Cookies are nearly synonymous with Christmastime. Whether leaving them for Santa Claus or the original purpose for the animal cracker box (to hang as an ornament on the tree), it seems everyone enjoys the little sweet treats and make an extra effort to find, bake and eat them for the holidays. In her latest book, Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award nominee Ann Pearlman offers cookie aficionados a fun way to enjoy the little baked delights.
Before the Christmas Cookie Club
The Christmas Cookie Cookbook both a handbook for starting a cookie exchange and cookbook filled with recipes for cookies and candies. The cookbook stems from Pearlman’s first fiction work, The Christmas Cookie Club a story detailing the lives of a group of women involved in a Christmas cookie exchange.
Pearlman, a practicing psychotherapist, lives in Ann Arbor, Mich., is a mother of three, grandmother of four and has penned several non-fiction books. Her book Infidelity: A Memoir exposes the effects of men’s extra marital affairs on the women in their lives through three generations of her own family. Nominated for the Pulitzer and National Book Award, it became a movie for the Lifetime cable network in 2004.
Cookies exchanges would seem less dramatic, there are obstacles, headaches and nerves to overcome. The Christmas Cookie Cookbook gives advice straight from Pearlman’s own experience with the cookie exchange she joined in 2000.
Q&A with Ann Pearlman
Your background isn’t in food and your previous book, The Christmas Cookie Club, wasn’t necessarily about food, did that make it challenging to write a cookbook?
I often wrote kitchen scenes and narratives of recipes in my fiction so that one of my readers commented that reading my books made her hungry. Being in a kitchen and cooking is one of the things I remember most about my childhood. My great grandfather was a baker and my grandmother made complete from scratch meals every day and enlisted everyone to help. So, whether it was experimenting with curry powder with my Mom or baking a coconut cake to look like a lamb with my grandmother, I associate love and fun and, of course, delicious food with cooking.
How is the process of writing a cookbook different/similar from your other writing?
The research is different! For example, I made several recipes to come up with the most perfect almond cookie. Instead of bugging people to read various chapters I shoved food at them, requesting, “Taste this please and tell me what you think.” You get an immediate response from tasters, while it takes time to get feedback from readers. I tried to capture that research in the story about the molasses cookie bake off that is included in the book.
With both food and stories, there’s a wide diversity and variation in all our tastes and opinions!
Food and Society
As psychotherapist, have you (or do you) look at the connection between food and people? Is that an area you would be interested in exploring?
Yes, absolutely. That’s one of the reasons I added the ingredient sections in the novel so that we’d begin to understand the evolution of our foods and the impact on us from the dawn of human history. Our culture presents conflicting messages about food. We’re a society where much emphasis is placed on our appearance and ideals of extreme thinness; at the same time, we’re bombarded with extra large, extra fatty and sugared processed food advertisements.
This impacts all of us. As a result, as a therapist, I’ve worked with people struggling with obesity, bulimia, and anorexia. Then, we examine the compounding issues such as using weight as a way to deal with sexuality, or conflicts with a parent, or needing to maintain control.
As someone who loves to cook and eat and is committed to my own well being, I search out healthy delicious recipes and watch my portions and maintain exercise. For me the issue is the beauty of health and the joy of fabulous food.
Sharing family recipes and traditions is a cornerstone of the club experience, as important as the cookies themselves, do you think something like the club can reconnect us to dying traditions of home cooking and steer more people back to the kitchen?
I hope so. Family members and friends cooking together is a way to have fun, show love, share, and be creative together. Being appreciated for the delicious food we make is reinforcing. It is also a way to save money, a factor about which we’re increasingly aware in these economic times. And, when we cook, we’re able to have healthier food.
Experimenting with Cookie Recipes
When you bake, are you someone who adapts a recipe to make it your own or are you a by-the-book never modify a recipe type of baker?
I am absolutely not a by-the-book baker. I constantly alter and fuss with recipes. For example, I just modified the thumbprint recipe in the cookbook by adding a few dried cherries and cayenne peppers to the chocolate, and then made some with my homemade raspberry jam to which I had added some Torani almond syrup. I love spices and often double certain ones. However, I’m very aware that the chemistry has to be correct for cookies, breads, and cake. So I may play around with the flavors, but I follow the proportion of flours, liquids, and baking powder, soda, or yeast.
