recipe — Page 2

We’re in the middle of a snow, sleet and ice event here at MHC. Can I tell you how sick of winter I am? It hasn’t even been a month since the blizzard that came our way the day after Christmas and we’ve had 3 major snowfalls and now this. Last night, as we listened to the weather report, Don immediately worried about whether we had enough sweets in the house in the event we were ‘trapped’ here.

I looked around and announced that I had enough on hand to make oatmeal raisin cookies. I will be starting on those shortly…after I recover from yet more snow shoveling. We aren’t doing too well with our addiction to sweets, are we? It’s always harder in the winter months and this winter is a pain in the….

Since it is cold and gray and snowy, I treat myself to this everyday:

Wouldn’t you? But it can’t be any cocoa, it has to be this cocoa:

Double Chocolate or Hazelnut Chocolate. Ummm-mmmm good.

When we lived in San Diego, the local Whole Foods carried a cookie that I was addicted to. Chocolate Truffle Heart Cookies. They were more like a cookie sandwich and they were the best cookie I’ve ever had. I would treat myself to one or two every week. (Of course, I was thinner then and sweets didn’t immediately go to my waist.) I longed to figure out how they were made. Never did. And after a while, whoever was making them stopped supplying them to Whole Foods. I went into mourning. Believe me when I tell you that I have googled and googled and have never found the right recipe for them.

I’ve also misplaced some of my Grandmother’s recipes. She was the baking queen. She made the most wonderful Butter Tarts and a little treasure called Current Cakes. Can’t find the recipes. Maybe they are buried in a box in the shed, but I don’t think so. I get sad when I think I may have misplaced them forever. Meredith, do you have copies of them?

But I do have her recipe for Cloud Biscuits. I make these often, especially this time of year. They are really just a variation of Baking Powder Biscuits, though I personally think they are the best version.

Cloud Biscuits

2 cups flour

1 tsp. sugar

4 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 cup butter

1 egg, beaten

2/3 cup milk

Mix together dry ingredients. Cut butter into dry ingredients until well chopped. Beat the egg with a fork and stir into milk. Add egg/milk mixture to dry ingredients. Mix together thoroughly until dough is formed. Put on floured board and knead until blended. Flatten out until smooth and cut with cookie/biscuit cutter. Place on oiled or buttered cookie sheet and bake at 450 degrees for 10 -12 minutes. Depending on the size of your biscuit cutter, the recipe makes about 12 biscuits.

A few notes about this recipe: The original recipe called for much more salt and I’ve cut it back for health reasons and also because I thought the biscuits tasted too salty. You’re welcome to up the amount of salt if you choose. Don’t make the mistake of flattening out the dough too much (as my niece and I did the first time we made them together.) The dough should be at least a 1/2 inch or more thick. That’s the secret to the ‘Cloud’ part of the biscuit. They rise beautifully that way.

My oven seems to take a minute or two longer than the 10 minutes called for in the original recipe so I’ve changed it to 10-12 minutes.

Mark this day down in your calendars: It’s the first, and perhaps last, time I’ve shared a recipe on this blog.

Be sure to scroll down to read my book review of The Death Instinct. It’s a fascinating book.

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