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MichaelMeckler.com: Blog: Food on Friday: Cranberry, chocolate chip, polenta cookies

Food on Friday: Cranberry, chocolate chip, polenta cookies

22 JULY 2016

I'm a huge fan of the weekly "Cooks Corner" feature in my daily newspaper, The Columbus Dispatch. For decades, readers have sent in requests for recipes, and other readers respond. Quite often, these recipes are far more useful than the recipes featured from cookbooks in the articles in the Food section, as the "Cooks Corner" respondents are sending in recipes that have been made by a home cook over and over again for many years.

I was struck by one of the recipes earlier this year, for a cookie with the unfortunately prosaic name "Cranberry, chocolate chip, polenta cookies". (If a reader has a better name, just send it along.) The cookie uses corn meal along with flour (in a ratio of 1:2; 1:1 is the ratio for corn bread, so the corn meal is not overpowering), and it can easily be made parve by using margarine instead of butter.

The combination of cranberries and chocolate is surprisingly pleasant, with the tartness of the cranberries offset by the richness of the chocolate. And with sliced cranberries from the Paradise Meadow brand now readily available in most grocery stores, the recipe is quick and easy to make.

I've made it twice now, both times with some adjustments. (I've posted a photo of the second attempt on Twitter.) The first time I made it, I substituted parve margarine for the butter. The cookies were soft (which a lot of folks enjoyed, though I don't have a problem with crisper cookies), but I thought there were too many chocolate chips and not enough cranberries. The second time I made it, I used equal amounts (3/4 c.) cranberries and chocolate chips, and I used all shortening. The cookies had a more pleasing flavor, but they weren't as soft. I'll probably go back to using half margarine, half shortening to get a softer cookie, but I certainly can get away with using all shortening if I have to.

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