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| Power Style Wellness Connections |
Confessions of a Baking Phobic
By Kim Crum • Photos by Ewa Wojtkowska
How children helped one woman recover.
Accomplished pastry chefs need not read
on. This article will not teach you fabulous
new techniques or cookie recipes. I write this
for those of us who suffer from baking
phobia, which is worsened by the holiday
season. We feel pressured to prepare platters of assorted cookies shaped like
angels, stars or trees, brushed with egg yolk, sprinkled with red and green
crystals, or iced with sugary frosting. Our palms sweat and breath quickens as
we contemplate the untapped potential of our electric mixers. Our cakes
collapse, our frosting hardens too quickly, and our pastry dough cracks.
So we make excuses: “I don’t have time to bake” or “I’m watching my weight.”
Some of us go to extremes to avoid baking: “I suppose I could have stayed home
and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my
profession,” Hillary Clinton said in 1992.
At the time of Hillary’s famous cookie comment, I was a stay-at-home mom who
had, arguably, given up a fabulous career to stay home and bake cookies.
When I first heard her remark I was neither baking nor hosting a tea. I was in my
kitchen preparing supper and negotiating the chaos created by two young
children. At first I was offended by Hillary’s comment which implied that baking is
a delightful recreational activity enjoyed by chatty housewives with too much time
on their hands. Not so for this homemaker. Neither motherhood nor baking came
easily for me.
My husband affectionately referred to one of my early baking attempts as
“roasted dough balls.” My oatmeal-raisin cookies emerged from the oven as dry,
dense orbs, suitable only for the mouth of a Rubbermaid. It would have been
easier for me to design a massive healthcare plan than to roll out sugar cookie
dough to its perfect thickness. It seemed unfair that the only time I wanted to be
like my mother, I wasn’t. She baked trays of Christmas confections — chocolate
iced cookies ornamented with red maraschino cherries and buttery-nutty
confections rolled in powdery sugar. She baked homemade Toll House cookies
that infused the house with the fragrance of warmed brown sugar and chocolate.
My choice to stay at home with children seemed to have one discomforting
unintended consequence: I was expected to bake. Baking is part of the stay-at-
home-mom job description, as in “Mrs. Crum, will you bring two dozen cookies to
the pre-school holiday party?” What was a baking phobic to do? I might have let
the bakers at Kroger worry on my behalf, but I decided to honor the advice of
Hillary’s idol, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “You must do the thing you think you
cannot do.”
Armed with an apron, a big spoon, an electric hand mixer, assorted cookie
cutters, and a “no-fail” recipe contributed by another pre-school mom, I
awkwardly baked my first sugar cookies. My goal was to successfully complete
two dozen edible, cut cookies: a realistic goal that allowed me to toss three
dozen failures. During my first sugar-cookie baking session, and the ones that
followed, I discovered a secret. Baking is more fun when you do it with your
children. And since my children were the reason I had to bake, it only made
sense to include them in the annual holiday baking. As it turned out, their
pleasure made me enjoy the activity. We baked my mother’s pecan puff recipe,
which the girls still refer to as “eyeball cookies” for their rounded shapes. We
baked gingerbread men and women, as well as cream cheese sugar cookies.
Our platters were loaded with colorfully sprinkled and frosted confections, not all
of them pretty enough to eat.
Years later, I am free to pursue a fabulous career, and my girls are quite
comfortable with their electric mixers. While I’m grateful for their successes, and
mine, I do miss the messy pleasure of baking with small children: the floured
faces, the one-legged gingerbread men that look like Civil War veterans, the
angels with broken wings, the gingerbread-women wearing rainbow-colored
dresses with cinnamon buttons. I even miss the way the kitchen looked after we
baked: the flour that coated the kitchen cabinets like dry wall dust, the hardened
egg yolk and droplets of food coloring on clothing and countertop. Baking with
children requires fortitude, deep cleansing breaths, and positive self-talk. But
the memories make moments of terror and hours of clean-up worthwhile.
You might remember that Hillary regretted her televised cookie comment. She
quickly apologized and published her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. Then she
proceeded to fulfill her chosen profession. I am not jealous. By not being home
to bake, Hillary has probably missed the chance to perch on miniature chairs in
a pre-school classroom, trying to persuade a group of four year olds that the
green frosting should go on the tree-shaped sugar cookies, rather than in their
mouths.
