Snickerdoodles

A snickerdoodle is a type of cookie made with butter or oil, sugar, and flour rolled in cinnamon sugar. Eggs may also sometimes be used as an ingredient, with cream of tartar and baking soda added to leaven the dough. Snickerdoodles are characterized by a cracked surface and can be crisp or soft depending on preference.

Snickerdoodles are often referred to as "sugar cookies". However, traditional sugar cookies are often rolled in white sugar whereas snickerdoodles are rolled in a mixture of white sugar and cinnamon.

The Joy of Cooking claims that snickerdoodles are probably German in origin, and that the name is a corruption of the German word Schneckennudeln ("snail noodles"), a kind of pastry. It is also possible that the name is simply a nonsense word with no particular meaning, originating from a New England tradition of whimsical cookie names.

Depending upon preference there are two ways to make snickerdoodles. The first recipe below is the traditional method. The second recipe yields a chewier cookie which will become crisper within 24 hrs.

[Recipes Damage In The Kitchen Editor's Note: The second recipe does not utilize shortening. In most cookie recipes shortening is the ingredient that provides the crispness, butter the softness so a good rule for any cookie baking is for a chewier cookie use less or no shortening and more butter.]

From Wikibooks Cookbook

Traditional Snickerdoodle Recipe

2 3/4 cups (650ml) all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons cream of tartar 1 1/2 cups (360ml) white sugar

1 cup (240ml) soft shortening 2 eggs, beaten For the dusting 2 tablespoons (30ml) sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Heat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit (205 degrees Celsius), mix ingredients, and bake for 10 minutes or until crisp and light brown. Sprinkle generously with cinnamon while hot.An alternative recipe uses only 1 cup (240ml) sugar and replaces 1/2 cup (120ml) of the shortening with butter. After those ingredients are mixed, the dough is rolled into 1 tablespoon balls and then rolled in a mixture of 2 tablespoons sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. They are baked as noted above. Other recipes add honey to the dough, which helps to keep the cookies from becoming too crisp.

From Wikibooks Cookbook

Chewy Snickerdoodle Recipe

2 cup (120g) butter, softened (not melted) 1 cup (240g) granulated sugar 2 tablespoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar 1 egg

1 cup vinegar 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups (350g) all-purpose flour For the dusting 2 tablespoons (30ml) sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

In a medium mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, cream of tartar, and vinegar. Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally. Beat in egg and vanilla until combined. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer. Stir in any remaining flour. Cover and chill dough for 1 to 2 hours or until easy to handle. Preheat oven to 375°F (190c) Combine the 2 T. sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl. Shape dough into 1-inch (2.5cm) balls. Roll balls in cinnamon-sugar to coat. Place balls 2 inch (5cm) apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden. Transfer to a wire rack and let cool.

Text Credits: Wikipedia Wikibooks Cookbook || Image Credit: Tina Marie's Adventures In The Baking Aisle

Spice

pice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetable substance primarily used for flavoring, coloring or preserving food. Sometimes a spice is used to hide other flavors. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are parts of leafy green plants also used for flavoring or as garnish.

Many spices have antimicrobial properties. This may explain why spices are more commonly used in warmer climates, which have more infectious disease, and why use of spices is especially prominent in meat, which is particularly susceptible to spoiling. A spice may have other uses, including medicinal, religious ritual, cosmetics or perfume production, or as a vegetable. For example, turmeric roots are consumed as a vegetable[citation needed] and garlic as an antibiotic.

Early History: The Spice trade developed throughout Southern Asia and the Middle East in around 2000 BCE with cinnamon and pepper, and in East Asia with herbs and pepper. The Egyptians used herbs for embalming and their demand for exotic herbs helped stimulate world trade. The word spice comes from the Old French word espice, which became epice, and which came from the Latin root spec, the noun referring to "appearance, sort, kind": species has the same root. By 1000 BCE, medical systems based upon herbs could be found in China, Korea, and India. Early uses were connected with magic, medicine, religion, tradition, and preservation. Archaeological excavations have uncovered clove burnt onto the floor of a kitchen, dated to 1700 BCE, at the Mesopotamian site of Terqa, in modern-day Syria.

