Petit Riz

guest post by Joanna Ehrenreich / photos by Geoffroy Bablon

When my grandmother passed away, my grandfather went through their house and put things in order. They had retired half way across the country decades earlier from the suburbs of New York to the warm and arid city of Santa Fe, New Mexico. He sent a heavy box filled with my grandmother’s collection of cookbooks, straight to my college apartment.

My grandmother, Fran, or Franny when we were younger, didn’t really enjoy cooking when my mother was growing up. It was a daily chore piled on top of many others for her family with three young children. My mother tells me stories of school lunches made from frozen slabs of meatloaf between two frozen pieces of bread, that would defrost in time for school lunch in her book bag. But when my grandmother moved to Santa Fe, she discovered a love of cooking and the creativity it takes to compose a meal. Grandma Fran was always creative, taking beautiful photographs and selling them at crafts fairs, and she had a great eye for picking out art to adorn the walls of her home. Cooking became a creative outlet for her too, in the second half of her life. This is how I remember her, happy in the kitchen, putting together a feast of brown sugar-rubbed brisket and green bean casserole for her surrounding friends and family, showing off new items like the rotisserie chicken roaster she and my grandfather had bought.

When we visited my grandparents, I remember the marked anticipation during the long cross-country haul for the 70s style Tupperware that awaited us. It was filled with neatly arranged, freshly baked cookies my grandma had prepared for our stay. One kind in particular, a simple buttery shortbread, still brings me back to their sunny brick-floored kitchen. The recipe, which my grandmother shared with me while she was alive and I was just beginning to fall in love with cooking, is still like an old friend.

The box of books contained a healthy mix of classics – Julia Child, Joy of Cooking, Silver Palate – along with a sprinkle of more specialty collections like Betty Crocker’s Chinese Cookbook and a vegetarian hippy cook book. Reading through them on a lazy afternoon is a favorite past-time of mine. I have stumbled upon notes and edits in my grandmother’s spidery cursive hand. Often her words are simple adjustments to account for the baking times at their high altitude in Santa Fe. Other times they instruct me to use less lemon zest, or perhaps add cumin where it wasn’t suggested before.

I feel a connection to my grandmother as I sift through the recipes she once ran her fingers over, and choose what to make for dinner. I can’t help but feel a part of her is in the kitchen with me.

This is the recipe for the cookies that I love. I still don’t know why they are called “Doughnut” cookies.

Shortbread Doughnut Cookies

1 cup butter
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 cups sifted flour

Preheat oven to 375F. With electric mixer cream the butter. Add sugar and beat until blended. On lowest speed gradually add flour, scraping sides to keep the mixture smooth. Cool in refrigerator wrapped in wax paper. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a ¼ inch thickness. Cut into 3×1 inch rectangles; repeat with all of the dough. Place on baking sheet with an inch between cookies. Bake for 13 minutes, reversing direction of the pan once. These should not overbake or brown. Remove from pan as quickly as possible to a cooling rack.

These are wonderful half-dipped in a bags worth of melted chocolate mixed with 2 tablespoons coconut oil, laid out on parchment paper in the freezer to harden to a shell. An alternative that I love, using this shortbread dough as a tart crust:

Berry and Honeyed Mascarpone Shortbread Tart

1 recipe Shortbread Doughnut Cookie dough
16 oz Mascarpone
2 tbsp honey
1 cup assorted berries (sliced if strawberries)

Preheat oven to 375F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough to a ¼ inch thickness in a rectangle. Press down into a buttered rectangular fluted tart pan and bake for 13 minutes – be careful not to overbake or brown. While it bakes, whisk the honey into the mascarpone making sure it is well blended. Once tart crust cools, spread the mascarpone mixture into the tart and sprinkle with the berries.

This is also delightful with fresh cut figs, cherry compote, and anything else that inspires you.