The Big Apple Cookie

I’ve been back from New York for about a week now and I can’t get it out of my head.  (and I don’t just mean the new Jay-Z song… “let’s hear it for NEW YORRRRRRRK!!! These streets will make you feel BRAND NEW!!!...”)  Truly though, just like Eve bit the apple - the apple bit me.  That city has always had a special place in my heart.  I think I went at least once every year as a kid – whether it was for spring break or one of the multiple business trips my Dad hauled me along on, I always seemed to keep landing back in New York.  And it never felt scary or overwhelming - it felt familiar, exciting, big, and fun.  My Dad knew that city almost better than he did LA.  My last trip to NY was via the Chinatown bus from Boston to NYC.  (goFung-Wa!!!) It was October of 2004, the Sox were about to finish off the Yankees at Game 7 in that epic American League Championship series, and my Dad scored two tickets on stubhub the night before.  At 1:43pm I raced out of my Studio TV Production Class at Emerson, bragging to all the boys that I was racing to get on the bus to NY to catch the game.  “Yeah – my Dad got tickets - I’m going to game 7!!!!”  I boasted, clearly the coolest chick they’ve ever met.  “Man, I can’t believe you’re going to that game – I so hate you right now!  Your Dad’s wicked awesome,” I believe my friend Josh said to me as I slapped my red Sox hat on and waved goodbye.  After 5 hours and 45 minutes on the bus, I was dropped in Chinatown in NY.  I immediately hopped in a taxi and directed the driver to my Dad’s hotel.  I raced up to my Dad’s room, threw my backpack on the bed, grabbed my gloves, ID, cell phone, and we hit the streets for the Subway to Yankee Stadium.  And yes, both my Dad and I braved the NY streets, subway, and stadium – in full Red Sox glory.  My mother was a nervous wreck at home, imagining us getting beat up and booed by those crazy Yankee fans.  But we weren’t scared.  And after surviving the subway we made it up to our seats just in time to see Johnny Damon’s lead off single to get the 10-3 win underway.  Throughout the game the Yankee fans fell into a depression and sheepishly trickled out of the stadium as the proud Sox fans remained standing to cheer the boys victory into the World Series!  Daddy and I practically lost our voices screaming so much.   Back on the Subway, a very unhappy older woman paced and tumbled up and down our car yelling into space, “The Red Sox SUCK!!!!!!  NO ONE WILL EVER BE BETTER THAN JETER!!!!!”  I squeezed my arm tight around my Dad’s, hoping she wouldn’t come harass us while rehearsing a panicky monologue in my head to defend myself in case she got in my face, “Please! I’m really a Dodgers fan deep down! I just went to school in Boston and I really like the Red Sox and the Yankees are still really good but they always win so it’s okay that the Sox did just this one time, and I’m sorry your pitching sucked tonight but please don’t pull my hair!!!”  We made it back on the street without any scars, and I think that was one of the quietest nights in New York City ever in history.  The only people on the street were Boston lovers.  It was as if we were all cheering on their grave.  Then Daddy took me to Carnegie Deli, one of our late night NY traditions, and shared a corn beef sandwich, a bowl of chicken soup with kasha, and each had a chocolate egg cream.  Mmmmm.  Then we went to his favorite bar,Seppi’s, and we had one last celebration drink.  The next morning, in the wake of World Series reality, I hugged Daddy goodbye on the curb and hopped on the bus at 6am to make it to class by 2.   And that was my last, and best, New York memory with my Dad. 

I’m calling this cookie, the Big Apple Cookie – a tribute to the city that almost feels like a home away from home – where not only my best memories and some of my best friends remain, but walking those streets I could feel my Dad’s presence and energy with me like I haven’t felt in a long time.  I want to hold tight to that feeling for as long as I can.  And anytime I need another taste to keep me satisfied until I make it back to the Big Apple one day, I can bake this cookie. 

