The other afternoon I was unpacking all of my boxes into my new apartment and decided it would be a nice break to bake a batch of cookies. I had just gotten to my kitchen boxes earlier in the day and so all of my supplies were out and in the pantry. What I did not have, though, was much of anything except for what could be kept in the pantry. I had a few eggs that I had bought, but other than that I was fridge-bare. As a result I had to find a recipe that didn’t call for butter, milk, and white sugar (I had run out right before I left for Juneau earlier this summer). I decided that Molasses cookies were the answer, and found the recipe below. I subbed out the white sugar in the recipe for brown and the vegetable oil for olive oil since those are what I had on hand. They turned out fabulous, moist, and had just the right amount of sweetness. All in all I would say they were a great success.

Recipe: Crackle Top Molasses Cookies

• 2/3 c. Olive Oil
• 1 c. Brown Sugar
• 1 Egg
• 1/4 c. Molasses
• 2 c. Flour
• 2 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 tsp. Ground Cinnamon
• 1 tsp. Ground Ginger
• 1/2 tsp. Ground Cloves

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Over winter break I had been spinning a fair amount of yarn back home in Juneau. During the Thanksgiving holiday I flew home and brought my spinning wheel. Unfortunately, when I came back after both the Thanksgiving and the Christmas break I didn’t have the room in my luggage to bring my wheel back to Flagstaff. It was very sad, and as a result I haven’t been able to spin in quite a while. While I was home over the summer taking classes I was finally able to spin a little again. I spun this up at the beginning of the month right before flying back to Flagstaff (wheel in tow this time!) for my boyfriend’s sister. When we were traveling this summer she let us stay at her house for a few nights and I wanted a way to thank her and her fiance. As a result I sent them a package of Alaskan Fudge and this skein of yarn.

This is a 2-ply, 100% wool (bulky?) skein that I dyed with food coloring. I feel like someday I really need to start using professional dyes (I even have some leftover from when I batiked), but it’s a time/energy/cost thing. I don’t have everything I need to properly steam and set professional dyes, and honestly so far what I’ve been coming out with really suits my palette and I don’t feel is gaudy or awful. So food dye it will continue to be!

Here’s the thing. I have been having a hard time getting my ply tight enough. I always think I’m plying it tightly enough without over-twisting it, but it’s always a little loose. Now it is still a lovely yarn and very squishy, but not as sturdy and I wish that it was a plied a bit better. I’ve been working on it, and hope that I can keep getting better at plying.

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I love honey. Spices, are amazing. Cookies? Who doesn’t enjoy a baked-from-scratch delicious cookie? I’m always searching for a good cookie recipe. The great things about cookies is the ability to share them. One batch of cookies can easily go to several groups of friends with leftovers for home. They don’t require utensils to eat, and can be stored in anything from a plastic bag, to a plate, to a cookie jar. Best of all, you can mail cookies. I like to send packages to my boyfriend when I’m out of town. It’s something that makes me really happy, and I enjoy him eating my baked treats. I like to remind him that I’m thinking about him, and that I care about him. Even before we started to see each other, I would send him and his roommates little packages with cookies, candy, and other treats during the holidays.

Part of the reason I bought The Amish Cook’s Baking Book was how great the cookie recipe section looked. Every recipe had basic ingredients, used brown sugar instead of white, and just seemed altogether wonderful in their simplicity. The honey spice cookies caught my eye because they contained honey. Honey is one of my favorite things to eat. I like it on cereal, peanut butter sandwiches, with yogurt, fruit… honey is delicious. It hits the tongue in such a complicated way that sugar just doesn’t quite. So I decided that they would be the perfect next cookie for try out.

Recipe: “Honey Spice Cookies” from The Amish Cook’s Baking Book by Lovinia Eicher with Kevin Williams

Review: These were great. The recipe didn’t indicate that the dough needs to be chilled, but it definitely does. Otherwise the dough is much too sticky to roll into balls and roll in the sugar. I considered skipping this step so that I didn’t have to chill the dough, but am very glad that I did not.

At first I was not impressed by the cookie. Most cookies are at their best right out of the oven when they are warm, gooey, and melt in your mouth. That wasn’t the case these cookies. These cookies were much better with age. I ate one right out of the oven, and dismissed it as an alright cookie. Not bad, but not special. The next day though, they were great. The flavors had time to develop and meld together overnight. I also felt like they were moister, and had a better consistency the next day. Overall, they were a wonderful cookie, and I will be making them again!