And I will never be a Senator.
HILLARY’S CHOCOLATE CHIP RECIPE
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush baking sheets lightly with vegetable oil.
Combine flour, salt and baking soda on waxed paper.
Beat together shortening, sugars and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until
creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in rolled oats and then chocolate chips.
Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes
or till golden. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool
completely.
CREAM CHEESE SUGAR COOKIES
Provided by Vivian Steinbock
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk (reserve white)
2 1/4 cups flour
In large bowl, combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond extract, vanilla
and egg yolk. Blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off.
Stir flour into butter mixture until well blended.
Chill dough two hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. While the oven preheats, roll out dough on lightly
floured pastry parchment or waxed paper, to 1/8-inch thickness. (Roll out from
the center of the dough in each direction).
Cut into desired shapes with lightly-floured cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch
apart on ungreased baking sheets. Leave cookie plain or brush with slightly
beaten egg white and sprinkle with colored sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10
minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. Frost and decorate if
desired.
PECAN PUFFS
Provided by Priscilla Garts
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pecans
1 cup cake flour
Make butter mixture. Beat butter until soft. Add sugar and blend until creamy.
Add 1 tsp vanilla. Grind 1 cup pecan meats. Sift (before measuring)1 cup flour.
Stir the pecans and flour into butter mixture. Roll dough into small balls. Place
dough on a greased baking sheet.
Bake cookies in a 300 degree oven.
Roll hot cookies in confectioner’s sugar. Cool rolled cookies. Roll cooled cookies
in confectioner’s sugar.captions: Stella and Josephine are proud
of the cookies they helped the writer bake in her home kitchen. Inviting children
to help with
holiday cookies, makes the process more enjoyable for moms who don't enjoy
baking alone.Rosalie and Josephine, mother and daughter,
roll and cut sugar-cookie dough.
Writer Kimberly Crum can be reached at (kimcrum@iamtodayswoman.com).
By Kim Crum • Photos by Ewa Wojtkowska
How children helped one woman recover.
Accomplished pastry chefs need not read
on. This article will not teach you fabulous
new techniques or cookie recipes. I write this
for those of us who suffer from baking
phobia, which is worsened by the holiday
season. We feel pressured to prepare platters of assorted cookies shaped like
angels, stars or trees, brushed with egg yolk, sprinkled with red and green
crystals, or iced with sugary frosting. Our palms sweat and breath quickens as
we contemplate the untapped potential of our electric mixers. Our cakes
collapse, our frosting hardens too quickly, and our pastry dough cracks.
So we make excuses: “I don’t have time to bake” or “I’m watching my weight.”
Some of us go to extremes to avoid baking: “I suppose I could have stayed home
and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do was fulfill my
profession,” Hillary Clinton said in 1992.
At the time of Hillary’s famous cookie comment, I was a stay-at-home mom who
had, arguably, given up a fabulous career to stay home and bake cookies.
When I first heard her remark I was neither baking nor hosting a tea. I was in my
kitchen preparing supper and negotiating the chaos created by two young
children. At first I was offended by Hillary’s comment which implied that baking is
a delightful recreational activity enjoyed by chatty housewives with too much time
on their hands. Not so for this homemaker. Neither motherhood nor baking came
easily for me.
My husband affectionately referred to one of my early baking attempts as
“roasted dough balls.” My oatmeal-raisin cookies emerged from the oven as dry,
dense orbs, suitable only for the mouth of a Rubbermaid. It would have been
easier for me to design a massive healthcare plan than to roll out sugar cookie
dough to its perfect thickness. It seemed unfair that the only time I wanted to be
like my mother, I wasn’t. She baked trays of Christmas confections — chocolate
iced cookies ornamented with red maraschino cherries and buttery-nutty
confections rolled in powdery sugar. She baked homemade Toll House cookies
that infused the house with the fragrance of warmed brown sugar and chocolate.
My choice to stay at home with children seemed to have one discomforting
unintended consequence: I was expected to bake. Baking is part of the stay-at-
home-mom job description, as in “Mrs. Crum, will you bring two dozen cookies to
the pre-school holiday party?” What was a baking phobic to do? I might have let
the bakers at Kroger worry on my behalf, but I decided to honor the advice of
Hillary’s idol, Eleanor Roosevelt, who said, “You must do the thing you think you
cannot do.”
