50 Chefs for 50 Years and Giada's Pumpkin Spice Cookies

 The House Smells Like Fall!

Giada.  What can I say.  She is one of the smallest Italian women, ever.  I have seen her appearances on the various morning shows, and her cookbooks have been a staple at the store since she started writing them.  I own a few myself.  I like her approach to food, family and her books are pretty straight forward, even a little basic.  She seems like an instinctive cook (which I am; open the vegetable drawer and invent dinner), and her books are written in a way you can change ingredients and understand how things go together.

Another in my vast collection!

This week was my last cooking class of the year, as Thanksgiving looms!  It was a cookbook club class featuring Giada's newest book: Giada's Feel Good Food.  A cookbook, yes, but also a lifestyle book to answer the question she is most often asked: How does a chef (she went to the Cordon Bleu) stay so darn thin!?  It isn't a diet book, no fear, but rather a book full of healthy recipes (nothing artificial), gorgeous pictures and plenty of great information.  It was really one of my favorite classes, likely because it was topped off by Pumpkin Spice Cookies.  I loved them!  I decided to make them at home with a few changes, but lets break them down first.

The original recipe calls for all purpose flour which we used in class and was fine.  I made my home version with Spelt Flour and it was seamless.

The recipe also calls for Raw Sugar.  We used a Demerara Sugar when we made them in class, and I opted for Light Brown Sugar at home, both produced fine results.

The recipe also calls for Raisins, and well, I opted for chocolate chips.  Yes, really.  I love pumpkin and chocolate, and I decided this was going to be my one pumpkin baked good this season, so I went for it.  And the results were just delicious!

At the store we used our famous Pumpkin Butter instead of canned pumpkin.  I was out of pumpkin butter at home, so had to go canned pumpkin.  I bumped up the spices to try and make up for the depth of flavor found in our pumpkin butter, but I would use pumpkin butter it if at all possible.  The recipe calls for 1/2 cup of canned pumpkin, and this really bugs me.  That amount is less than half a can, and what are you going to do with the rest?

And here's where my "aha" moment came.  Prior to class, one of the managers does the grocery shopping for class.  He goes through the scullery for ingredients and lays them all out for me, and there on my cart was a bag of whole allspice.  The recipe of course, calls for ground.  So as I was prepping, I got out the mortar and pestle and ground it up.  Wow!  The aroma was intoxicating, almost overwhelming.  And that came through in the baked cookie in the most delicious, fall-flavored way!  I have been a big fan of fresh nutmeg, fresh ginger, even fresh ground cinnamon, but this was a first.  I immediately went out and bought whole allspice and will never have it anyway but fresh ground again!

Smellavision would be good right about now!

Here's the recipe as written, and my substitutions.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies
by Giada, adapted by me

1 cup all purpose flour  (I used 1 cup spelt flour)
2/3 cup old fashioned oatmeal
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (I used 2)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice (I used 3/4 teaspoon of fresh ground)
3/4 cup Raw Sugar (I used light brown sugar)
1/2 cup canned pumpkin (I used half a can, but you should use Williams Sonoma Pumpkin butter instead!)
1/3 cup safflower oil
1 Tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla (I used 2 of the best vanilla...)
1/2 cup raisins (Ew. I used chocolate chips)

Mix the flour through the all spice in one bowl.  Use a whisk to make sure there are no clumps.  In another bowl, mix the rest of the ingredients except raisins, and again whisk to make sure your sugar isn't clumping.  Finally mix the bowls into one, and stir it up well.  Add your chocolate chips or raisins (or both!).  Drop onto parchment covered baking sheets, and bake about 15-18 minutes at 350˚.  Cool thoroughly before packing into airtight containers. Makes about 30 cookies.

If you have been around awhile, you may have read a similar recipe for Pumpkin Cookies and a nostalgic little story.  Don't tell Betty, but Giada's cookies are tastier! It must be the fresh allspice!  What are you waiting for?  Get in there and bake!

Have you missed the previous chefs?  50 Chefs for 50 Years:
#1 Mom, and Steak In A Bag and Ambrosia Pie
#2 Chuck Williams (founder of Williams Sonoma) and Cheese Souffle and Chuck's Zucchini
#3 Dinah Shore, and Corn Crab Cakes with Jalepeño Tartar Sauce
#4 Deborah Madison, and Summer Squash Tatines
#5 & 6 Eli and Max Sussman, and The Best Fall Dinner EVER!
#6 Ina the Barefoot Contessa and Chopped Cape Cod Salad
#7 & 8, Julee Russo and Sheila Lukins, The Silver Palate and Chicken Puttanesca

#9 Paul Prudhomme and Mirliton Pirogues Stuffed With Andouille and Shrimp

May I Have Your Autograph?