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The other evening I went with Joshua over to his mom’s house to harvest some rhubarb. We both thought that it wouldn’t be that much, but ended up with 30 pounds of it. After cutting it up, he gave me some to bake with. I really need to use it up, as there isn’t that much room in my parents freezer, and there is a giant bush in MY mom’s garden that is in desperate need of harvesting as well.

I have a goal of cooking ever recipe out of my new, very awesome, cookbook The Amish Cook’s Baking Book. I was looking for rhubarb pie recipes and found one for Rhubarb Custard Pie. I’d never heard of this kind of rhubarb pie before and thought that it sounded interesting so I went at it. There was also a new pie crust recipe at the beginning of the pie chapter that did not need rolling out. It looked interesting as well so I decided to use that as well.

The results were both good and bad, and made a pretty alright looking pie.

Recipe: “Rhubarb Custard Pie” with “Pat a Pan Piecrust” from The Amish Cook’s Baking Book by Lovinia Eicher with Kevin Williams

Review: I didn’t alter this recipe at all. What came out was a pretty good pie that never really set. According to the recipe, the custard should have set in about 45 minutes after taking it out of the oven to cool. It did not. So I placed it in the fridge, were it sat for a bit longer and still didn’t really sit. The next morning? The pie was a little bit more set, but still not as much as a custard should be. I say that the recipe was only “pretty good” because I felt it was a bit on the sweet side. If you happen to really like sweet desserts though, this pie is for you. The tart against the sweet is very good, I just felt like personally there was too much sugar.

The crust on the other hand, was out of this world. It wasn’t a flaky pie crust like most are, but instead it was crumbly. It reminded me a lot of the texture you get from a graham cracker crust, but more delicate and with the savory flavor of a regular flour crust. I plan to use this pie crust recipe in the future!

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While I was in Portland I bought The Amish Cook’s Baking Book . While looking in the baking section at Powell’s (the only place in Portland that I requested we go to while there) it was the only reasonable book that I found on baking. Of course there were others that I would have loved to purchase, but most of those were either encyclopedias or professional baking books that were $75 or more, prices that I can’t justify at this time in my life when I don’t really have the time nor the resources to fully utilize the cookbooks to their full potential.

This is not to say that I was not enormously excited about The Amish Cook’s Baking Book . While I realized in the store how awesome this cookbook was going to be I did not know to what extent until I began to really read it, and then began to cook from it.

I started with the recipe for “Whoopie Pies” which are a sandwich cookie. I’ve never made these before, but there’s always a first time for everything!

Recipe: “Whoope Pie” from The Amish Cook’s Baking Book by Lovinia Eicher with Kevin Williams

My Version of the Recipe: Whoopie Pie

¾ c. Butter
2 c. Packed Brown Sugar
2 Eggs
½ tsp. Salt
2 ¼ c. Flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Cinnamon
2. c. Oats
2 tsp. Baking Soda

Cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add salt, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and baking soda, mix well. Add oats. Mix until thoroughly incorporated. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes on a lightly greased baking sheet or Silpat until browed around the edges. Let cool slightly and then remove from cookie sheet and cool completely on a wire rack or counter.

When cookies are cooled, mix together filling to sandwich in-between cookies:

1 TBS Vanilla
2 TBS Milk
2 c. Powdered Sugar
¼ c. Shortening

Mix together vanilla, milk, and part of the powdered sugar. Add shortening and beat well. Add the rest of the powdered sugar until a thick consistency is reached.

Review: They were delicious after I made several modifications. Even the ones that I over baked at the original temperature from the book were very good. I will say that without the frosting they are regular cookies. There isn’t something super special about them, even though they are quite tasty. With the frosting though, these cookies really shine. The frosting brings out the flavor, texture, and sweetness of the cookie. I really like that the cookies were made with all brown sugar, and that the ingredients were simple. I am also a big fan of almost any baked good with oats in them. Yum!

So I sent these off to Arizona yesterday, individually wrapped in plastic as the recipe suggested. Hopefully they will be well received, although in past months they have never complained about anything food-related that I’ve sent!

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