Cook’s Country – December-January 2022
English | 42 pages | pdf | 43.34 MB
MY OVEN STAYS hot from the Tuesday before Thanksgiving Day until the third Monday of January, Martin Luther King Day. For me, holiday baking is a labor of love. The marathon begins with the pillowy potato rolls that grace our family dinner table every Thanksgiving. Then, while putting away the turkey platter and decorating the house for Christmas, I make and freeze the doughs for everyone’s favorite cookies, which I finish baking just before Christmas—a radical tradition that has evolved from the early years when my daughter, Jade, and I decorated sugar cookies in all sorts of shapes for Santa. There are chocolate crinkle cookies dusted with confectioners’ sugar for my husband, Bruce. My oldest son, Brandon, likes chocolate chips, while salty-sweet peanut butter cookies topped with chocolate candy kisses suit my middle kid, Christian’s, tastes. Copycat Caramel deLites stand in for the Girl Scout Cookies my youngest son, Austin, adores. Shortbread reminds my mom of her youth.
The baking turns into a family affair when everyone joins me in the kitchen to bake home-made caramel corn for our friends and extended family. We take turns stirring the buttery treat as it crisps in a low, slow oven; nibble stray kernels that pop out of the baking pan; and then spoon the caramel corn into festive cellophane bags, each one thoughtfully decorated with ribbon and a small ornament. By Christmas morning, we are all in a sugar stupor, but no one can resist my gooey sticky buns drenched in a Kahlúa-laced sweet syrup. To top it all off , we manage to make room for just one more small bite of the Southern pie I bake to celebrate the Martin Luther King holiday. (This is a new tradition, seasonal baking’s “last call.” But that is another story.)
This year, the five loaded cookies on page 23 will evolve my baking passion. They each start with an easy and simple cookie dough base that works with a wide range of add-ins. The triple chocolate chunk version is a chocolate lover’s joy. And it reminds me of a concept in my cookbook Jubilee: Recipes from Two Centuries of African American Cook-ing (2019) that augments a sugar cookie base with spice-forward flavors such as ginger-molasses, egg-nog, or pumpkin pie. Best of all, this alternative to personalized doughs allows me to fulfill everyone’s sweet dreams without giving up the ingredient that matters most: love.
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