Armed with an apron, a big spoon, an electric hand mixer, assorted cookie
cutters, and a “no-fail” recipe contributed by another pre-school mom, I
awkwardly baked my first sugar cookies. My goal was to successfully complete
two dozen edible, cut cookies: a realistic goal that allowed me to toss three
dozen failures. During my first sugar-cookie baking session, and the ones that
followed, I discovered a secret. Baking is more fun when you do it with your
children. And since my children were the reason I had to bake, it only made
sense to include them in the annual holiday baking. As it turned out, their
pleasure made me enjoy the activity. We baked my mother’s pecan puff recipe,
which the girls still refer to as “eyeball cookies” for their rounded shapes. We
baked gingerbread men and women, as well as cream cheese sugar cookies.
Our platters were loaded with colorfully sprinkled and frosted confections, not all
of them pretty enough to eat.
Years later, I am free to pursue a fabulous career, and my girls are quite
comfortable with their electric mixers. While I’m grateful for their successes, and
mine, I do miss the messy pleasure of baking with small children: the floured
faces, the one-legged gingerbread men that look like Civil War veterans, the
angels with broken wings, the gingerbread-women wearing rainbow-colored
dresses with cinnamon buttons. I even miss the way the kitchen looked after we
baked: the flour that coated the kitchen cabinets like dry wall dust, the hardened
egg yolk and droplets of food coloring on clothing and countertop. Baking with
children requires fortitude, deep cleansing breaths, and positive self-talk. But
the memories make moments of terror and hours of clean-up worthwhile.
You might remember that Hillary regretted her televised cookie comment. She
quickly apologized and published her chocolate-chip cookie recipe. Then she
proceeded to fulfill her chosen profession. I am not jealous. By not being home
to bake, Hillary has probably missed the chance to perch on miniature chairs in
a pre-school classroom, trying to persuade a group of four year olds that the
green frosting should go on the tree-shaped sugar cookies, rather than in their
mouths.
And I will never be a Senator.
HILLARY’S CHOCOLATE CHIP RECIPE
11/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup shortening
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
2 cups rolled oats
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Brush baking sheets lightly with vegetable oil.
Combine flour, salt and baking soda on waxed paper.
Beat together shortening, sugars and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until
creamy. Add eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour mixture.
Stir in rolled oats and then chocolate chips.
Drop batter by rounded teaspoonfuls onto baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes
or till golden. Cool cookies on sheets for 2 minutes. Remove to wire racks to cool
completely.
CREAM CHEESE SUGAR COOKIES
Provided by Vivian Steinbock
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
3-ounce package of cream cheese, softened
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg yolk (reserve white)
2 1/4 cups flour
In large bowl, combine sugar, butter, cream cheese, salt, almond extract, vanilla
and egg yolk. Blend well. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cup and level off.
Stir flour into butter mixture until well blended.
Chill dough two hours.
Heat oven to 375 degrees. While the oven preheats, roll out dough on lightly
floured pastry parchment or waxed paper, to 1/8-inch thickness. (Roll out from
the center of the dough in each direction).
Cut into desired shapes with lightly-floured cookie cutters. Place cookies 1 inch
apart on ungreased baking sheets. Leave cookie plain or brush with slightly
beaten egg white and sprinkle with colored sugar. Bake at 375 degrees for 7-10
minutes or until light golden brown. Cool completely. Frost and decorate if
desired.
PECAN PUFFS
Provided by Priscilla Garts
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tsp vanilla
pecans
1 cup cake flour
Make butter mixture. Beat butter until soft. Add sugar and blend until creamy.
Add 1 tsp vanilla. Grind 1 cup pecan meats. Sift (before measuring)1 cup flour.
Stir the pecans and flour into butter mixture. Roll dough into small balls. Place
dough on a greased baking sheet.
Bake cookies in a 300 degree oven.
Roll hot cookies in confectioner’s sugar. Cool rolled cookies. Roll cooled cookies
in confectioner’s sugar.captions: Stella and Josephine are proud
of the cookies they helped the writer bake in her home kitchen. Inviting children
to help with
holiday cookies, makes the process more enjoyable for moms who don't enjoy
baking alone.Rosalie and Josephine, mother and daughter,
roll and cut sugar-cookie dough.
Writer Kimberly Crum can be reached at (kimcrum@iamtodayswoman.com).
