Donald’s Chocolate Drop Cookies

by Brian on March 10th, 2010 in Cookbook Reviews, Cookie Jar, Dessert Digest, Recipes No Comments

The combination of buttermilk and cocoa creates that distinctive Devil’s-foody flavor that is irresistible in cakes. And cookies. This recipe, another one from Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller, produces soft, puffy mounds of light chocolate flavor.

The recipe calls for walnuts, but I opted for pecans. You do need to use some add-in here, either nuts or chips. Any recipe that has this proportion of nuts will change dramatically if you add nothing. Technically, the mass of the nuts truly affects the cooking time.

If you have a cookie craving and are in a hurry, this recipe is fast and easy. In half an hour you can be sampling cocoa at its best.

Donald’s Chocolate Drop Cookies

Yield: 36 cookies

Ingredients:

½ cups shortening or butter
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 egg
5 tablespoons cocoa
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups flour, sifted
¼ teaspoon salt
1  cup walnuts [or pecans] chopped

Preparation:

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Grease a cookie sheet or line with parchment paper.

Cream shortening or butter. Add the brown sugar and the egg. Mix thoroughly with the next five ingredients, adding the nuts last. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto prepared cookie sheet.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.

Source: Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten

Aunt Sally’s Mississippi Mud

by Brian on March 7th, 2010 in Cookbook Reviews, Cookie Jar, Dessert Digest, Recipes No Comments

This blog offers you to register an opinion. At the end of this paragraph — no, don’t cheat and look there yet — I am placing a two word culinary phrase. When you get to the end of this paragraph, please read the phrase and record what your first reaction was. Are you ready? Okay, at the far end of this sentence is the phrase:                                                                                                                                          marshmallow crème.

There, I wrote it. What did you first think? Awful stuff? Too sweet? Red neck food? Manufactured junk? Or did you think where is my spoon?

Crème or cream or fluff is not highly respected. It’s considered a manufactured food, something that does not have the up-from-the-grass-roots mythology of fudge or brownies or chocolate chip cookies. Actually, it does have an up-from-the-bootstraps background. According to Wikipedia, Archibald Query starring selling his version door-to-door in the early 20^th century. By 1917, the recipe had been sold to Massachusetts candy makers, for the great sum of $500. By 1940, the familiar glass jar was there for us to forever try to scoop the stuff out.

I always have a jar, or two, on hand. And, I regularly, religiously test the quality by taking a spoonful. Somehow Suzen always seems to notice. I get a sharp glance and a sharper comment along the lines of “Had your blood sugar tested lately?” I’m not allowed to kiss her until I have washed my face.

Yes, it is sticky. Getting it out of the jar is a task, and you always leave a good third in that jar. But, if heated, it’s much more manageable. If seriously heated, you can even spread it. And that is the secret of this great cookie.

This recipe, from Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten in 1992, is wonderfully old-fashioned. A secret of this cookie is to melt the butter, then stir it into an egg rich batter.

I have promised to blog my favorite cookie from Cookie Time but I made a mistake. I began to go through Cookie Time from the front. The recipes are arranged alphabetically in Cookie Time and this one is called Aunt Sally’s Mississippi Mud. We’ll be tasting the B’s next week.

Oh, I should mention that there is cookbook called The Marshmallow Fluff Cookbook. I would not describe it as terribly sophisticated but it is delicously sweet.

Aunt Sally’s Mississippi Mud

Yield: 18 large squares

Cookie Ingredients:

1 ½ cups flour
2 cups sugar
Pinch of salt
4 eggs
1 cup butter [margarine in the original recipe]
⅓ cup cocoa
1 ½ cups pecans, coarsely chopped
1 7-ounce jar marshmallow crème for fluff

Cookie Preparation:

Sift together the flour, sugar, and salt. Add the eggs one at a time. Mix well. Melt the butter, and stir in the cocoa. Pour this cocoa mixture over the four and egg mixture. Mix well.  Add the pecans. Pour into a 9X11X2” pan.

Bake at 325 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes. Turn off the oven. Spread a layer of marshmallow crème over the maxed cookies. Return the oven for 3 minutes to soften the fluff. Remove from the oven and spread the crème evenly with an offset spatula.

Frosting Ingredients:

¼ up butter, softened

⅓ cup cocoa
1 box confectioners’ sugar
⅓ cup milk

Frosting Preparation:

Melt the butter and stir in the cocoa. Add the confectioners’ sugar and milk.  Stir until runny. Pour over the smoothed fluff. Cut into square and remove from pan.

Source: Cookie Time by Marilyn Miller Wasbotten