oh dear. I was entirely ready for the crisp, cool arrival of autumn a couple of weeks ago. Heat makes me prickly, I prefer wearing sweaters, and everyone needs more tweed in his or her life. Somehow, the sweet smell of falling (yes, they are decaying, that's why it smells that way), settling leaves makes my day, and few things are prettier than the myriad bright hues the leaves of maple and other deciduous trees turn. It is glorious, the busy season is slowing, and there's the delicious hint of back-to-school excitement in the air.
Alas, just as my reverie of apple and grape picking and crisp mornings kicked into full swing, Indian Summer reared it's silly, cranky head. Not only is the name demeaning (you know, Indians are lazy, therefore they bring in that final, thoughtless bit of summer after fall has already arrived), but I like a season to stick once it's arrived. Yes, winter can be over any time after Valentine's Day, and spring should just move on beyond mud & cold rain asap, but decide already, weather! That's not what happens in Western PA, as evidenced by this week's forecast of highs in the mid-70's.
And so, I'm attempting to bring autumn to my Indian Summer. It's too hot today for anything but bare legs, but I'm also working and my favorite autumnal-colored dress isn't really decolletage-appropriate for work...it requires a sweater. That's fine by me, because autumn and my personal style is all about layering. I've got adorable patterned tights and caramel colored knee boots, too, but there's no way I can manage that without dissolving into a puddle of sweat.
I'll just use another way to bring fall to my door. Apple cider and molasses cookies.Cider is just as good hot or cold, and when it's warm outside, a crisp glass is just what you need at the end of a long day. pour a glass 2/3 full & top with some sparkling mineral water and you've a delightful refreshment. But if you can stand turning on the oven, Ginger Molasses Cookies bring fall right to you.
In my family, we call them Molasses to Rum to Slaves cookies because we have to have a convoluted story for nearly everything. It all begins with the 1969 musical 1776. It's set in Philadelphia the summer of independence and is a remarkably historically accurate portrayal of the men who fought for and against declaring independence from Britain, though they were already in charge of an army fighting for said independence.
After the ratification has been approved and when the haggling has begun over the wording of our Declaration in the middle of the second act, John Rutledge, delegate from South Carolina, sings a rousing, moving, and terribly true song about how every colony is complicit in the slave trade, not just the Southern ones. Called Molasses to Rum, it details the Triangle Trade (from New England with Bibles to Africa, then off to the Caribbean with slaves, then home again with money and rum from the sugar cane plantations) and reminds even those most conscientious delegates that their hands are dirty in "this stinking business."
It is one of my family's most favorite musicals, though more particularly the soundtrack of the late-nineties revival than the campy movie version with the original cast in the seventies. We are also great visitors of Charleson, South Carolina, home of the Rutledge family, a powerful one in the South since, obviously, before the Revolution. However, it all ties back to these cookies from a visit to Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh. One of the great fortifications during the French and Indian War (without which war there would have been a far different American Revolution, if it even existed at all), Fort Pitt has a museum attached at it's location at the conversion of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers into the Ohio. There, I was leafing through an old cookbook and found the Rutledge family Molasses Cookie recipe. It ticked all sort of family and historical memento boxes, so I memorized it, took it home & tinkered with it, and ended up with Molasses to Rum to Slaves cookies.
Molasses to Rum to Slaves Cookies (recipe from Rutledge family)
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
vanilla
cream the butter and sugar together (if you don't have brown sugar, just use a full cup of white and add a tablespoon extra molasses), then add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Beat thoroughly.
4 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Add these ingredients to the wet mixture, mix until incorporated. Then, either roll out like cutout sugar cookies to 1/2 inch thick, cut into rounds or other medium sized shapes OR take heaping tablespoon portions, rolling into a ball, then flatten between your hands to 1/2 inch thick. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes on heavy cookie sheets.
These are a dark brown cookie, and it is impossible to tell how done they are by their color. They will rise a bit, then fall in the oven. After they fall, touch the top of a cookie with your bare finger. If it has no resistance, they need a couple minutes more. If there is a slight to moderate resistance, the cookies are done. Serve alone, with milk or whipped cream, or next to hot or cold apple cider or even hot cocoa. They freeze beautifully for extended storage.
