What is it that reminds you of being a child? I think about this a lot now that I have a little boy of my own; I wonder what memories he will cherish of his very rambunctious, fun-filled childhood. Will it be the time we spend at the cottage, swimming and fishing and hiking? Or might it be summer mornings spent at soccer practice with his father? Could it be family gatherings or being taught to hit a baseball or perhaps learning to cook...?
For myself it would probably be learning how to bake cookies as a child. My mother measuring and mixing and me taste-testing and itching to get hold of the dough while also trying to stay upright on the stool. The recipes varied - chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, almond crescents and shortbread. All of them remind me of my mother and of me as a child with a smear of flour across my cheek, smiling maniacally as the warm, sweet morsels emerged from the oven.
If I had to choose one cookie to represent my childhood it would be Jam Jams. My mother made them for bake sales, brownie troop meetings, Christmas dessert trays, weddings, funerals, birthday parties and even sometimes, when we were really lucky, for absolutely no reason at all. Her extremely well-worn, much-loved copy of Edna Staebler's Food that Really Schmecks was always at hand when making just about anything, but especially when baking her favorite cookies.
My mother passed her love of this book along to me when she leant it to me for a year when I moved away from home to go to University. I think I tried just about every recipe in it - all the way from Apple Fritters to Baked Zucchini. I also recall a time when I was afraid of baking my own bread, but upon reading Edna's sage commentary -- "What can you lose? A packet of yeast and two pounds of flour...Besides, you need not have a failure. People who bake bread develop a carefree, happy confidence..." -- how could I not at least give it a try?
Edna Staebler gave me confidence in the kitchen and made me laugh. She taught me about cooking and baking with that same footloose and fancy-free attitude that my own mother had when in the kitchen - that she probably gleaned from reading Edna's books herself. I learned a lot from this woman, whom I never had the joy of meeting, but who will live forever in my heart, and in my kitchen...and hopefully in my own son's memories of baking and cooking next to his mother in the kitchen.
Filled with molasses and not much else (only 8 ingredients in total) these cookies are simple, decadent and perfect anytime, day or night. They are especially good if allowed to sit for a few days...but they very rarely last that long once anyone knows they are made.
Jam Jams
The original recipe calls for a cup of lard and sometimes my mother still makes them this way but I have made them just as successfully using butter and vegetable shortening. I have also added in Muscovado sugar, making the molasses flavor really stand out and the cookies that much richer.
Ingredients:
1/4 cup shortening
3/4 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup Muscovado sugar (has sugar-cane juice rather than molasses)
8 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
about 1⁄4 cup raspberry jam or preserves for filling
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 F. Blend butter and sugars, then add molasses, vanilla and eggs - blending well between each addition.
2. Add flours sifted with baking soda and mix to combine. The dough is super easy to handle - roll it quite thin and cut into rounds.
3. Bake on a parchment lined or greased baking sheet in preheated oven for about 6 or 7 minutes - keeping an eye on them because they go from baked to over-baked in mere seconds.
4. While they are still warm, put two together with raspberry jam spread between them. They become soft and keep well...if someone doesn't eat them all straight away!
Makes about 24 double layer cookies
Recipe from: Edna Staebler's Food that Really Schmecks (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, reprinted: 2001)
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