It had to be near 5 PM when a co-worker came up and reminded me of the Bake Sale scheduled from tomorrow. We are fund raising like crazy people for our Relay for Life team. I, of course, had totally spaced it. Though I would guess I wrote it on every imaginable calendar, piece of paper and possibly my hand, it slipped by me like the breeze.
So, after my late shift, I went home and started searching for the best cookie book I have found, so far. Of course I have not given up the search, I collect books like cats collect fleas. But this won is a winner...literally. It is the Blue Ribbon winners from a midwest Country Fair. The bad news, is I cannot find it, anywhere. Not in the stack of books by the bed, not on the coffee table, end table, two, no three, bookshelves, not on the kitchen table. In frustration I have to give up. I will need to get up early to bake something and I need some SLEEP.
So, I grab the two books I can put my hands upon.
And therein lies the rub...."The New Cookie Book", Catherine Atkinson with recipes by Joanna Farrow and Valerie Barrett, published by Hermes House in London in 2003.
Now, I read cookbooks like novels, sorta. I mean, some I thumb through, some I really read cover to cover and some, apparently this one, I skim. I totally missed the NOTES at the base of the publishers page. especially the one that said "Bracketed terms are intended for American readers"
After that statement, I would have seen: For all recipes, quantities are given in both metric and imperial measures and, where appropriate, measures are also given in standard cups and spoons. Follow one set, but not a mixture, because they are not interchangeable.
Well, duh!
But, I, in my haste and impatience (yes, I typed that!), did not see this bit of information. I simply wanted to bake something different, something you would not normally see on a bake sale table. Possibly something chocolate because that is what everyone wants.
.
Flipping thought the book I see "Chocolate Truffle Cookies". I have all the ingredients, oddly enough, including the cherry brandy! Hey, be prepared and all that! So I stick a bit of tissue in between the pages and know that I will have at least one new recipe for tomorrow mornings bake-a-thon before work.
I am still in possession of a considerable amount of coconut, so I start my baking extraviganza with my classic Coconut Shortbread. It goes together fast, so I whip it up and get it into the oven. I a still dealing with the one-rack oven, which slows progress considerably. Then I start on the Truffles.
The recipe is laid out like this:
Makes 18
50g/2oz/1/2cup plain (all-purpose) flour EXCEPT
the / mark they used, in hind-site, was far more vertical. In fact, if my photographer son would take some photos, you would SEE that the / was SO vertical as to look like a 1. So, while I was consistent in using the AMERICAN measures, I was adding 1 to almost each one. When I looked at the mess in the bowl, I knew something was not right.
Americans always, I think, cream the butter into the sugar and then add the dry ingredients. This recipe had you dicing the butter (the one ingredient that I did not increase) and rubbing it into the dry. There clearly was not enough butter for all the dry ingredients.
So, rather than pitch the whole mess into the compost bucket I went in search of some cream(had none), some milk (had none) so I used Almond Milk and made the dry mess into a creamy mess that could be rolled in the confectioner's sugar and baked. Suffice to say they were not very good. They we not sweet enough for American taste. I should have thrown them into the bucket. I will know better next time.
What this all leads to....well, several things. When I was taking Diane Morgan's writing class she had us looking at the way recipes are written. In the back of my mind I knew there were some cook books that that I use over and over and some that I use once and then put back on the shelf. I did not really know why. It is because some are user-friendly and some are not. I suspect that a bit of it is what you are used to, but I do remember a Chinese book had all the ingredients numbered and in the body of the recipe of said " put items 1-5 into small bowl and wisk, add #7, blend, whip #8 add etc etc. I hated it. I do not think I have ever used that book again, and I have had it longer than I have been married.
If you have to keep referring to the ingredient list it does not save you any time. It frankly makes no sense.
The"meat" of the recipe, the written instructions should do just that. Instruct. In a concise manner, they should tell you what to do with all these items you have dug out of your pantry, your fridge, your cupboards, and make the combining of them simple. They should not leave you scratching your head and wondering where you went so wrong.
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