It's The Cookie Issue

 Nothing says Chhristmas like homemade cookies. It's the season for dough and decorations. The New York Times knows this and out out a fantastic cookie insert in tomorrow's Sunday papers. There are seven recipes sure to be the crowd pleasure of any dessert table or cookie swap

This issue is a keeper .The front cover features  Melissa' Clark's peppermint shortcakes with an icing that's a riff on the classic New York black and white cookie. This one is definitely on my will bake list It's basic shortbread recipe with peppermint extract added. The icing is also peppermint. I can;t help thinking that these would be good with a dark chocolate ganache icing so it gives a Junior MInt or York Peppermint Patty vibe.Another must bake isthe ginger cheesecake cookie, Imagine a gingersnap filled with cheesecake. This is Samantha'Senerevrtine's recipe that has  home bakers  freezing the filling and then wrapping the dough around a hard ball of it,For a spicy and bright flavor bake  Eric' Kim's  lemon- turmeric crinkle cookie. It a different take on a the classic holiday crinkle cookie.

 

A fun snap to make is the rum buttered almond. cookies by new comer Vaugh Vreeland.Imagine Italian pignoli cookies with almonds instead of pine nuts and a shot of rum added to the dough.Melted rum butter is then brushed on the cookies before they're popped into the  oven. Buche de Noel is a holiday classic and famed baker Claire Saffrritz give us it s in the form of cookies.These are rolled chocolate cookies with a cocoa butter cream frosting and a coating not unlike  rough bark. This is made with cocoa nibs Demamara sugar and salt. Another take on shortbread is  Su Li's matcha and  black sesame shortbread with the finished product having  a lovely green tint/ Sohla El-Wally whips up everyone;s favorite Rocky Road using cookie butter, chocolate chips and a host of candies  like spice drops and nuts such as pecans., This is a no bake one and only has to set in the fridge for one hour.

Whatever you make from  this issue will surely be the hit of any holiday dessert table or cookie swap. They are fun to make and fun to eat. Try a recipe or two for delightful and flavorful bites.

A Comforting Cookbook The Pinewood Kitchen

These are the times for comfort food , that's both soothing and comforting. A new cookbook, My Pinewood Kitchen: A Southern Culinary Cure (Health Communications 2020) may be the small antidote we need right now. There are some tasty dishes that can help us cope.

Mee MCCormick wrote this fascinating book which offers all sorts of recipes that can help with boosting the immune system. She herself has had an interesting life full of highs and lows. In th e meanwhile she wound up with such debilitating conditions as Hashimoto's disease , celiac disease and rheumatoid arthritis. Her recipes for Pinewood Kitchens, part of a farm, started by Samuel Graham, a free thinking farmer in the 1830. He created a kind of utopia where all men and women were equal in rural Tennessee. Chef McCormack brings her health background into her cooking and into the book. There are sections on the importance of adding berries and nuts into the diet and how they can help the body . another section, which many cooks and chefs ignore, is devoted to seaweed. She also emphasizes the importance of probiotic foods such as kimchi and sauerkraut and how they're very important in a diet. The many recipes reflect this.Chef McCormick also weighs in on sugar and what you can use in it's place - namely honey or coconut sugar , the last contains such nutrients as  zinc, iron , and calcium. She also recommends  monk fruit sugar It 's an all natural sugar first made by Buddhist monks in Southeast Asia and has no calories or carbs.

I like this cookbook a lot. There are sections from breakfasts (which comes later in the book) along ones on soups, main courses, sides and dips. The vegetarian ones are great for those cooking in a meat free home kitchen. The tempeh bacon is especially appealing , because it can also be made into a crunchy snack. It'll would also work well with Chef McCormick's falafel burger recipe. Since this is a Southern cookbook, there is a recipe for fried chicken. It's a healthier version sans the flour, being dipped in cornstarch for the crispiness. Cayenne and paprika give it color and bite. There are also collard greens along with black eyed pea croquettes, a different spin on the Southern classic. Okra is also here in fritter, roasted and pickled forms. She celebrates her Italian heritage with a tomato free (!) sauce for pasta. Miso or tamari along with kuzo root and umbeboshi vinegar give it that rich taste. Chef Mc Cormick does like tomatoes and she has an excellent tomato soup recipe, a perfect balm for these times. The breakfast recipes are interesting too, especially the breakfast tacos, made with scallions and zucchini along with bacon and eggs. Her breakfast smoothies  are rich with fruits and berries along with mushroom powder used to boost the immune system. I like the gluten free desserts, which are her family's pignoli  or pine nut cookies to a spin on the Southern classic pecan pie. She also had a healthier version of pumpkin pie too.

We need  healthy comfort food during these troubling and crazy times. Mee McCormick's My Pinewood Kitchen : A Southern Culinary Cure is just that. She provides us with great recipes that are good for our bodies and souls.