cookbook travels and banana bread squared

A show of hands here–who brings cookbooks home from their travels?

Even with the rise of the electronic recipe (my 11-year-old daughter Googles recipes, despite her mother’s large cookbook collection), paper cookbooks remain popular vacay take-homes. They give travelers return trips, even if just in mind and taste buds.

Opening Makers Mark® The Special Touch cookbook, a Kentucky purchase, I smell the bourbon of distillery tours. When the pages of Savoring San Diego are flipped, I see the ubiquitous flowers of that fair city. The Montana Cookbook brings back a sense of open land and Simply Colorado invites visions of rocky mountains.

While relatively close to home, the city of Duluth was another vacation spot worth remembering. (Culinary details from last summer’s camping trip recorded here.) An especially impressive restaurant stop was The Duluth Grill, and their cookbook told the tale of evolution from Ember’s franchise to one-of-a-kind comfort-food haven. The parking lot garden speaks volumes to their emphasis on fresh, locally sourced, and sustainably raised ingredients.

The book’s $30 price tag gave me pause and I left without, knowing I’d find it online for far less. Except I didn’t. The Duluth Grill Cookbook was available only on the restaurant website. I kicked myself (and certainly deserved a kick for not supporting small business when I had the chance), but found redemption in a friend who was making a quick trip that way. She, too, is a big fan of this much-loved restaurant and agreed to bring the cookbook back for me.

Just last week, then, I finally held a copy of this beautiful and lovely book in my hands. To prove its worth, I immediately set out to make Tofu and Walnut Marinara (taking a pass on the walnuts). It was hearty, flavorful, and packed with good-for-you veggies. Two days later it tasted even better and I know I’ll be making this sauce again.

now THIS is a tofu marinara

beet lemonade and it was really quite good

I have my eye on the Ratatouille recipe as well as the Buffalo Tofu Strips, both dishes I enjoyed while there. I’d also love to make their Beet Lemonade, though will have to riff on their standard Lemonade recipe as they do not share the beet version I was so enamored with during my visit.

Minnesota’s bitter cold winter called for a baking recipe, so I also made TDG’sr Chocolate Chip Cookies. In the same manner as an earlier cookie adventure, I experimented with each baking sheet, sprinkling some unbaked cookies with chocolate salt, some with vanilla salt and also mixing in marshmallow bits and even leftover movie popcorn that was sitting on the counter just asking to be poured into the remaining batter. Even without my improv, these cookies were amazing and hit all the right sweet, salty, tender, crisp notes.

because one photo of these amazing cookies would not have been enough

So here’s to cookbooks and here’s to travel and here’s to those cookbook gems we find when we travel. If you’re looking for the recipe for either the sauce or cookies, let me know in comments or at deLizious facebook and I’ll pass them on your way.

And speaking of sharing recipes, I’ve been on a bit of a banana bread binge lately after finding two renegade recipes on favorite food blogs that demanded to be made. The Cottage Grove House rocked my world with Rye Whiskey Banana Bread

there’s rye whiskey in my banana bread!

and Shanna over at Curls and Carrots kept my spirits up with Rum-a-Dum-Dum Banana Bread. Thanks, ladies, for two fabulous loaves!

rum-spiked banana bread

inspiration from a friend and a cookie

I met up with a foodie friend for lunch today who believes–as I do–in empowering others to cook. (Jen’s business is aptly named Catalyst Cooks.) I enjoy our visits because she doesn’t limit her ideas. Time with Jen is always inspiring.

We ate at a popular Minneapolis cafe-style bakery, Sun Street Breads, and my gobbler sandwich (piled high with moist, tender, herb-flecked turkey) was yum. But I had a feeling the cookies I bagged to take home would be the real superstars. I was right. The Domino (Belgian chocolate cookies with white chocolate chips) was divine, though the big hit–for me–was the Crusher. The ingredient tag read chocolate chips, crushed pretzels, and broken up sugar cones. Combining chocolate and pretzels isn’t new, but the addition of the sugar cone struck me as brilliance. Why hadn’t I thought of it?

I loved the idea, so went home to bake up a batch of cookies using chocolate chips, crushed sugar cones, and pretzels. A recipe for Monster Marshmallow Cookies listed several nuts, chips, and types of cereal, so seemed a good fit for this project as the pretzels and crushed cones could easily replace some of the stir-ins. I also liked the idea of using mini marshmallows.

