Chewy Gingersnaps

This recipe is a classic at our house at Xmas/Yule time. My Grandma has been making these cookies for as long as I can remember and everyone loves them. She always slightly under cooks them so that they're just the perfect amount of chewy and a little crisp around the edges.

I have, scandalously, toyed with her recipe and sometimes substitute cardamom for the ginger in this recipe to make something a little more unusual.

Chewy Gingersnaps

Cream together:

• 3/4 cup shortening
• 1 cup white sugar

Add:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses

Mix together with a whisk in a small bowl:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 Tbsp ginger (or cardamom instead)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt

Mix dry ingredients into wet. Make sure the dough is thoroughly mixed then wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for about an hour.

Roll into balls; I have a cookie dough scoop for this that gives me totally even blobs of dough like a little ice cream scoop. I think this is probably the best cookie invention ever and you can get them in a variety of sizes.

Roll each dough ball in white sugar and place on baking sheet. Press lightly with a fork or fingers.

Bake cookies in a pre-heated 350F oven for about 12-15 mins. I would do a small test batch at 12 mins to see what they're like when they're cooled a bit because they will crisp as they cool.

The exact time you want to bake them will depend on how big you make yours and how chewy or crisp you like them. I like to make them little so I don't die of guilt if I eat six of them, while my daughter likes to make six cookies out of the whole batch of dough because she doesn't have the patience to bake more than one tray of cookies.

Linsensuppe

Linsensuppe is a German lentil soup that is utterly fabulous. I've made this dish for company and potlucks so many times. Even people who claim to not be fond of lentils usually love it.

I blame the bacon.

Brown:

• 4 rashers of bacon, minced
• 4 – 6 sausages, sliced into rounds (pretty much any type will do, but I like bratwurst best)

Heat together in a large pot:

• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 finely diced onion
• 1 leek, finely chopped
• 3 carrot, finely diced
• 2 stalks of celery, diced
• 2 bay leaves

Add:

• 1 can of lentils, well rinsed
• 4 cups of water or stock

Simmer for about a half hour. Good with a loaf of dense artisan bread or homemade biscuits and butter.

Finnish Cardamom Bread (Pulla)

This recipe is a hand-me-down from a Finnish fishing family that lived close to my dad when he was growing up. They pretty much adopted him into the family because he spent so much time there, hanging out with their kids (and probably for the amazing pickled fish and baking that their mom would do.)

Helmi would make this bread for the men to take on the fishing boats with them, but dried into rusks instead of fresh so that it would keep longer. Either way, it's fabulous and I'm sure that this is the source of my cardamom addiction as an adult.

This recipe makes a LOT of bread; don't expect it to last long though, it's SO good.

Pulla

Cream together:

• 1 lb butter (NOT MARGERINE)
• 2 1/2 cups white sugar

Add:

• 1 dozen lightly beaten eggs
• 1 quart whole milk
• 2 Tbsp ground black cardamom (I use 3 because I really love cardamom)
• 2 tsp yeast (can make a sponge with the milk first if you prefer)

Mix in:

• About 15 - 17 cups of flour

Don't add too much flour, you want the dough soft but not really sticky. Because this is a sweet bread, it will tend to be a little stickier anyways, so be careful.

Drizzle a little oil on the top of the dough and turn it so that it's oiled all over to keep it from drying out. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled.

Punch dough down and shape. The traditional shape for this bread is braids, but you can make it into buns, loaves, rings.. whatever you like. This dough makes KILLER cinnamon buns.

Let dough rise again until doubled. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake in a pre-heated 350F oven.

Recipe from: Helmi Liimatta

Lazy Biscuits

Much as I like homemade food, sometimes I really crave instant gratification. These biscuits are totally homemade but are quick enough to make that I'd consider them to be as instant as I get in the kitchen. They're based on a recipe from my 1963 Good Housekeeping Cookbook, which is a really good reference book for all those archaic things that you might want to know how to make. For some reason I'm delighted by all the instructions for making fancy tea party sandwiches; apparently I didn't have enough tea parties when I was a child. (yes mom, I'm blaming you). When I make these for company, I use the biscuit cutter that my sister made for me when she was in eighth grade metal shop. It always makes them better!

Lazy Biscuits

Pre-heat oven to 450F

Mix together in a bowl with a whisk:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 Tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt

In a 2 cup glass measuring cup combine:

• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 1 1/3 cups milk

Pour all the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir it up with a wooden spoon, then your hands, as it gets stickier.

Dust the counter generously with flour and dump the dough out onto it; pat it out to about an inch thick, adding more flour as necessary.

You can cut out biscuits with a cutter if you like but I prefer to cut it into squares with a knife. No one cares if they're pretty unless they're for company.

Bake for about ten minutes or until golden brown on top.

Optional:

• add 1/4 cup of sugar and cut out with a generously sized biscuit cutter for shortbreads
• add minced herbs and serve with stew