But with all other foods-- stews, soups, veggies etc.-- I use the recipe as a springboard for my own improvisation. Marybeth Bayer, my co-author, is a by-the-book baker so we made a great team.
For those lacking family recipes, traditions and stories, what are your best suggestions to find something to share at a club?
We’re making our traditions by what we do today that we enjoy so much that we repeat them. For the recipe, just look up one that sounds yummy and make that. Then that’s your story. Where did you find the recipe? A book? (Perhaps mine?) A magazine? Why did you pick that one? The picture? Because it has apricots in it and you love them? What problems did you have making it? Did your family or friends like it? The dog or the cat? (My cat is a cookie monster!) Guess what you’ve just done? You’ve developed a story. That apricot cookie is now the start of your cookie and holiday tradition. One that you can pass on to your friends and children.
Ann Pearlman's Favorite Cookies
You mention macaroons as an early cookie, what is your favorite cookie to bake?
You can probably tell I love experimenting so my favorite cookie to bake is one I haven’t made yet that has the potentiality to be especially yummy. I also like something extremely challenging like the fortune cookies.
Favorite to eat?
The grandmother’s pecan butter balls. It’s the first cookie recipe in the novel. And baking it transports me to her and her kitchen.
Favorite from the book?
From the cookbook, I love the almond, molasses and chocolate thumbprint cookies.
Tips on Large-batch Cookie Baking
It seems a daunting task even for people who enjoy baking to make that many cookies, what are some production strategies, tip, advice to bake those 13 dozen?
It’s much easier to bake thirteen dozen of the same cookie than thirteen different cookies. First do the math and double, triple or quadruple your recipe and make sure you have enough ingredients. Don’t forget parchment paper. It’s an amazing time saver. Clean off an area (I use my dinning room table) for the cookies to cool. I give myself an entire day and rev up my ipod with lots of cool music. I make one huge batch of batter; Marybeth makes several batches.
I put my cookies on parchment paper and make sure they’re in orderly rows so it’s easier to count up the dozens. I slide off the parchment paper with freshly baked cookies and then slide on a new piece loaded with unbaked cookies. Think about it, you can usually get two dozen cookies on a big cookie sheet. So you really only need seven sheets of cookies. I have fun doing it, listening to my music, dancing around and, of course, nibbling on the delicious results.
Tips for a Successful Cookie Swap
In approaching people to join the club, how do you reassure the new members (cookie virgins) acceptance for both baking abilities and general meshing with the group?
Make sure the invitee likes to bake, and or wants to come to a cookie exchange. When he or she tells you it sounds like fun, ask if she knows what she’s going to make, if not, suggest a tried and true recipe. If he seemed very busy or insecure about baking, I’d suggest an easy recipe (drop cookies and hand molded cookies are usually easy).
Be supportive and also give her suggestions for packaging. It’s easier if the cookie virgin knows a few of the people who are going to be at the exchange, so let him know who the other invitees are, how you know them, and point out what he has in common with them. Your enthusiasm and enjoyment of your friends will come through.
Any tips for the cookie virgins to calm the butterflies?
There’re a few butterflies with anything new and that adds to the anticipation and excitement, but cookie exchanges are pretty welcoming places. We joke a lot about the rules, but I’ve never been to a party where people complained that a cookie tasted terrible. We all just ooohh and aahhh over how delicious and cute they are. The hostess’s positive attitude increases the excitement for the party. And by the end of the night, your baking is finished for the holidays.
We’ve had good friends who love the party, but hate baking and packaging so they come to hang out, take pictures, etc. Of course only the bakers get to take home 12 dozen cookies. When I was a cookie virgin, I was anxious about both the cookies and the packaging, and meeting a bunch of new people. All of it turned out better than I ever dreamed. Lots of new friends, and great cookies!!
Lisa Hechesky - With a background in communications and a passion for food and cooking, bringing together these two passions makes my heart sing. I ...
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