the hippie food store

I think most of my family would be surprised by the kinds of foods I've been eating lately: grains no one knows how to pronounce, mysterious home-grown sprouts (they're just mung beans, don't worry), and even (*gasp*) tofu.  I come from a classic American - meaning Irish and German and a few others thrown into the mix - family that eats meat and potatoes for dinner, and so every time I go to Strawberry Fields, the local (i.e. non-chain, and smaller) equivalent of Trader Joe's or Whole Foods, I think about how my culinary explorations lead me to places I had never thought I might visit, much less frequent.

One of the nice things about the kind of store that sells organic stuff, bulk grains, and so on is that I am almost always able to find any unusual natural ingredients I might need for my baking or cooking projects. Honestly, between Strawberry Fields and World Harvest I am able to find pretty much every specialty ingredient I might need.  It's pretty awesome.  It's also pretty encouraging that I've been around town long enough to have a reasonable idea of where to find more obscure ingredients.

Yesterday's expedition was for Grade B maple syrup, which is darker in color and "more robust" (according to my cookbook) than Grade A.  Having found that ingredient, I present for you this week's cookie:

122. Maple-Pecan Shortbread

I am not sure if these are rightfully called 'shortbread,' as their consistency is not quite the same as a traditional shortbread cookie, but these cookies are delicious nevertheless.

In this recipe, maple syrup, maple extract, and finely chopped pecans are mixed into a buttery dough made with a mix of all-purpose and cake flour.  The dough is chilled and later rolled out and cut into circles.  After brushing the cookies with an egg wash, a half pecan and sugar in the raw (cane sugar) were place on the top, and then the whole ensemble was baked.

These cookies are pretty fantastic.  The pecan pairs beautifully with the maple, and both flavors are immediately evident.  The texture is a little more chewy than a shortbread cookie, but the abundance of butter in the recipe does make these fall apart a little bit as you bite into them.

All in all, I'm really happy with these cookies.  I think I probably could have done just fine using regular syrup, but now that I have this Grade B stuff, I'll have to make more robust pancakes.  Or just more cookies.

Spring in the Midwest...

I love this time of year, not only for the flowers popping out of the ground, but also for the amazing way that the low temperature for one day is the high for the next, and vice-versa.  Last weekend was lovely and warm, which made for a nice day of baking, and a fantastic Easter afternoon spent flying a kite in the park.

91. Macadamia-Maple Sticky Bars
My big baking project on Saturday was these cookies, which really weren't that big of a project at all (which is good, because I spent most of the afternoon running errands).  In this recipe, a salty and buttery dough with toasted macadamia nuts mixed in is pressed into an 8x8" pan, refrigerated and then baked.  While the bottom crust is baking, candied ginger, heavy cream, maple syrup, maple sugar, and more macadamia nuts (plus some other basic ingredients) are heated together until the mixture starts to thicken.  This mixture is poured on top of the crust.  Now, I realize maple sugar is a less rare - and thus more expensive - ingredient, and I actually didn't notice the recipe called for it until it was too late to buy any.  What I did instead was I substituted a mix of brown sugar and maple syrup, although I added too much maple syrup, so that the top layer didn't become quite as solid as I think it should have (although it wasn't super runny either, so not a big failure).  These are really delicious bars - although the top layer is extremely sweet, the bottom is a little salty and not very sweet at all, which balances out the flavors nicely.  The ginger also adds a nice kick that I appreciated more a day or two after I made these.


Well, that's it for now.  I'm working on getting more sleep, which means getting to bed earlier.  That shouldn't be too much of a problem right now, as the cold makes me yearn for the blankets I so eagerly cast off last week.