The ancient Indian epic Ramayana mentions cloves. The Romans had cloves in the 1st century CE, as Pliny the Elder wrote about them.[citation needed] In the story of Genesis, Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers to spice merchants. In the biblical poem Song of Solomon, the male speaker compares his beloved to many forms of spices. Generally, early Egyptian, Chinese, Indian, and Mesopotamian sources do not refer to known spices.[citation needed]

Historians believe that nutmeg, which originates from the Banda Islands in South Asia, was introduced to Europe in the 6th century BCE. Indonesian merchants traveled around China, India, the Middle East, and the east coast of Africa. Arab merchants facilitated the routes through the Middle East and India. This resulted in the Egyptian port city of Alexandria being the main trading center for spices. The most important discovery prior to the European spice trade were the monsoon winds (40 CE). Sailing from Eastern spice growers to Western European consumers gradually replaced the land-locked spice routes once facilitated by the Middle East Arab caravans.

Middle Ages: Spices were among the most demanded and expensive products available in Europe in the Middle Ages, the most common being black pepper, cinnamon (and the cheaper alternative cassia), cumin, nutmeg, ginger and cloves. Given medieval medicine's main theory of humorism, spices and herbs were indispensable to balance "humors" in food, a daily basis for good health at a time of recurrent pandemics.

Spices were all imported from plantations in Asia and Africa, which made them expensive. From the 8th until the 15th century, the Republic of Venice had the monopoly on spice trade with the Middle East, and along with it the neighboring Italian city-states. The trade made the region rich. It has been estimated that around 1,000 tons of pepper and 1,000 tons of the other common spices were imported into Western Europe each year during the Late Middle Ages. The value of these goods was the equivalent of a yearly supply of grain for 1.5 million people. The most exclusive was saffron, used as much for its vivid yellow-red color as for its flavor. Spices that have now fallen into obscurity in European cuisine include grains of paradise, a relative of cardamom which most replaced pepper in late medieval north French cooking, long pepper, mace, spikenard, galangal and cubeb.


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Szechuan Cuisine: Kung Pao Chicken

Szechuan cuisine, Sichuan cuisine, or Szechwan cuisine (Chinese: 四川菜; pinyin: Sìchuān cài or Chinese: 川菜; pinyin: chuān cài) is a style of Chinese cuisine originating from Sichuan province in southwestern China. It has bold flavours, particularly the pungency and spiciness resulting from liberal use of garlic and chili peppers, as well as the unique flavor of the Sichuan pepper. There are many local variations within Sichuan province and the Chongqing municipality, which was part of Sichuan until 1997. Four sub-styles include Chongqing, Chengdu, Zigong, and Buddhist vegetarian style. UNESCO declared Chengdu to be a city of gastronomy in 2011 in order to recognize the sophistication of its cooking.

Sichuan is colloquially known as the "heavenly country" due to its abundance of food and natural resources. One ancient Chinese account declared that the "people of Sichuan uphold good flavor, and they are fond of hot and spicy taste." Most Szechuan dishes are spicy, although a typical meal includes non-spicy dishes to cool the palate. According to at least one Chinese culinary writer,[who?] Szechuan cuisine is composed of seven basic flavours: sour, pungent, hot, sweet, bitter, aromatic, and salty. Szechuan food is divided into five different types: sumptuous banquet, ordinary banquet, popularised food, household-style food, and food snacks. Szechuan cuisine has changed little over the years, and milder versions of Sichuan dishes remain a staple of American Chinese cuisine.

Szechuan cuisine often contains food preserved through pickling, salting, and drying and is generally spicy owing to heavy application of chili oil. The Sichuan pepper (Chinese: 花椒; pinyin: huājiāo; literally "flower pepper") is commonly used. Sichuan pepper has an intensely fragrant, citrus-like flavour and produces a "tingly-numbing" (Chinese: 麻; pinyin: má) sensation in the mouth. Also common are garlic, chili peppers, ginger, star anise and other spicy herbs, plants and spices. Broad bean chili paste (simplified Chinese: 豆瓣酱; traditional Chinese: 豆瓣醬; pinyin: dòubànjiàng) is also a staple seasoning in Szechuan cuisine. The region's cuisine has also been the source of several prominent sauces widely used in Chinese cuisine in general today, including yuxiang (魚香), mala (麻辣), and guaiwei (怪味).

