COOKIE #3 - CHERRY WINKS

What an adorable name for a cookie! You’ve got a one-eyed Cyclops of a cookie flirting with you! Anything personified is my kinda humour. And I love cherry anything. I’m one of those gals that always wanted the red popsicle growing up.  Mostly because I love the flavour, and partly because I used to want to wear it like lipstick. When I had my tonsils out at age 5, they asked me before the surgery what kind of popsicle I wanted when I woke up. I KNOW I told them cherry, but when I came to, they had grape (gasp!) waiting for me instead. And then came the tears. The story goes, that I woke up groggy and told them I wanted purple. But there is NO way that would have happened. To this day, I think they just forgot.

Two cookie monsters today!

The Cherry Wink cookie made its first appearance just slightly before the original 1953 Better Homes and Gardens cookbook was published. The original recipe was created by Ruth Derousseau, who won the Junior First Prize for these cookies in 1950 at the second Pillsbury Bake-Off contest.  They are traditionally Christmas cookies since they are darned with either red or green cherries. I looked up the original recipe that won the contest and BH&G must have wanted to separate themselves from Pillsbury, because there are several differences in the recipes.

My happy helper - Romelito

The original recipe doesn’t call for lemon peel, calls for corn flakes (not wheat flakes), calls for pecans (not walnuts), and dates (not raisins). And this is the only recipe I’ve seen online that calls for candied cherries.  All the others, including the original, call for maraschino cherries. Well, here is how dedicated I am to these recipes – I made my own candied cherries. I searched for them in the grocery store, but couldn’t find them. And with a baby in tote, I wasn’t about to go gallivanting all over Houston to track them down.  So, I made them myself beforehand.

How? Drain a 16 oz jar of maraschino cherries, reserving 1/4 cup of the juice. Combine the reserved juice and ¾ cup of sugar in a small saucepan and place over medium heat, stirring until the sugar is mostly dissolved. Add the cherries, and stir well. Bring the mixture to a boil, then cover the pan and reduce the heat to low. Simmer for 45 min - 1 hour, until the cherries are slightly shrivelled and firm to the touch. Remove from the heat, uncover the pan, and let cool completely. Then remove the cherries and let them dry on a paper towel. Store leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to six months.  Ta Dah!  And they're really tasty!



My 4th o' July Baby! 



First time sifting!

Now onto the baking.  I have a surprise cookie monster in the kitchen helping me with every step – Romel, my friend Mary’s son. He was in charge of the wheat flake smashing, egg cracking, and flour sifting. He did such a great job! Maybe a little chef in the making?  The cookies turned out to have a distinct lemony tang to them. Surprising what just a tsp of lemon peel can do! And the wheat flakes gave them a giant crunch factor.  That’s the good stuff.  The disappointing part was that the candied cherry only added a chewiness to the cookie and no cherry flavour at all.  Waw waaaaw.  I’d like to incorporate some of cherry juice and chopped cherry to the batter next time to maybe give it more of a “red” taste.  Cute cookie, looks awesome, but I hope the original recipe was better than this, otherwise I have no idea how this cookie won Junior First Prize of anything.

Can you spot the blinker? (vs the winker)

Romel and Annalie

Cookie Grade: C = good in theory, lacking in taste

What I was jammin’ to:  the inner workings of a 7 year old’s mind, nonstop. lol