The Novel Bakers Present The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living

The original recipe makes 7 dozen cookies. I divided the recipe in half and added dried cranberries. I thought the cookies were plenty sweet between the maple flavoring and the white chocolate chips, so I didn’t top them with the maple glaze in the original recipe. Here’s my contribution to the bake sale:

White Chocolate Chip Maple Cookies with Cranberries and Pecans

Makes approximately 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups Gold Medal™ all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup softened butter

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon maple extract

6 ounces white chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350°F.  In bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt, set aside. With a mixer, cream together shortening, brown sugar and butter on medium speed. Add egg, vanilla, and maple flavorings, mixing until incorporated.

Gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until well blended. Combine white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and pecans and stir into batter by hand.

Using a medium size cookie scoop (1 1/2 tablespoon size), scoop cookie dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets, three inches apart. Bake at 350°F for approximately 10 minutes or until light brown in color. Allow cookies to remain on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer cookies to wire rack to cool.

We’ve never stayed at the Mast Farm Inn in Valle Crucis, but every time we pass it, I stop to admire the charming country setting, wonderful old barn and gardens.

The sunflowers and cosmos were blooming alongside the veggies in the garden.

The barn looks like the perfect setting for a harvest dinner!

You can’t read this book without craving apple pie. . .

“Nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom were added and subtracted by the eighth of a teaspoon. Crates of apples from the McCracken farm were peeled, cored, and sliced into several different pies, each with a different combination fruit. Chef Al and I spend the afternoon discussing the benefits and drawbacks of cornstarch versus arrowroot. By the end of the week I was left feeling like a deranged mix of Sherlock Holmes and Christopher Kimball, my palate completely numb.”

“I tossed the pile of apple slices into the cast-iron skillet with a couple of pats of butter and turned on the flame. The cinnamon scent of the McIntoshes mingled with tang of melting butter, reminding me of my old neighbor Mary’s kitchen where I wove my first lattice crust.”

There’s a recipe included in the book for Blue Ribbon Apple Pie by the author and pastry chef, Louise Miller.

“Pour-through, crumb crust, Dutch, and dried apple—I made them all. Hazelnuts in the crumb, in the crust, then pecans. I changed the spices, tried every variety of apple I could get my hands on, but in the end I couldn’t improve on what Margaret and I love best—Cortland and McIntosh, sautéed in butter and lightly sweetened with good old white sugar, with a half teaspoon of cinnamon and a pinch of nutmeg, piled high and tucked in with a top crust. No bells and whistles. Perfect in its simplicity.”

I followed the filling part of the recipe included the book and a handy tip: To prevent the apples from shrinking in the pie and for a thicker filling, cook the apples briefly in skillet.

With the images of Autumn and harvest dinners, I couldn’t resist adding some pie crust leaves for decoration. I bought my spring-loaded leaf pie crust cutters at Williams-Sonoma several years ago. They have a new version available this year and I’ve seen some recently at Sur la table and at Michaels with the fall baking season around the corner.

 I used a combination of a crumb topping with the pie crust leaves for a double topped apple pie, that I found at Blue Ribbon Kitchen for a First-Place Winning Apple Pie recipe.

“You should always do what you can to make life sweeter.”

~ The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living

Visit Novel Bakers Jain, Michael Lee, and Linda for a taste of The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living

a quiet life

Rattlebridge Farm

More Fun Less Laundry

*Thank you to Viking Penguin for providing copies of The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living for our review.

This is the debut novel for Louise Miller, a pastry chef who lives and works in Boston. She’s a self-proclaimed art school dropout, amateur flower gardener, old-time banjo player, obsessive moviegoer, and champion of old dogs. :)

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