Cookbook love

In these days of beautifully photographed food blogs, it's easy to abandon cookbooks. I've spent many a lunch hour perusing my favorite sites (smitten kitchen, the kitchn, food gawker, Epicurious, 101 cookbooks) looking for an idea for dinner or fancy lunch. These sites make it easy for me to select recipes with my eyes - we're talkin' close-up shots of vanilla bean speckling pale batter, said batter flowing from a cup into a muffin tin, billowy frosting bursting out of a star tip, finished cupcakes gleaming in subdued and tasteful wrapping colors on a pretty antique plate. Thoughts of, "Oh, yum" are almost immediately followed by thoughts of "I can totally do that!" And sometimes, I do.

In the last year, though, I've been making more of an effort to cook from my cookbooks. It's such a blind adventure. Mastering the Art of French Cooking, for instance, provides illustration but no photos. The older cookbooks that do offer photos are usually in such need of color correction (or color, period), that I try not to be distracted by them. So rather than making decisions on what to cook based on pretty photos, I'm selecting recipes based on method, season, and imagination. Or based on how much I just really want to bake something out of this adorable 1933 home baking book I found at a local antique store:

The butter cake family is one I greatly look forward to getting cozy with in the coming months. Stay tuned for that.

But because it was Thanksgiving weekend and I knew that pumpkin pie trumps all fork desserts, I consulted a 1971 cookie cookbook I nabbed from my mom's vast collection for something simple, spicy, festive - something I could nibble on all weekend. The end product was a honeyed gingersnap.

Honeyed gingersnaps and Earl Grey at 3 p.m. on a Friday afternoon

This is a lovely alternative to molasses-based gingersnaps. The center is a little chewier than you'd expect from this kind of cookie, but I think the honey gives the ginger that much more room to snap back at you about five seconds in. I sprinkled some natural cane sugar on top before putting the sticky dough drops (this dough is seriously sticky) in the oven.

 Honeyed Gingersnaps

adapted from Homemade Cookies by the Food Editors of Farm Journal

Makes just about 4 dozen modest-sized cookies

 2/3 c. sugar

1/4 c. butter

1+ tsp. ground ginger

3/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 egg

1/2 c. yummy honey

1 1/2 c. sifted flour

Sugar crystals for topping (a few tablespoons worth)

Cream butter, sugar, spices, baking soda, salt and vanilla until it looks like wet sand. Add egg and beat until light and fluffy. Blend in honey. Slowly add flour and blend well.

Drop teaspoon-sized dollops 2 1/2" apart onto parchment lined sheet. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake at a moderate heat (I did 350) 10-15 minutes until lightly browned. Remove from baking sheets immediately and cool on racks.