One smart cookie Dropped, rolled, pressed or refrigerated, ‘little cakes’ are the perfect after-school treat

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What child doesn’t love a cookie, fresh from the oven and tucked into a lunchbox or waiting on a plate when they arrive home from school?

“Cookie” is derived from the Dutch word koekje, meaning “little cakes.” Historians believe the treats originated from seventh-century Persia, one of the first countries to cultivate sugar. The English call their cookies biscuits, the Italians biscotti, and in Spain they bake galletas.

Across the Atlantic in early New England, sugar was a luxury and cake baking was limited to those few who could afford wood-fired stoves with ovens. Rather than burn or undercook a cake, frugal housewives would test the oven heat by first baking tablespoons of cake batter dropped on a pan. These small cakes, sweetened with molasses or maple syrup, were later studded with raisins and spices. They became the popular cookies known as hermits that our great-grandmothers tucked into grandfather’s dinner pail.

There are six classic styles of cookies: drop, rolled and cut-out, shaped, pressed, refrigerator and bars. Drop cookies are the most popular and easiest to make. Chocolate chip cookies were the first thing that all three of my daughters learned to bake, later expanding their repertoire to include shaped cookies with peanut butter, cut-out shortbreads and bar cookies such as brownies and blondies. My youngest daughter loves the combination of chocolate and granola. As a treat, before making a new batch of granola, I will clean out my cupboard and make her Chocolate Chip Granola Bars.

The ingredients in cookies are fairly basic: fat, flour, sugar, liquid and egg, and some sort of leavening agent. Cooks have a number of choices in fats: butter, margarine, shortening, oil and even lard. The melting pattern of the fat influences the shape and crispiness of the cookie, which is why some cookies are flat and others can be chewy. Generally speaking, butter encourages spreading whereas lard or shortening produces a puffier or fatter cookie. Chilling the dough before baking will reduce the spread, which is a technique I often use in all-butter cookies such as Poppy Seed Jam Cookies. A combination of shortening and butter may also be used for a firmer cookie that still has a buttery flavor.

The perfect amount of liquid in a cookie is a delicate balance. Eggs hold the cookie dough together, but the egg white dries out the cookie. Sugar makes the cookie tender, and contributes to the browning and crispiness. Cookies made with brown sugar (a combination of molasses and other sugars), molasses or honey, absorb moisture from the atmosphere, and these cookies will soften after baking. This is why molasses-type cookies stay soft and chewy so long. In her book “Cook Wise, the Secrets of Cooking Revealed”, Shirley Corriher devotes several pages to the how and whys of tailor-made cookies.

Cookies are delicious, but are often no more than sugar- and fat-packed morsels. Back when my children were competitively swimming, they needed extra calories, but their small stomachs didn’t have lots of room. Every bite they put in their mouth needed to go toward fueling their bodies, so I developed a nutritionally dense cookie using peanut butter, raisins, dried apricots and sunflower seeds. Trail Mix Cookies pack a whopping three grams of protein and nearly two grams of fiber per cookie. They stay fresh for several days, if you can keep them around the house that long. I must warn you, however, the healthy dose of fiber may catch up with you if you eat 6 or 8, the equivalent of 12 grams of fiber. Our family nickname for these chewy treats soon became the “Woof Arted” cookies.

Cookies have long been shared with friends and neighbors over a cup of coffee or tea. My mother asked me recently for a recipe to replace the sugary muffins and doughnut holes at her 10 o’clock morning snack. She frequently has company stop by, and wanted something that would be healthy, appeal to many palates, and defrost easily. In Pumpkin Snack Cakes, I use dry milk powder and chopped apricots to replace most of the sugar. The recipe uses one 15-ounce can of pumpkin, and makes 72 individual cakes, which freeze exceptionally well. Two or three of these little cakes packed in a Ziplock bag will be defrosted by midmorning for a delicious and nutritional addition to the coffee break.

