The cookie jar meets darwin

One of the biggest frustrations for me as a cook/foodie in France is all the work that goes into converting, adapting, finding ingredients, and then having to figure out how to make my American recipe anyway with what I can find in France. After 15+ years in France, I've got a good handle on it all.

I call it darwinism for recipes...

Here, my chérs readers (if there are actually any besides my friend L in NJ and my parents...), is my first public and published darwinized American recipe. I am proud to share the article I wrote for My American Market on my blog. The article originally appeared here. So with no further ado, my first published darwinized recipe...

"My mother used to make these amazing teddy bear breads that she would give to my teachers for the holidays. But now that I’m a parent, I’m amazed that she found the time, patience and energy to bake bread, any kind of bread, for my teachers.

Giving a holiday gift to your teacher in France (or at least in Lille) is just as important as it was back in New Jersey. But after 2 years of baking cookies for 2 people at school plus the 10 people at my son’s crêche (about 4 dozen each of chocolate chip and spice crinkles), I needed to find an easier and less time consuming gift that still retained the personal, American touch.

(this is the actual jar I gave to my daughter's teacher)

Enter “the cookie jar”: the perfect homemade, easy, very American gift for teachers. You need only a few minutes, no major materials and it’s inexpensive. But, there are two problems with the recipes you find on the internet:

1) they are in English with American measurements and 2) they don’t take into account the differences in American French products like creamier butter or the difference in flour which can cause flat cookies. (I usually do a mix of T110 and 65T) .

All you need is a 1 liter glass Mason jar (like these from Ikea for a couple of euros), some pretty ribbon, recipe cards printed from the internet and the ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cup (270g) all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon (3 g) baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon (3g) salt
• 9 oz (250g) chocolate chips
• 3/4 cup (150g) packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup (95g) granulated sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla sugar
• 1 ½ cup (160g) butter
• 1 large egg
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ¼ cup oatmeal

I’ve done all the extra work for you as well as added my own touch (the cinnamon and oatmeal can be omitted). If you do use the original recipe (original Tollhouse recipe or chocolate chip oatmeal cookies), remember to add 2 extra tablespoons of flour to the mix to balance out the fat content of the French butter.
To make the cookie mix in a jar, layer the ingredients in the following order. Use the back of a spoon to flatten the layers out as much as possible before adding a new one.

1. flour, baking soda, salt, vanilla sugar and cinnamon mixed well
2. chocolate chips (or equal amount of chocolate pieces)
3. brown sugar
4. white sugar

You can use my recipe card (below) to attach to your jar or create your own with these instructions:

 

And remember that in French, the plural cookies is always used even for a single cookie, attesting to the fact that you can’t eat just one.

The cookies-in-a-jar concept can be used with almost any kind of cookies, here are a few pictures ideas for you:

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Lille Halloween 2012: the sequal

Following up on last year's very successful Halloween endeavor, I'm coming back for more...

Last year, I managed to organize trick-or-treating in my quiet neighborhood and the gaggle of kids (all 8 of them!) really felt like, well, Halloween! So this year, I've decided to expand to the next street! Yes, dear readers, Halloween will take over two Lille streets! (and then the world...).

As with last year, I will distribute flyers with basic information about Halloween like how it's celebrated in the US, what time and what to give and will ask my neighbors to stick the imagine of the pumpkin from the flyer on their window if they are a Halloween friendly house. I found that by inviting the neighbor's to participate, the kids avoided much disappointment and the neighbors avoided much annoyance.

But that's not all!

Halloween falls on a Wednesday this year which also happens to be the day the next bilingual storytime is planned! So the librarians at the Wazemmes library are busy planning a special Halloween storytime full of scary books and songs (does anyone know any?).

I also plan on organizing a pre-trick-or-treat party for the little kids followed of course by a post-trick-or-treat party for the big kids. I was surprised to find jack-o-lantern lights at the big Carrefour supermarket as well as spider webs and spider rings! But, I haven't been able to find costumes...

A couple of years ago, I took on the task of making a pumpkin costume for Suzanne. I followed Martha Stewart's instructions and made it out of an orange pillow case. That costume was used by both kids. Helas, the kids now want to be a cowgirl-vampire and Super Why. I've already started pulling together the pieces of the Super Why costume but not quite sure how to attack the cowgirl-vampire thing.

I am also planning the menu which will be full of skeleton cookies, ghoulish drinks and spider cupcakes. We plan on going to the local farm this weekend to pick apples and to pick up some pumpkins for carving.

And last but not least, I have yet to ask my kids' teachers if I can do something Halloween-y in class. I'm not sure how it will go over now that Suzanne's in "big school".  You can be in French school but still have some fun...right?

New Year, new projects: BCE (best cookies ever)

The French have a severe distaste for peanut butter, and that's putting it mildly. Peanut butter is to Americans what nutella is a to the French. Yet, I have grown to dislike nutella and peanut butter over the years, probably more to do with memories of back packing through Europe with a pb jar in my bag (the ingenious idea of my then boyfriend) than my own frenchization. This has not, however, prevented me from indoctrinating my children into loving peanut butter...

So when I saw a recipe for flourless peanut butter cookies in the December issue of Real Simple, I figured I'd try the cookies since the recipe was, well, real simple. But I wasn't going to like them. But you know what? They may actually be the best cookies I've ever made. No, seriously. The best...And I've made lots of cookies, especially recently as we've been avoiding gluten in the house.

And while I'm at it, I'm currently working on a new project which has gone from an embryo but less than a baby (not pregnant, just trying to find a metaphor).  Keep your eyes peeled for more on my new project in the new year.

So without further ado, here is my adaptation of the scrumptious, delicious, and highly caloric, sugar-reduced, lazy girl version of the cookie dedicated to Travelling Amber who could use a little scrumptious right now.

2 cups creamy preferably unsweetened peanut butter (can be purchased at organic stores or supermarkets next to the nutella)
3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Mix together pb, sugars, eggs, baking soda, salt and eggs until smooth. Add oatmeal and chocolate chips. Using a soup spoon, place round blobs of dough on a cookie sheet, leaving about 2 inches between cookies. Bake on 350° F (150°C) for 10 minutes. Cookies will puff up a lot, but will deflate as they cool. Let them cool on the sheet for a couple minutes before removing them or they will break and you will have to eat tons of them. Makes about 3 dozen.

Variations : you can make these cookies without the oats and chips. You can also substitute dried cranberries for the chips.

Enjoy!