INGREDIENTS

3 cups flour (plus a few tablespoons to sprinkle on board)

¾ tsp baking powder

¼ tsp salt

½ cup butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

1  egg

1  cup apple sauce

about 2 tbls powdered sugar

red sugar crystals

small handful of raisins

small handful of tiny twist pretzels

cinnamon-sugar for sprinkling on top

 

Average cook time:

20 minutes prep

minimum 2 hours freezer

minimum 1 hour refridgerator

10-12 minutes bake time at 375°

1st)  Sift together your dry ingredients:  flour, baking powder, and salt.

2nd)  Whip the butter and sugar together til fluffy, then add your egg and whip that in too.

3rd)  Gradually add in your apple sauce while beater is still going... careful so it doesn't splatter!

4th)  Continue to beat on high until as incorporated as can be...

5th)  Now, slowly add your dry ingredients.

6th)  Once all dry ingredients are in, batter should be nice and smooth and start to pull away from the sides of the bowl.

7th)  Before rolling out, spread a thin layer of flour and powdered sugar on your board.
8th)  Form your dough into a large log...

It's sticky!  So don't be afraid to be generous with the powdered sugar!

9th)  Now, slice your dough in half.  

10th)  Wrap one in plastic wrap and put in the refrigerator to work with later. Place the other one on your floured/sugared board. 

11th)  Sprinkle the log with the red crystal sugar and go ahead and roll it around in there a bit..

12th)  Place a chopstick along the center of the log and press it down a bit.  (I know random, stick with me...)

13th)  Now wrap up the chopstick-log, and place in the freezer for 2 hours.  This way it can harden in this shape.  But before you want to bake it, let it thaw in the fridge for another hour at least.  (It can be kept in the freezer for a month if you want!  Just a few days in the fridge though.)  Okay, so now that you've imagined it's chilling process, take it out and unwrap it.  (make sure your board is adequately sprinkled again)
14th)  Slice the log into about 1/4 inch thick slices.  
15th)  place each slice with enough room around it onto your lightly greased cookie sheet.

  16th)  Enter raisins and pretzels!!!

17th)  Break off a little piece of the pretzel, this will serve as the apple stem.  (Girls, remember when you were an eager teenager and used to twist the apple stem before you ate your apple and with each twist you said the letters of the alphabet and whatever letter the stem snapped off at was the first letter of the name of the boy you were going to be with?? ahahah, mine always snapped off around C. hmmm. and I won't lie, I ate an apple yesterday and still did the boy-twist.) 

18th)  Now place raisins and pretzels to make little apple slices! 

19th)  Bake your apple slices for about 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.

20th)  Once out of the oven, sprinkle generously with cinnamon-sugar.  (To give your sliced apple that nice, brown, oxydized look.)  

21st)  Transfer to wire wrack to cool.  (yeah, of course I took a bite.)

22nd)  and there you have it - a slice of the Big Apple, whenever you need a bite. 

((many of these photos were taken by that great photographer,  David Nemer))

 

