For symmetry's sake, let's go from breakfast to desert. That'll confine the rest of the spectrum, like bookends. So...here's my one cookie recipe. That's right-just one. I have what I feel is a broad palate and an extensive repertoire...but for some things, I just keep one version, and adjust it to suit my needs. These are my cookies.
They're called Apies, and my childhood recollection of the story goes something like this: during the Revolutionary War, a woman named Ann Page would hide minutemen in her basement, and send them out into the night to fight the british with cookies she stamped w/ her initials-A.P. The soldiers called them "Apies" as a result.
Now, this is likely all bullshit, and having just performed scant and haphazard research online, I've found nothing even remotely like that story associated with either Ann Page or Apies. In fact, the recipes Google tells me are Apies look terrible-generic crispy cookie-cutter sugar cookies. Blurg. These are much better. And like
Jon Hodgman says "Truth may be stranger than fiction, goes the old saw, but it is never as strange as lies. (Or, for that matter, as true.)" My narrative, as always, is powerful. So remember the minutemen thing.
Apies3/4C Butter (That's a stick and a half)
1 1/2C Sugar (I almost always cut this to 1 1/4C, and find that reducing the sugar content of almost any sweet recipe by 1/4C detracts not at all from the texture, and cuts down on the number of cloyingly sweet things I eat. Americans like things
very sweet. Me, not so much.)
2 eggs.
Let me presume for a moment that you're not a baker (as many of you are not). This is the point in the recipe where I should tell you what to do with the above three things. And I'm going to, don't fret.
But it should be noted that with almost any recipe with a structure similar to this one's eventual...structure, the method's
basically the same. So cookies, brownies, quickbreads...they're all going to work like this. There's sugar and butter, then eggs and whatever else that's a wet ingredient (yogurt, sour cream, oil, whatever).
The sugar and the butter need to be
creamed together. Like with the biscuits, you don't want to have melted butter, and if you use oil it will behave differently (inferiorly, in my opinion). Butter that's soft-room temperature, depending on the room-and sugar creamed together creates a sort of foamy yellow mixture that will persist throughout the recipe. The sugar crystals will cut into the butter and help you add air to the whole, which in turn will result in a lighter, fluffier end result.
Did I say these are light and fluffy? They are. I hope that doesn't dissuade you-I know some people are looking for dense and angry. These are not those cookies.
So, to sum up. Cream the sugar and butter, then add the eggs. Mix the eggs well-they're the emulsifier, help hold all the ingredients together. Also, this is a good point to add any other flavors you'd like to-nutmeg or cocoa or what have you. This'll come up more later, but for now...this is a good point to adjust.
Once you have this mixture of butter, sugar, and egg, consider the dry ingredients. These are very simple...
2 1/2C flour
1/2tsp baking soda
pinch salt
With any flour/leavening (that's the soda) mixture, you want to make sure to distribute the leavening as evenly as possible. If you don't, then there'll be parts of the batter that rise differently than the others, and you'll get crappy cookies. I'll put these three things in a sifter and sift them together-that seems to work fairly well, but if you lack a sifter or the wherewithal, you can always mix them together in a bowl. Just be sure to be thorough.
Combine the Dry and the Wet, being careful to mix them thoroughly (this is a recipe where I often get flour clumping at the bottom of the bowl) and add the final ingredient. If you're really dilligent, you'll add it in batches to the Wet, alternating with the Dry-got that? Some of the dry, then some of the Final, then some of the Dry, and so on, 'till you're done.
What? Oh, yeah, the Final Ingredient (capitals today).
1/3C sour cream. I realize this is a little funny, and I can see some of you being put off by the thought of sour cream in cookies. Let me be clear-it makes them tender, adds a nice tang that goes well w/ the sweetness of the cookie, and it
activates the leavening. You can leave it out-you can. But they won't be nearly as good. So again, to sum up...
3/4C butter, soft
1 1/2C sugar
2 eggs
Cream these things together in the traditional fashion.
2 1/2C flour
1/2tsp baking soda
pinch salt
Sift together well, then add in batches to the butter mixture, alternating with...
1/3C sour cream
Mix well, the batter will be fairly creamy and soft at this point-if you like, refrigerate to set up the batter and make it easier to work with. If you don't care, (they'll spread out more on the sheet. I'm just saying) spoon out onto a greased cookie sheet and cook at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown.
Now, that's the basic recipe-sugar cookies, mostly, but endlessly variable with some adjustments. I like to add a few (4-6) tablespoons of cocoa to the wet ingredients and make them chocolate. Or add chocolate chips to the dry ingredients and they're
very good chocolate chip cookies. I've been, recently, adding nutmeg (freshly grated, of course. I'm not a monster) to the Wet and then rolling the dough, once it's set in the fridge, in cinnamon and sugar, making sort of eggnog-snickerdoodle Apies. Once you've made them enough times, try your own variations-vanilla, coffee, what have you. They're basic enough to fiddle with, simple enough to be easy to make.
As with the biscuits, give them a try and give me feedback-I'd love to know how my staples work out for the rest of you.