I've collected autographs from a young age. It started with an autograph book that everyone at grade school would sign (we didn't have yearbooks until high school). As I got older I would grab an autograph on whatever I had. Harry Caray on a napkin when I met him in a bar (where else?), Little Oscar (the Oscar Meyer "little person")on a Walt Disney World menu circa 1974,programs from PGA tournaments, NCAA tournaments and all sorts of sporting events. After I got married, my husband became sort of obsessed with signed objects. Pete Rose will never be in the Hall of Fame, does that make a signed ball more or less valuable? Baseball bats, home plate, golf balls, baseballs, footballs, helmets, jerseys. But seriously, who falls faster off the popularity scale than an athlete. One arrest, one bad season, one life changing injury. It all becomes nothing more than clutter.
I, on the other hand like culinary autographs. I'll never get Julia or James, and wouldn't pay out the wazoo for one for fear it would be a fake. I would have loved Richard Sax as I have almost all of his books. Jacques Pepin, Tom Colicchio, and Anthony Bourdain are on my current chef wish list to add to my small but nice collection.
My dad was a grocer and over the years we were very lucky with the people we met and places we would go.
In 1985 when I was planning my wedding, no one in Iowa knew who Martha Stewart was. I was introduced to her work by my florist who raved about her first book, Entertaining. I found it at the library and read it cover to cover. I rechecked that book out as I planned our wedding, and my cake can be found on page 269. Just after the wedding, my parents were at an event at a California winery, and Martha was a speaker. My mom bought a book and had it signed for me. Somewhere in the course of that day, somebody took it. (If you have that book inscribed to Susie, it could be mine!) When word got back to the hosts, they sent my mom another book and a hand written card from Martha to me, it says "For Susie, Be entertaining always! Martha Stewart". I taped it to the front of my book, and a collection was born.
The next book was also from an event my parents attended, this one hosted by Dinah Shore. Now very few people younger than me know who she is, but I was a big fan of the afternoon talk shows in the summer. I would sit on our huge screened in porch and watch Merv Griffin and Phil Donahue. Back then it was entertainment, not reality TV, and Dinah was a frequent guest of Merv's. She signed her book, American Kitchen, "To Susie, Have Fun Cooking! Dinah Shore". She was really part of old Hollywood and her recipes are dotted with little stories from her life. She was 70 when the book was published.
In the winter of 1994, Christina was a baby, Nic just a toddler, and we would spend a few weeks in the winter in Florida. One weekend I spotted a Shipwreck Party at a restaurant in Pass-a-Grille called the Hurricane. I dragged both kids and my parents, and met the cast of Gilligan's Island. I have seen every episode at least 3 times as it was a year round staple, every day 3:30. We used to play Gilligan's Island in the woods behind our house, what fun to be shipwrecked! They were there selling Mary Ann's Gilligan's Island Cookbook. Bob Denver (Gilligan), Dawn Wells (Mary Ann) and Russell Johnson (the professor) were there to sign. I bought one for my childhood best friend Barb Lingle, because she was most likely the one I watched every episode with and my high school best friend, Mary Beth, because it really was a part of all of our childhoods. This book isn't a culinary classic, but it is full of trivia, pictures, episode guide and, count 'em, 13 recipes for coconut cream pie!
One of my next books came from a real culinary icon. Chuck Williams. Many people know little about the man that founded my place of employment. He had a hardware store in Sonoma, CA and after a trip to France, he was enlightened much like Julia Child. He began to sell French copper cookware in his hardware store. As his product lines grew, so did his store, and the rest is retail history. I met Mr. Williams at the Williams Sonoma in Las Vegas in 1999. I was out there for my dad's 60th birthday, and popped my head in the store looking for someone I knew that had transferred to that store. I had only been working for the company a few years, and he couldn't have been nicer to me. There was no customers in the store, and I'm not exactly sure why he was there. I bought a book called Williams Sonoma Savoring Italy, and he signed it "For Susie, with inspiration to cook! Chuck Williams". He is a testament to living right. He is now into his 90's and has spent his life eating great food and drinking good wine. It has been my pleasure to work for him for the last 11+ years, I look forward to many more!

The last 3 are what you might consider television personalities. Ina, Giada and Wolfgang. Ina and Giada are being handled by corporations and networks. Their signings (in my experience) have rules. No personalization, no photos (although that rule was bent for the hundreds of people who complained), and because of their enormous popularity, you wait hours for a hello, sign and go. But hey, Back to Basics by Ina Garten and Giada's Kitchen by Giada de Laurentis are great cookbooks, and the autograph is just an added bonus!
Wolfgang Puck was one of the earlier celebrity television chefs. I would read about him in the cooking magazines and see clips of him on TV. When I would go to Los Angeles to visit my sister she would humor me and take me to the Wolfie restaurants: Chinois on Main, Spago, Granita and Postrio. I never saw the master at work however, but of course Scott, who runs smack into celebrities all the time (honest) was at Postrio and meets him. He introduces himself, chats up Wolfie and gets me a book. Adventures in the Kitchen, signed "to Susie, good luck, Wolfgang Puck".
To be honest, I did travel across the country for Ina and Giada, but I don't really hunt these things out.I simply take advantage of signings when they come.
Williams Sonoma in Saddle Creek is hosting a book signing by a Birmingham author and restaurateur, Frank Stitt. I am most impressed that he was on the PBS series, Great Chefs, I loved the program and its easy flow. He is most noted recently, however for Highlands Bar and Grill in Birmingham where he is famous for his French cuisine and he recently opened Bottega which focuses more on the Italian cuisines. He was just announced as a finalist for the 2009 James Beard Awards and has been featured in Southern Living. He will be signing his book Bottega Favorita, A Southern Chef's Love for Italian Food, Thursday Feb. 26, between 1-3pm. The book must be purchased at Williams Sonoma for the signing. Of course I will attend and blog!
So another autograph to add to the collection. Keeping my eye out for other signings, and feeling a little hankering for coconut cream pie....Mary Ann's? Ginger's? Maybe Mrs. Thurston Howell III's version, hell, she probably ordered it from the bakery! Until the next...