’s true today, but it was especially true at the turn of the 20th century. Winter business was so bad then that many soda fountains closed for the season.

Others tried all sorts of promotions and products to lure customers in during the coldest months. One of the oddest was offering hot sodas. This series of small space ads ran in an Iowa newspaper in 1888:

“Try hot sherbet at Billan’s Drug Store.”

“Have you ever tasted hot soda water. Try it at Billan’s Drug Store.” 

“The latest. Hot sherbet and hot moxie at Billan’s Drug Store.”

Most of the hot drinks were exactly what we drink today – coffee, tea, hot chocolate, beef bouillon, hot lemonade (great when you have a cold). But a few hot sodas were just that. Hot carbonated drinks.

The recipe for “Root Bear, Hot,” called for hot root beer, and was served with a slice of lemon or some lemon juice. I love the typo.
 
Despite the name, a “Ginger Wine Toddy, Hot” was not made with wine.  It was a combination of ginger syrup, tea syrup, currant juice, and hot water. It was topped with grated cinnamon.

“Pink Tea, Hot” was a mixture of equal amounts of green and black teas along with hot water and sugar. It was colored pink with “tincture of cudbear,” a red-violet food coloring made from lichens. 

Much as I like eggnog, I find the hot egg drinks unappealing because they were made without milk or cream. For instance, to make the “Cherry Egg Bounce, Hot” you were directed to mix a whole egg with cherry juice and sugar, and then add hot water. The drink was garnished with cherries, an orange slice, and a sprinkle of nutmeg.

“Turkish Punch, Hot” mixed egg yolk, grape juice, lemon juice, and sugar with hot water. It was topped with whipped cream and cinnamon.

Hot malted milk drinks were popular. The basic drink was malted milk powder and a bit of salt mixed with hot water.  Seasonings such as pepper, celery, salt, or sugar were often added and the drinks were topped with whipped cream along with a sprinkle of grated nutmeg or powdered cinnamon. Sometimes, hot milk took the place of the water. Soda expert E. F. White wrote that milk was not correct but “you have to humor your customers.”

Offering hot drinks at soda fountain led to other menu additions like chowder, then sandwiches, and finally full lunches. All of which helped business struggle through winter and reach the sunny days of summer.

Here is one of the hot drinks I like a lot. I don’t know whether it became what White called a “trade winner,” but it’s great way to warm up a chill wintry day. I use regular hot coffee instead of coffee extract. Two spoonfuls of malted milk makes it sweet enough for me. Experiment and enjoy.

Hot Malted Milk Coffee

Place 1-2 oz. of fresh coffee extract in a 7 oz. mug, add 3 teaspoonfuls of malted milk and fill to within half an inch of the top of the mug with hot water, stirring all the time. Let the customer sweeten to taste. Either a little sweet cream or whipped cream  may be added when desired. This is a most delicious method of serving malted milk, and may become a trade winner if properly advertised. --  The Spatula Soda Water Guide, E. F. White, 1901.