Occasionally, a special treat is in order, and that’s when I like to make all butter cookies such as Poppy Seed Jam Cookies or Filled Vanilla Cookies. Both cookies are sinful combinations of butter, sugar and eggs flavored with pure vanilla extract. In Poppy Seed Jam Cookies, lemon juice and finely grated lemon zest add a delicate flavor that highlights the jam and poppy seeds. Filled Vanilla Cookies are baked into chewy wafers and filled with your choice of jam, frosting, or even ice cream. They are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of tea. I like to keep a jar of cookie dough in the refrigerator, baking a few fresh cookies each afternoon to greet my teenagers as an after-school snack.

It hardly seems possible that 11 years ago I served the last meal at my restaurant and “retired” to our family homestead here on West Broadway to volunteer at school and bake a few cookies. When my little one, who now towers over me at more than 5′ 8″, turned 16 last week, she invited a few friends over to celebrate. They enthusiastically participated in one of their favorite pastimes: baking and eating cookies. After years of experience, I can truly say, one of the most delicious ways to spend time with my family is to make cookies … dozens and dozens of them!

Cheryl Wixson can be reached at starchef99@aol.com or visit www.cherylwixsonskitchen.org.

Trail Mix Cookies

Makes three dozen

Chop together in the food processor:

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup dried apricots

1/4 cup sunflower seeds

In a medium size bowl, stir together:

1/3 cup nonfat dry milk powder

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup rolled oats or oatmeal (old-fashioned, not quick cooking)

3/4 cup whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

Cream together:

1/2 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup butter or shortening

1 egg

1 cup brown sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

Stir the dry mixture and the chopped fruit into the creamed mixture. The batter will be stiff. Spoon the mixture onto cookie sheets. Flatten the cookie slightly, it will be about 2 inches in diameter. Bake in a 350-degree oven for 8- 12 minutes. Let cool on rack and store in a tin. These cookies stay fresh for several days and freeze well.

Filled Vanilla Cookies

Makes 30 wafers or 15 filled cookies

3/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

In the bowl of your electric mixer, cream together the sugar and butter. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the pure vanilla extract. Sift together the flour and baking powder and add to the creamed mixture.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two cookie pans with parchment paper. Using a scoop or two spoons, drop tablespoons of dough onto the parchment paper. Flatten the cookie dough slightly with your hand. Bake until the edges just start to brown, about 10 minutes. Remove the pans from the oven and let the cookies cool slightly on the pan before transferring to a rack to finish cooling. When the cookies are completely cooled, fill two wafers with Nutella, lemon pie filling or homemade jam.

Pumpkin Snack Cakes

Makes 72 cakes

Beat with electric mixer in large bowl:

1 15-ounce can pumpkin (1 3/4 cup cooked pumpkin)

1/2 cup sugar

3 eggs

1 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cup skim milk

1/2 cup fat-free dry milk powder

Mix together in medium bowl:

2 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup wheat germ

2 cups whole-wheat flour

1 tablespoon cinnamon

1 1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg

2 tablespoons baking powder

Stir into pumpkin mixture. Stir in 1 cup chocolate chips and 1/2 cup finely chopped dried apricots.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray minimuffin pans with cooking spray. Spoon batter into pans and bake until a toothpick comes out clean, about 15 minutes. Let cool on rack. Store in tins, plastic bags or plastic containers.

Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

Makes 24 bars

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

1/3 cup honey

5 cups Maine maple granola*

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup chocolate chips

In a small saucepan on top of the stove, melt the butter and combine with the honey and sugar. Bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove the pan from the heat and let cool. In a large bowl, stir together the granola and whole- wheat flour. Pour the honey mixture over the granola mixture. Stir until the granola is well coated and the honey mixture has cooled to room temperature. When it has cooled, stir in the chocolate chips. Press the mixture into a greased 13-inch-by-9-inch pan. Cool in the refrigerator. Cut into bars.

I adapted Maine Maple Granola from a Jan. 28, 1998 article in the Bangor Daily News. You may substitute any granola or obtain the recipe at www.cherylwixsonskitchen.org.