It's almost too warm to bake today, but I think I'll pop some out of my freezer and pretend it is fully autumn.
"Be well. Do good work. Keep in touch." - Garrison Keillor
And so, I'm attempting to bring autumn to my Indian Summer. It's too hot today for anything but bare legs, but I'm also working and my favorite autumnal-colored dress isn't really decolletage-appropriate for work...it requires a sweater. That's fine by me, because autumn and my personal style is all about layering. I've got adorable patterned tights and caramel colored knee boots, too, but there's no way I can manage that without dissolving into a puddle of sweat.
I'll just use another way to bring fall to my door. Apple cider and molasses cookies.Cider is just as good hot or cold, and when it's warm outside, a crisp glass is just what you need at the end of a long day. pour a glass 2/3 full & top with some sparkling mineral water and you've a delightful refreshment. But if you can stand turning on the oven, Ginger Molasses Cookies bring fall right to you.
In my family, we call them Molasses to Rum to Slaves cookies because we have to have a convoluted story for nearly everything. It all begins with the 1969 musical 1776. It's set in Philadelphia the summer of independence and is a remarkably historically accurate portrayal of the men who fought for and against declaring independence from Britain, though they were already in charge of an army fighting for said independence.
After the ratification has been approved and when the haggling has begun over the wording of our Declaration in the middle of the second act, John Rutledge, delegate from South Carolina, sings a rousing, moving, and terribly true song about how every colony is complicit in the slave trade, not just the Southern ones. Called Molasses to Rum, it details the Triangle Trade (from New England with Bibles to Africa, then off to the Caribbean with slaves, then home again with money and rum from the sugar cane plantations) and reminds even those most conscientious delegates that their hands are dirty in "this stinking business."
It is one of my family's most favorite musicals, though more particularly the soundtrack of the late-nineties revival than the campy movie version with the original cast in the seventies. We are also great visitors of Charleson, South Carolina, home of the Rutledge family, a powerful one in the South since, obviously, before the Revolution. However, it all ties back to these cookies from a visit to Fort Pitt in Pittsburgh. One of the great fortifications during the French and Indian War (without which war there would have been a far different American Revolution, if it even existed at all), Fort Pitt has a museum attached at it's location at the conversion of the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers into the Ohio. There, I was leafing through an old cookbook and found the Rutledge family Molasses Cookie recipe. It ticked all sort of family and historical memento boxes, so I memorized it, took it home & tinkered with it, and ended up with Molasses to Rum to Slaves cookies.
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup molasses
2 eggs
vanilla
cream the butter and sugar together (if you don't have brown sugar, just use a full cup of white and add a tablespoon extra molasses), then add the eggs, molasses, and vanilla. Beat thoroughly.
4 1/2 cups flour
3 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
Add these ingredients to the wet mixture, mix until incorporated. Then, either roll out like cutout sugar cookies to 1/2 inch thick, cut into rounds or other medium sized shapes OR take heaping tablespoon portions, rolling into a ball, then flatten between your hands to 1/2 inch thick. Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-15 minutes on heavy cookie sheets.
These are a dark brown cookie, and it is impossible to tell how done they are by their color. They will rise a bit, then fall in the oven. After they fall, touch the top of a cookie with your bare finger. If it has no resistance, they need a couple minutes more. If there is a slight to moderate resistance, the cookies are done. Serve alone, with milk or whipped cream, or next to hot or cold apple cider or even hot cocoa. They freeze beautifully for extended storage.
It's almost too warm to bake today, but I think I'll pop some out of my freezer and pretend it is fully autumn.
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| Pretzel, a puppy not my own but adorable nonetheless. |
http://cdn.svcs.c2.uclick.com/c2/71981cd0c4a1012e2f9000163e41dd5b
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W4E
such a cute cartoon! good thing you signed your comment, though, as it ended up in my spam queue.
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