Pilgrims' Cranberry Corn Cookie

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I want to be a Pilgrim.  We celebrate today because the fearless Pilgrims adventured across the ocean in search of freedom.  Sometimes, I’d like to leave this land and cross the Atlantic and start anew.  Don’t we all?  I don’t want to be a whiner, but the past year and half has often been filled with straight up sadness.  Strapping on some buckle shoes and a bonnet and making a pilgrimage to a new territory sounds oh so appealing.  (Okay maybe not the colonial outfit but the trip would be nice.)  However, if I did up and leave my Dad and Mom here, I’d feel a deep, painful knot inside.  So I guess my desire to be a Pilgrim just leads me back to the purpose of this holiday – to give thanks for what we have. Thanksgiving has always been a tradition at our house where the whole family, plus a few dear friends, gathers throughout our dining and living room.  Nana flies in from Chicago each year and it just wouldn’t be the same without her standing over the sink all day elbow deep in a 20-pound turkey, pulling gizzards and livers and other turkey organ bits out and seriously making me consider my choice as an omnivore.  My mother and I will have a perpetual, feisty debate about who sits at what table, where, or if we can squeeze everyone around the dining room. And my father would spend the day making stuffing and a cranberry chutney sauce, then he’d turn the gross slimy turkey liver into this delicious chopped liver paté  – which as a toddler I devoured – and at noon he’d run to El Pollo Loco to pick up 12 containers of mashed potatoes and one of their mac ‘n cheese that he loved to snack on for lunch even before the big feast.  But this year, he’ll probably lie on his bed or on the couch if he makes it downstairs.  I’ll try and encourage him to help me make real mashed potatoes, and maybe he’ll last a few minutes.  But then he’ll retreat back to the couch and I’ll put the Macy’s parade on for him to watch, at which point he’ll probably wander into the kitchen a few times, happily teary-eyed due to an emotional reaction to whatever musical number just played.  The life of the severely brain-injured is one of lethargy, confusion, depression, and extreme emotion.  I’m sure the smells coming from the kitchen and my Mom, Nana, and I buzzing around will trigger the Thanksgiving-day feeling in my Dad – but I can’t expect him to hop off the couch and make chopped liver.  My wish is that he would.  Maybe not this year, but I have to keep hoping.  It’s hard to see the silver lining in the face of such sadness – but I have to be thankful for him here to love and cherish and cling to those happy, and real moments, no matter how sporadic.  And I’m deeply thankful, every minute of my life, for the most incredible father I had for 25 years – the best dad in the world.  I will never stop giving back to him. 

Whew, okay drying my eyes.  Back to the Pilgrims.  Just as we are only as good as the people who influenced us in our lives, our Pilgrim ancestors were only successful because of the help of the Native Americans of our land!  When the winter chilled their colonial bones, the Native Americans taught the settlers how to harvest corn and preserve it through those cold, East coast winter months.  They also introduced them to the ever-present cranberry which was constantly incorporated into Native American cuisine long before the pilgrims landed.   It is this reason that both the cranberry and corn are a part of our Thanksgiving table today.  So I tip my bonnet to the Native Americans and I’m whipping up a Pilgrim Cranberry Corn Cookie to honor this holiday.  And if it’s good – a new tradition will sit aside our pumpkin pies at the dessert table. Enjoy! 

(that photo is of Daddy and Nana, carving the bird, Thanksgiving 2004)

 

Preheat oven 375°

 

INGREDIENTS

1 package of Instant Corn Muffin Mix

¾ cups whole-wheat flour

1 stick unsalted room temperature butter

¾ cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup milk (I used 2%)

½ tsp vanilla extract

1 cup + 1 tbls dried cranberries

((you see the bag of Nestle lurking in the back there?  I thought adding white chocolate chips would be nice!  it still might be - but the cookies are sweet and perfectly crisp and the chips might just be overkill.  I give you full chip-freedom.))

1st)  Whisk together corn muffin mix + wheat flour.  (The mix equals 1 1/2 cups).  And set aside.  (I did not include the usuals in this step: baking soda, baking powder, and salt because the corn mix already has it in there!  love it.  I give thanks to time-saving tips.)

2nd)  Beat the butter and the sugar together...

3rd)  ...until it's nice and fluffy like Jenny after a bath.

4th)  aw.  And then add your egg and beat well.  

5th)  Measure out your milk and drop the vanilla in there.

5th)  Now add it sloooooowly to the egg/butter/sugar mix otherwise it'll splatter all over the place.

6th)  Beat it reeeal fast once the milk is blended just to blend it even more cause the butter gets a little lumpy when competing with it's dear dairy cousin. 

 7th)  Now slowly add in the flour/corn mix mixture.

8th)  Once blended drop in your cranberries

9th)  Mix it together well and then drop onto your lightly greased baking sheet.

10th)  Bake for about twelve minutes, or until golden brown and edges are crisp.

