| My new book, American Cookie, is on sale on 8/21, but if you pre-order NOW you can fill out this form and receive the free bonus PDF from me full of those recipes, tips, and more! Books from all retailers (and all formats) are eligible and you can still participate even if you bought the book already. Enjoy! | |  | | Chocolate Pinwheel Cookies // Best Ever Lemon Squares // Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie | | | Dear readers,
Because you have bought my books and read these newsletters all these years, I wanted you to know first about my new cookbook - American Cookie - and the story behind it. It's jam-packed with heirloom recipes, some of them dating back to the early 1700s, as well as modern cookie recipes we bake today. It's time-traveling via cookies, and I can't think of a more delicious ride, can you?'
Researching my book American Cake, I learned that not all the sweets we love are stacked, frosted, and sliced. A lot of the time they are little cakes and cookies. | | | These small sweet treats have been easy to assemble, open to substitutions—especially important during war years and the Depression— and beloved by children. For something so small, they speak volumes about our past. They are molasses thins, honey drops, Mexican wedding cookies, chocolate meringue cookies, oatmeal lace cookies, thumbprints, blondies, and peanut butter cookies. They are the venerable Toll House chocolate crunch cookies, born the day that their originator, Ruth Wakefield, ran out of cocoa in the kitchen of her New England inn and had to toss chopped chocolate in the cookie dough instead. And that's just the beginning of 100 or more recipes and stories.
In American Cookie, I share with you the backstories of the sweet morsels that have given us so much pleasure through the years. You will get great recipes and also learn about the people, ingredients, and cultural times that directly affected what we baked through our history. It's an irresistible journey, so join me!
Happy Cookie Baking!
 | | Q&A with Anne about American cookies Excerpts from my interview with Kate Williams of the Southern Kitchen | | | Q. What's the difference between a cake and a cookie?
A. Cakes, even if they are small, are softer than cookies. Think tea cakes. But cookies are crispy, and this is due to the higher ratio of butter or other fat used in the preparation. The word "cookie" comes from the Dutch, and their cookie of choice was crispy. Cookies became more cake-like in texture and appearance with the invention of baking powder at the end of the 1800s. | | | | Q. Why do you think we love ginger so much?
A. Ginger has always been a beloved spice in American baking because it was exotic in flavor and elevated everyday ingredients into something special. By wonderful coincidence, it masked the bitter taste of early leavening agents like pearlash found in gingerbread recipes. And, ginger was known as a stomach settler, and for this reason gingerbread was baked and sold to sailors to take on long sea voyages.
Q. Can you explain how cookies and politics have overlapped in history? A. In the fall of 1774, 52 women gathered in the home of Elizabeth King of Edenton, NC, for a tea party. Or, to be more exact, a tea-less party because the women were protesting the British Tea Act of 1773. They refused to serve British tea, but they served tea cakes made with brown sugar. This was the first recorded organized political event for women in America. (I share this recipe in American Cookie.)
| | |
Come See Me!
I'd love to talk baking when my book tour stops in your town. Here are a few of my stops along the way:
| | | Decatur Book Festival (Atlanta) at Noon Sunday, Sept. 2
Cooking demo, sampling, and talk about the history of American cookies.
Parnassus Books (Nashville) at 2 pm Sunday, Sept. 9
Book signing and sharing favorite cookie stories.
Southern Festival of Books (Nashville) on Sunday, Oct. 14 (Time TBA)
Talk and tasting.
Smithsonian Holiday Festival, The National Museum of American History,
(Washington, DC) at 1 pm Saturday, Dec. 1
Cooking up History.
These are just a few - more to come with stops on
Nov. 11 in Winston-Salem, Philadelphia in December, and more. | | | |
My new book, AMERICAN COOKIE, is on sale on 8/21, but if you preorder now you can fill out this form and receive the free bonus PDF from me full of those recipes, tips, and more! Books from all retailers (and all formats) are eligible and you can still participate even if you bought the book already. Enjoy!
| | | | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment