Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Is it right to call one cookie my favorite?

Baking at 5,280 feet above sea level can be challenging. I've made more than my share of trifle from cakes that sank in the center from too much leavening, or sugar, or fat, or whatever. Cookies aren't usually as problematic as cakes, but I probably just jinxed myself for saying that. Except for meringue cookies. I am convinced that Colorado was created just so we could make meringue cookies pretty much any time we want. Our lack of humidity is perfect for anything to do with baking whipped egg whites.

Here's one of my favorite recipes, Forgotten Kisses, but beware. This cookie is highly addictive.


The dishes you see in the photos belonged to my grandmother, my cooking inspiration. I never, ever use them. They sit in my little china cabinet and I take them out for things like this photo shoot. Here's why:



The tea cup is so thin, you can see through it. The face of a Japanese woman appears in the bottom of the cup when you hold it up to the light. One of these days I need to research the history of this china pattern. If anybody knows anything about it, I'd love to hear from you.

If you bake or want to bake, and you don't have Baking with Julia, go and get it NOW. Seriously. The woman knew what she was doing when it comes to putting stuff in an oven. I made a .pdf file of her tips on working with meringue--it's in the sidebar. Emeril Lagasse's Forgotten Kisses recipe, at first glance, might appear to differ from some of Julia's recommendations, but trust the recipe--it works. I realize I called it one of my favorites, but I'm a cookie ho. I love the one I'm with. Today, it's Forgotten Kisses. Tomorrow, who knows?

11 comments:

  1. Those dishes are not china (a glazed clay pottery) but porcelain. Porcelain is made with kaolin (a very special clay-- its the Kao in kaopectate!)

    porcelain is fired at a higher temp than china, and it is translucent, and it is strong (well its as strong a heavy duty glass.--but some porcelains are used as building material!)


    read more here
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porcelain

    Oh yeah a detail porcellana (italian name for a cowry shell)--is actually a slang word for a sows vagina (think again what a cowry shell looks like and it makes some sense.)
    giggle every time you eat or drink from your porcelain dishes about how they got there name!

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  2. beautiful dishes!
    I like shortbread cookies with tea. I like oatmeal raisin cookies. No, wait, I like peanut butter cookies. But what about sugar cookies?! I must be a cookie ho too! lol

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  3. I love meringue cookies! YUM!

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  4. That is the coolest tea cup I have ever seen. And, I love meringues.

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  5. Well, no wonder. Meringue with chocolate chips; who could resist?
    I totally agree, it is very hard to bake cookies at this altitude, but not impossible.

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  6. The dishes are lovely! I'm at 4500 feet, and baking is sometimes a challenge, but just tonight my son made cupcakes out of a box, without modifications, and they worked for him. Anyways, I sympathise with the altitude challenges.

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  7. Those dishes are fabulous. I hope someday you'll have time to learn their story.

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  8. Those dishes are beautiful. How cool to see the woman inside. I am going to go check out that recipe as well.

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  9. I love meringues too, They are especially lovely when made into little eggs and injected with raspberry syrup. Yum!

    Thanks for your kind words about my shawl. It was a fun knit!

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  10. You are a cookie ho.... you always write something that crack me up!!!

    Love your China... so thin and delicate...

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  11. Fantastic tea set. definitely porcelain. Makes a totally different sound to china when you stir your tea!

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