As usual, I played it fast-and-loose with measurements (for the stir-ins anyway) and ended up with more chocolate chips, marshmallow, etc then intended. More lacy than solid, the cookie’s structure–the word “craggy” comes to mind–had been stretched thin by the many stir-ins. Replacing half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour also made for a slightly different chew. But in the end, the many ingredients–marshmallows, chocolate chips, m&ms, oats, pretzels, crushed cones–made for a crazy and crazy good cookie packed with contrasting textures and flavors. They weren’t Sun Street’s Crushers, but that had not been my intent. I had only wanted to make cookies that combined chocolate chips, pretzels, and sugar cones.

I’ll stretch a bit here to say that my cookie find and subsequent baking project was a bit like my conversations with Jen. I’m encouraged to look at things from a completely different perspective, then inspired to work those new ideas into my own projects. My hope is that everyone has a friend like Jen as well as a pantry full of fun cookie ingredients for the next time inspiration strikes.

monster crushers

Crusher Marshmallow Cookies

• 1 cup all-purpose flour (I used 1/2 cup each all-purpose and whole wheat)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 cups stir-ins (any combination of pretzel pieces, crushed sugar cones, chocolate chips, m&ms®)
• 1 cup quick-cooking oats (I used old-fashioned)
• 1/2 cup miniature marshmallows

Heat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper or spray with cooking spray.

In bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and baking powder. In separate bowl, beat together butter and sugars with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Stir in remaining ingredients. Drop dough by heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until golden and set. Let cool slightly on baking sheets. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely. Makes 3 dozen cookies.

the cookie project

Science fair time approaches, and my daughters are looking for project ideas. A few years back, the oldest thought it would be fun to do a kitchen science project; we baked up batch after batch of blueberry muffins, underbeating, overbeating, and all points in between. She shot photos and proved that overbeating muffin batter does indeed lead to those dreaded tunnels.

With that success, baking drew her in again. She felt a strong pull toward chocolate chip cookies (that’s my girl:-)) so we decided to bake a batch with and without leavening. With a food science degree, as well as all manner of food-related resources at hand, you’d think I would know what leavening does in cookies. (I’ve worked for Betty Crocker, for goodness sake.) But I was clueless as to how cookies would bake up without baking soda or baking powder. I didn’t figure the 1/2 teaspoon was responsible for much actual leavening–cookies are puffy, but don’t rise as do muffins and other quick breads. Why is leavening important?

Just for kicks, we also baked batches with butter and shortening (using the same recipe), knowing that the butter-containing cookies would spread and brown more than the ones with shortening. And the flavor would be far better with butter. Yet, the difference between the two batches was slight and not enough to give it Science Fair status.

shortening; butter; butter/no baking soda

The batch sans baking soda, on the far right, is clearly paler and more cake-like. Flavor was flat and once cooled, the cookies had a tougher chew. (Not saying we tossed them in the trash; they were still sweet, rich, and packed with chocolate chips.) But compared to the shortening and butter (best flavor by far–no surprise), they weren’t as tasty.

butter in the back, shortening and butter/no baking soda in the front

Since it’s all about the science, I hit Shirley Corriher’s Bakewise to learn more about the exact role baking soda plays in cookies. Corriher confirmed my suspicion that “leavening in most cookies is minimal.” The alkali in baking soda promotes browning (seen in the paler unleavened cookies) as it neutralizes browning-inhibiting acids. Corriher’s book also noted that acidic baked goods (in this case, molasses-rich brown sugar contributed the acid) take longer to set, which was why these cookies baked through more slowly than the others.

Flavor was a bit harder to pinpoint, but the cookies without leavening were off somehow. I’d imagine it was the acid-alkaline balance again: The acid in the brown sugar wasn’t balanced by an alkaline leavener, which had to affect flavor. As for structure–less leavening (no matter how minor the role), less air, more dense, tougher chew.

The project brought me back to my days in Food Chemistry. I love that so many disparate ingredients (flour, leavening, salt, etc) combine, interact, and reemerge as a cake, loaf of bread, batch of cookies. It seems magical, but it’s hard science and can be understood on a molecular level. My daughter will bake more cookies for the science fair and delve into the details. But to most folks (myself included), the magic and allure of chocolate chip cookies will always trump science.