Common preparation techniques in Szechuan cuisine include stir frying, steaming and braising, but a complete list would include more than 20 distinct techniques. Beef is somewhat more common in Szechuan cuisine than it is in other Chinese cuisines, perhaps due to the prevalence of oxen in the region.[4] Stir-fried beef is often cooked until chewy, while steamed beef is sometimes coated with rice flour to produce a very rich gravy. Szechuan cuisine also utilizes various bovine and porcine organs as ingredients such as intestine, arteries, the head, tongue, skin, and liver in addition to other commonly utilised portions of the meat.

Kung Pao chicken, (Chinese: 宫保雞丁; Mandarin Pinyin: Gōngbǎo Jīdīng; Wade–Giles: Kung1-pao3 Chi1-ting1; Jyutping: gung1 bou2 gai1 ding1), also transcribed as Gong Bao or Kung Po, is a spicy stir-fry dish made with chicken, peanuts, vegetables, and chili peppers.

The classic dish in Szechuan cuisine originated in the Sichuan Province of south-western China and includes Sichuan peppercorns. Although the dish is found throughout China, there are regional variations that are typically less spicy than the Sichuan serving. Kung Pao chicken is also a staple of westernized Chinese cuisine.

The dish is believed to be named after Ding Baozhen (1820–86), a late Qing Dynasty official, and governor of Sichuan Province. His title was Gongbao (Kung-pao; Chinese: 宫保; pinyin: Gōngbǎo; Wade–Giles: Kung1-pao3; literally "Palace Guardian"). The name "Kung Pao" chicken is derived from this title.
During the Cultural Revolution, the dish's name became politically incorrect because of its association with Ding. The dish was renamed "Fast-fried chicken cubes" (Hongbao Jiding) or "chicken cubes with seared chiles" (Hula Jiding) until its political rehabilitation in the 1980s

One day, Ding Baozhen visited the home of his good friend, Wang Xiaoqin, where he looked forward to devouring his customary plate of steamed chicken. On this occasion, however, there was not enough time to steam the bird, so Wang Xiaoqin chopped it into small cubes, added dry chili peppers and garlic, and boiled it. As soon as the improvised dish hit his taste buds, Ding Baozhen was full of praise for Wang's adventurous cooking style.

Ding Baozhen, governor of Sichuan, held a banquet for his colleagues. Wang was also invifed, and when the guests tasted his dish, they extended their compliments, and asked what it was called. Ding Baozhen was stumped. Although he had enjoyed this dish for 10 years or more, he had never given it a name, and the illiterate Wang was unable to assist.

One of the guests suggested that it be given Ding's official title. It was thereafter known as Gongbao Jiding. It was only a matter of time before the ingredients and cooking method were made public. This Sichuan recipe has been handed down over generations, and is now a national favorite.

Gongbao Jiding is a delicate mix of flavors that combine sweet, savory and spicy. It has even been canned and sent to outer space, for the delectation of Chinese astronauts.

The original Sichuan version uses chicken as its primary ingredient. In this original version, diced chicken is typically mixed with a prepared marinade. The wok is seasoned and then chili peppers and Sichuan peppercorns are flash fried to add fragrance to the oil. Then the chicken is stir fried and vegetables, along with peanuts, are added. Shaoxing wine is used to enhance flavor in the marinade.

Kung Pao chicken starts off with fresh, moist, unroasted peanuts or cashew nuts. These are often used instead of their pre-roasted versions. The peanuts or cashew nuts are dropped into the hot oil on the bottom of the wok first, then deep fried until golden brown before the other ingredients are added.

In Sichuan, or when preparing authentic Kung Pao chicken, only Sichuan-style chili peppers such as facing heaven pepper or seven stars pepper (Chinese: 七星椒; pinyin: Qīxīngjiāo; Wade–Giles: Ch'i1-hsing1-chiao1) are used. Smaller, thinner Sichuanese varieties may also be used.

The most important component of the dish is handfuls of Sichuan peppercorns. It is these peppercorns that give authentic Kung Pao chicken its distinctive numbing flavor. Use of hot and numbing flavor (Chinese: 麻辣味型; pinyin: Málà wèixíng; Wade–Giles: Ma2-la4 wei4-hsing2) is a typical element of Sichuan cooking.


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