"Just Nan's" Scratch-My-Back Cookies

Dutch Oven Detour - “Just Nan’s” Scratch-My-Back Cookies

Peter’s Mamma recently passed along his Grandmother’s recipe books to him – pure gold!  Chock full of handwritten food spattered recipes, random notes written throughout, pages falling out, covers held together with tape – all signs of coveted and well used recipes.  Handwritten recipe books like these are a bit of a lost art – these days the interweb is our cookbook!

A Canadian Sandwich

Dutch Oven Detour:  Maple Cream Sandwich Cookies

Poutine, Ketchup Chips, Coffee Crisp, Milk in a bag, Ginger Ale, Alexander Keith’s Ale…all of these food items have something in common – they are CANADIAN!!!  From far and wide - we stand on guard for thee!  We eat Beaver Tails…as long as they’re coated in cinnamon and sugar, doughnut holes - called Timbits and contrary to popular belief – we eat regular bacon – not CANADIAN Bacon!...although the movie “Canadian Bacon” starred Canadian actor John Candy.  We sometimes refer to Lunch as Dinner…and Dinner as Supper?!  AND Yes! - We refer to our currency as Loonies and Toonies – AND No!  We do not live in Igloos!  We pronounce it ABOUT - NOT A-BOOT (well at least not all of us anyway) and yes we say EH! – EH! - EH! - EH! – get over it eh!

Okay…now that we have that cleared up, let’s get back on topic…FOOD!

Thumbs Up!

Jam Filled Thumbprint Cookies! - Dutch Oven Detour (recipes that should have been in the Dutch Oven)

They go by many names – Jam Drops, Thimble Cookies, Bachelor Buttons - but we just call’em Thumbprints!  Peter remembers his Mom making these cookies growing up – the crispy sugar coated exterior, moist and chewy on the inside and a dollop of fresh homemade preserves in the centre.

We’ve been busy the season preparing lots of homemade preserves.  How can you possibly add more carbs to an already sugar laden jam you ask? – well put it on sugar laden cookie of course.   No worries, with the humidity we’ve been having here lately, you don’t even have to move to sweat off the calories.

Although this isn’t a Dutch oven recipe, it’s a great treat to showcase some of our delectable Dutch Oven preserves.

Jam Filled Thumbprint Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Cups flour

½ Cup brown sugar

1 Cup butter

3 egg yolks

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

¼ Cup white sugar (for rolling cookies)

Jam for filling centres

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.   

In mixer, cream butter and sugar, add egg yolks, vanilla and salt.  Mix well.  Gradually add flour until blended.  

Using a Tbsp size cookie scoop – scoop dough into evenly sized portions and place onto cookie sheet.   

Roll the dough into 1 inch balls.  Roll balls in sugar and using the back of tsp size measuring spoon, make an indentation in the centre of each ball.  Partially bake cookies for 8 minutes.  Remove cookies from oven.   

Using a small spoon, fill the centre of each cookie with your favorite preserves.  Return to the oven for 6-8 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Let cookies cool on a wire rack. 

Eat’em up yum!

C is for Cookie!

Halloween Sugar Cookies - Dutch Oven Detour (recipes that should have been in the Dutch Oven)

There’s no sugar cookie recipe in the Dutch Oven Cookbook! What up with that Dutch Oven Cookbook? In light of this glaring oversight - we bring you this brief intermission from the Dutch Oven Diaries to present you with this Halloween Special Edition Post!

What is it about a sugar cookie? The SUGAR perhaps? What’s not to like? In all seriousness though, for us, it’s all about the presentation. Peter has great memories of the sugar cookies his Aunt Carolyn would painstakingly paint by hand every Christmas. As a young lad he was mesmerized by the colourful cut-out cookies that were “almost” to pretty to eat. Little individual masterpieces in the shapes of Santa’s, snowmen and Christmas trees were layered with brightly coloured icings. There’s no doubt that Aunt Carolyn’s cookies left a lasting impression on this foodie in training.

Although our methods may be a little different than Peter’s Aunt Carolyn’s, the end result remains the same. A simple cookie is turned into a delicious, whimsical piece of foodie art. As anyone who’s made cookies like this knows, it’s a lot of work and takes a lot of time! However the end results are so worth the effort, especially having the opportunity to share them with the little ones (or big ones) in your life, who receive them with wide eyed excitement.

Here’s how we do it…

Martha Stewart’s Ideal Sugar Cookie Recipe

Royal Icing for Sugar Cookies (also see video on this page for icing technique known as flooding).




As a wise foodie once said: “C is for Cookie, that’s good enough for me. Arr arr-umm-umm-umm!” – Cookie Monster

Enjoy and have fun!

But Beware! Beware of the sugar cookie cramp...similar to tennis elbow or carpel tunnel. After hours of flooding and decorating, your hand is sure to seize up like a narled witches claw. Even at the risk of permenant disfigurement, it is well worth the pain.

The Dutch Oven Diaries will be on hiatus for a week or so as we’re heading to the Big Apple for some food, fun and adventure! If you’d like to follow our foodie fun in NYC join our facebook page at www.facebook.com/thedodiaries!

Happy Halloween!