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There Is No Cookie Sweeter Than One That's Homemade

Photo by LYNN KESSEL

Citron, nuts and rich molasses impart exquisite flavor to chewy, candied fruit bars, shown here among the five kinds of cookies I made for a recent open house at South Shore Gallery.

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By Lynn Kessel

Tribune Correspondent

Published: November 19, 2008

The opportunity to bake cookies knocked early this year. My seasonal baking blitz - to bake vast quantities of cookies in as short a time as possible - usually hits sometime between four calling birds and eight maids-a-milking.

But that annual ritual changed when my friend Beth, who co-owns the South Shore Gallery, asked if I was interested in whipping up 150 cookies for her November open house. The cookies could be autumnal or Christmas-y, or both - anything yummy, she said.

I considered her request for about two seconds and then fired back an e-mail with the subject "I'd love to."

In a whirlwind of baking, I made five kinds of cookies: Sweet Spots, fruit bars, Ginger-Cocoa Crisps, butter and forgotten cookies. Not one recipe took me more than 15 to 20 minutes to pull together. As one batch of mostly circular morsels was in the oven, I busily worked on the next.

Dropped by teaspoon or spread in a sheet pan, my carefully chosen lineup was straightforward and uncomplicated. To keep my usual anxiety at bay, I avoided recipes with words such as "piped with" or "rolled-out dough."

As simple as cookies are, there are so many opportunities for disaster.

I've had my share of deep-sixed batches; for example, lace cookies that folded like an accordion as my spatula lifted them from the baking sheet. Or, more recently, checkerboard-patterned cookies that looked like black and white pinwheels. I disliked them so much, I ditched the dough.

Tempting as it was to create elaborate and inventive pastries for Beth's open house, I resisted. Since I was under a deadline, it wasn't the time to be hungry for adventure. Best to stick with the familiar, I thought. I'll save the over-the-top cookie fantasies for the other 11 months of the year. Well, maybe.

Reading through the recipe first, I gathered together all of the ingredients and equipment I needed. As I always do, I test baked one cookie first, and if it spread too much, I added more flour to the dough. I use the same technique for pancake batter.

I also check each batch two minutes before the minimum baking time, and then at one minute intervals. If some cookies are done before others, I remove them because cookies continue to bake when left on a hot cookie sheet. It's best to remove them as soon as they are all firm enough to handle.

At least two cookie pans/sheets are a must so that the total baking time is cut in half by popping the next pan into the oven as soon as the first pan comes out. And, cooling baking sheets between batches keeps dough from starting to cook on a still-warm sheet.

By the way, a friend just forwarded me an e-mail that contains the recipe for every cookie you've ever heard of - and tons more. Here's the link to the Web site: www.northpole.com/kitchen/cookbook. Nice to have, especially for the holidays.

Also nice to have are these candied fruit bars. The recipe was my mother's and has always been a favorite in our family. These bars freeze and ship well in an airtight container.

CANDIED FRUIT BARS

Bars

2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup molasses

4 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon cloves

1/2 cup chopped nuts, citron, dates or raisins

Icing

1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar

2 tablespoons milk

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream sugar and shortening until fluffy, and then stir in milk and molasses. Sift together flour, soda, salt and spices. Gradually add the dry ingredients to shortening mixture and mix well. Add your choice of nuts, citron, dates or raisins or 1/2 cup of all. Press into two ungreased jelly roll pans. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes or until golden brown. Cut into squares while hot. Cool. For icing, combine confectioner's sugar and milk; stir until smooth. Drizzle icing with a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip. Allow icing to harden. Store in an airtight container.

Makes roughly 60 bars.

Lynn Kessel can be reached at lkessel@mac.com or P.O. Box 913, Ruskin FL 33575-0913. For more of her recipes, visit southshore .tbo.com and enter the search words: Lynn Kessel. Readers are encouraged to send in their favorite recipes, comments and suggest

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