My cure for a summer cold…snickerdoodle
It’s not fair…a summer cold is a psycho situation and I’m really not in the mood. Not that I’d ever be in the mood for a psycho situation, but you know…a summer cold sucks. My head feels like a over-ripe cantaloupe…all slooshy and sloppy inside and I really don’t feel like cooking a meal or even eating one. I’ve got a few tasty snack items that I haven’t shared with you yet but it really is too hot to even contemplate making them now so I’ll save them for later.
There is one thing I like to eat when I’m sick and that’s the classic snickerdoodle. Actually I adore snickerdoodles any time. I seriously love my chocolate chip cookies and a Pierre Herme macaron is as close to perfection as it gets, but a snickerdoodle has an old fashioned sweet and cinnamony flavor and a chewy sandy texture and let’s face it…it’s got soul.
It also doesn’t hurt that they are so quick and easy to make that the oven doesn’t really get a chance to heat up the kitchen and my cold-addled brain could manage the simple instructions. The only thing to remember about snickerdoodles is that you should make the dough the day before you want to bake them so it can really chill out.
Snickerdoodles
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Makes 48 cookies
3 cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cream of tartar
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups sugar
2 sticks butter (room temp)
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoon cinnamon
Using a mixer cream the butter. Add the sugar and mix together well. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix until light and fluffy. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cream of tartar, and salt. Add it the butter and egg mixture and mix until well combined. Refrigerate the dough for at least 3 hours, over night is better.
You can refrigerate it in the bowl and use a cookie scoop to dole it out or you can pile the dough onto a large sheet of saran wrap and create an oblong of dough that is 12” long, 4” wide, and 3” tall. This method allows you to slice the dough into chunks for the cookie portions. I prefer the slicing method.
After the requisite chilling period preheat the oven to 375°. Take the chilled dough oblong and cut 1 inch slices that you then cut into 8 chunks. Roll the chunks lightly in your hands to take the sharp edges off. Put the ½ cup sugar and 2 teaspoons cinnamon in a quart galss jar and shake to combine. Drop 4 chunks into the jar, put the lid on and shake to coat well with the sugar. Remove the chunks from the jar and place on a parchment of silpat covered cookie sheet. Repeat until your sheet is full and then bake for 8 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes or so before you move them to a cooling rack.
Repeat the chunking, coating with sugar, baking routine until they’re all baked.
Rhubarb pie and the farmers’ market
It’s been a brisk week in Wisconsin. I’ve gone through these days trying to decide if a sweater was necessary or if it really was as warm as I hoped. Usually a sweater improved the situation. Because of the briskness I took the opportunity to fix a few of my cold weather favorites that I was craving. Most notable was my black bean soup. There isn’t any photos because, well, we ate it… and nope, we didn’t stop to take pictures. It was good though and it always reminds me of the first time I made it in San Francisco. My version is a riff on Deborah Madison’s recipe from her Green’s cookbook. I’ve made it so many times over the past 20 years and it always satisfies with its spicy beaniness.
I’ve made a few rhubarb pies while it’s still in season. Fortunately I saved some of the frozen strawberries from last year’s bounty so we could have our favorite strawberry rhubarb pie. I think I’ll pick up some more rhubarb at the farmers’ market tomorrow…we never tire of pie and this might be the last weekend for rhubarb.
I’ve been thinking about our farmer friends a lot this week. Gas went up another 10 cents and I’m noticing some price increases at the grocery store…although I must admit that the items I buy at the store are few, they are things like flour, olive oil, butter (if I don’t make my own), chocolate, coffee, and wine. The farmers who faithfully show up to the market each week so we can have eggs, yogurt, milk, cheese, veg, fruit, mushrooms, and meat have to be feeling the pinch. I know from experience that the profit margin for most farmers is pretty thin and I’ve never known a rich farmer…at least if you judge riches by money. I do know a lot of happy farmers.
All of this is just to say that if you’re going out tomorrow, stop by a farmers’ market. If you happen to live in Madison you really should consider going to the best farmers’ market, the Westside Community Market. Nope, they don’t pay me to say that…I just say it because it’s true. I even have a list of 10 reasons why the Westside Side Community Market rocks:
- You can walk in any direction you want. That’s right folks, no counter-clockwise march here…just flit about and enjoy.
- Nick Kirch and the crew from Blue Marble Dairy will be there and their dairy products are awesome. So fresh and delicious. I love their milk and cream.
- Eric Johnson from Jordandal Farm will have chickens this week…apparently many chickens…I’m seriously excited because that means it’s BBQ Bird time…woot.
- Madison Sourdough’s perfect pain au chocolat. Their sourdough loaf is my favorite for sandwiches. The baguettes…arguably the best outside of Paris.
- The mushroom man had such huge morels last week…will he have them again this week?
- Bruce Workman from Edelweiss Cremery will be there with his Emmenthaler cheese. I also have a soft spot for his Muenster cheese.
- Peter Potter and his crackers…add any of his flavorful flatties to that Muenster and you’ve got the perfect afternoon snack.
- Dreamfarm’s eggs. I don’t know about you but I love Diana’s eggs. Lately we’ve been getting lots of double yolks…always a sign of a lucky day.
- Dreamfarm’s goat cheeses. I think that that Diana’s rosebud cheese is my favorite.
- Maple Syrup guy will be there only 2 more weeks…time to stock up.
Oh, don’t forget the rhubarb! Here’s my recipe.
