Shauna Sever’s Frosted Snickerdoodle Bars
https://ift.tt/35C25bC You had me at snickerdoodle. It’s one of my favorite cookies. Actually, you had me at the cover of this new cookbook from food writer Shauna Sever, Midwest Made: Big Bold Baking from the Heartland, before I even knew something snickerdoodle was included. The book is inviting and filled with gorgeous baked goods you want to make right now. Procrastibaking, here we come! What’s It Mean to Be Midwest Made?I love regional cookbooks—heck I just wrote one!—because they give you a glimpse of how people live and eat elsewhere. They also illuminate recipes, techniques, or customs that might not otherwise be shared or remembered. It’s like a little bit of folklore that way. But edible. Sever’s book is thoroughly modern and midwestern. The best compliment I could give it would be to say it’s like a contemporary version of an old-fashioned community cookbook. Except that community includes a broad swath of a dozen states with diverse landscapes, immigrant groups, and urban culinary scenes. And instead of a grab-bag of community recipes, these recipes are from a professional who has written three other cookbooks, one who returned to her Midwest roots after living with her husband and family in California. She had a brainstorm for what would become this book while on the airplane to Illinois. It’s a homecoming of sorts, a love letter, an awakening—all of those things! WHAT KINDS OF RECIPES ARE IN THE BOOK?They don’t call the Midwest “America’s Bread Basket” for nothing. As Sever says in her intro, “We believe in No Carb Left Behind.’” These carbs are named things like Swedish flop, a combination of buttercream and a “fluffy, yeasted cake,” as Sever describes it, or Houska, a challah-like braided bread with Czech origins. Or the Nebraskan Runza, a pocket sandwich loaded with savory ingredients. Other desserts you may be familiar with, such as the Ohio Shaker Pie and the Poke Cake make an appearance, and Sever puts spins on classics such as buckeyes, those peanut butter and chocolate gems, and turns them into bars. Cookbooks as Light ReadingMidwest Made also happens to be self-effacingly hilarious. It’s the kind of cookbook that after you read it cover to cover, you really feel like you know a person, why they wrote it, what is important to them in a cookie, in cake, and in life. Can’t say that about every cookbook you read, can you? What’s a Snickerdoodle Bar?After much deliberation and baking several of Sever’s recipes (Donut Loaf and Cinnamon-Sugared Pumpkin Chip Snack Cake, most notably), I settled on these Frosted Snickerdoodle Bars. The goofy name is believed to derive from the name Schneckennudeln, a snail-shaped German cinnamon roll. Whatever you call it, the cookie version of the snickerdoodle is typically both crispy and soft, fragrant with cinnamon sugar. As a Pennsylvania resident for the past 20 years, I make the cookie version of these bars regularly, which are associated with the Pennsylvania Dutch and Amish communities there and in Indiana. Sever turns them into bars and then tops them with a cinnamon frosting that is not shy. Bold baking, indeed! STORING AND FREEZING SNICKERDOODLE BARSThese keep well covered in the fridge for up to five days. However, they also freeze well, frosted or unfrosted. Just wrap them individually in wax paper and then freeze in a container or zip-top bag. It’s best to defrost them in the fridge overnight or for at least a few hours, but if you’re impatient, you can gently zap them in the microwave. If you’re accidentally too aggressive in the microwave, the frosting oozes, and then the bars transform into something that tastes like a cinnamon bun with super hot frosting and a cold middle. That’s not necessarily a complaint, just an observation borne of experience. (I kept eating it anyway.) I can’t tell you for sure how long they keep in the freezer, frosted, because mine didn’t last more than a week. It’s safe to say they’ll keep for at least a month. You can also freeze them unfrosted but wrapped individually in wax paper for at least a month. Other Awesome Bar Cookies!Q & A With Shauna Sever!This book gave me all the feels, so much so that I thought I’d been born in the Midwest. (I’m from NJ!) What is it about the Midwest that is so captivating? What did you want to convey?
The Midwest is diverse in its landscape and its offerings. What kinds of recipes reflect those surprises?
What recipe gave you the biggest challenge—and thrill—to get right?
How many cookies were eaten in the making of this book!?
What was your most washed kitchen tool or utensil while testing the recipes for this book?
Is there a quintessential holiday recipe from the Midwest?
Recipes via Simply Recipes https://ift.tt/2F9fkDA November 27, 2019 at 09:03AM #recipies
The Flat Belly FixThis is the only 21-day rapid weight loss system that allows you to easily lose an average of 1 lb a day for 21 days without feeling hungry or deprived. The unique and brand new techniques used in this System are proven SAFE. And they do not cause the rebound weight gain common to all the other rapid weight loss systems that are not backed by the latest science. The Flat Belly Fix System takes advantage of a recent scientific discovery that proves the effective weight loss power of an ancient spice. Combined with other cutting-edge ingredients in the patent-pending Flat Belly Fix Tea™ — that you can make right in your own kitchen in minutes — this System is the quickest, easiest and most enjoyable way to quickly get the body you desire and deserve. Click Here
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
The Flat Belly FixThis is the only 21-day rapid weight loss system that allows you to easily lose an average of 1 lb a day for 21 days without feeling hungry or deprived. The unique and brand new techniques used in this System are proven SAFE. And they do not cause the rebound weight gain common to all the other rapid weight loss systems that are not backed by the latest science. The Flat Belly Fix System takes advantage of a recent scientific discovery that proves the effective weight loss power of an ancient spice. Combined with other cutting-edge ingredients in the patent-pending Flat Belly Fix Tea™ — that you can make right in your own kitchen in minutes — this System is the quickest, easiest and most enjoyable way to quickly get the body you desire and deserve. Click HereCategories
All
Archives
November 2020
|