11th)  Yeah they spread out.  Maybe that's why they're originally destined to be muffins. But they came out deliciously thin and crisp!

12th)  So the next batch I did I baked on a cookie sheet that was about 1 inch deep.  That helped keep them in cookie form!!!

 Daddy said, "They're GREEAT!"  (Tony the Tiger said that once too but I swear my Dad was being thoroughly genuine... even though he looks a little... skeptic.) 

These will be a lovely addition to your Thanksgiving table.

UNDERCOVER Cocoa Cookie!

I remember when I first sampled the sweet, surging rewards of coffee.  I was a freshman in college and my best friend was addicted to Dunkin Donuts French Vanilla coffee swimming with cream and sugar.  I was apprehensive to try real thing – this was something only grown-ups drank and I was the sort of 18-year old who was too much of a goodie-two-shoes to try anything beyond “frappucinos,” let alone real coffee, or even… alcohol.  (okay maaaaybe I lived on the edge a touch and drank a Smirnoff Ice or two in the dorms, but that was as party-girl as I dared to be.  In fact, I was quoted once with saying, “I’ll never put anything burning in my mouth...” two weeks of junior year in Boston and that changed reeeal fast.)  However, one monumental morning I took a few sips of my friend’s concoction and went skipping to class on a caffeine surge and instantly adopted the drink into my own routine along with the freshman-fifteen.  I couldn’t go without it every morning and have since lived my life amped up.  Except now, I like it black.  Like my m-- Labrador.  Is it bad that I feel everyday needs to be jolted with a little caffeine?  And I seem to be drinking more of it since I spend so much time attempting to be productive in coffee shops.  I feel like I can’t write without it, I feel like I can’t speak without it, and as a long-distance runner and avid cardio kick-boxer, I now feel like I can’t exercise at my peek performance without it!  (this is ever since I was turned onto GU and Triple Threat Power Bars. Ooohhhh I’m buzzing just thinking about them.)  Regardless, please say I’m not alone in this!!! Or if I am, well not worry, I have found a way to disguise my addiction!!!!!!!  Oh yes, enter the UNDERCOVER COCOA COOKIE!  I have baked a chocolate cookie that packs a caffeinated punch.  It’s the perfect sugary, rich bite to give you that extra jolt without stopping at Starbucks for the third time in one day.  So make this cookie and you’ll save enough Starbucks lattes to buy a small vacation home in the French Alps… you’ll burn off all the caffeinated calories in a surge of energy leaving you svelte and super-model material… and you’ll have them at the ready to lure and trick your man into staying up all night with you to watch the sunrise.  Okay so maybe this is my fantasy cookie.  Any way you take it, black, or with cream and sugar, this cookie is sure to Amp. You. Up. enjoy!

INGREDIENTS

2 cups flour

¼ cup cocoa powder

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

2 sticks of unsalted butter

1 cup of granulated sugar

½ cup of brown sugar

1 tsp of vanilla extract

1 large egg

¼ cup room temperature brewed coffee

1 cup milk chocolate chips

¾ cup slivered almonds

 

Preheat oven to 350°

1st)  Whisk together dry ingredients.

2nd)  Beat butter and sugars together till creamy.

3rd)  Add vanilla extract, one egg, and coffee.

4th)  cream it all together slowly or the coffee will splatter and you'll have a coffee stain on your shirt! then you've blown your cover!!!

5th)  Slowly whisk in dry ingredients...

6th)  blend until creamy and lovely

7th)  Now add the almonds for a little protein and extra energy (fyi: nuts are a good source for this), and the milk chocolate chips (for the cream in your coffee).

8th)  Stir it up til well incorporated!

9th)  Drop the coffee balls onto your non-stick cookie sheet10th)  Let 'em percolate in the oven for 10-12 minutes...11th)  Once baked and the edges look slightly darker, transfer them to a wrack to cool.12th)  And now - the best part of wakin' up, is a cookie in your cup!!! hah