Our Friend, the Cookie

Each year I become more and more devoted to the satisfying virtues of a good cookie. Next to dogs, cookies are man’s best friend. They fill in those moments in the day when one is hungry for something sweet and rewarding.

Neat and tidy, cookies can be eaten without plates, forks or napkins; they can be enjoyed when you are sitting quietly by a window or taking a stroll; they appease one’s appetite when traveling and, with a little milk, can induce sleep on a restless night. But to perform their duty properly, they must be first-rate.

Cookies are not demanding; they can be made in a few easy steps. It is hard to ruin a good cookie if you follow a recipe that has been well-tested. The critical points:

* Make the cookies the shape and thickness that the recipe calls for. Too thick or too thin can spoil the result.

* Watch the timing carefully. Cookies bake in minutes; two or three minutes too long can make them a little drier or crisper than desirable. Cookies continue to bake for a few minutes after they have been removed from the oven, so remove them just a minute before they are done (underbaking is better than overbaking).

This Shaker Spice Cookie meets all the criteria for a blue-ribbon snack: It has spicy flavor and crunchy texture, and it’s a breeze to make. Spread vanilla ice cream over one cookie and top it with another for an ice cream sandwich.

Cunningham’s newest book is “Learning to Cook With Marion Cunningham (Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).

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Shaker Spice Cookie

Active Work Time: 25 minutes * Total Preparation Time: 1 hour

This recipe comes from an excellent cookbook called “Shaker Your Plate: Of Shaker Cooks and Cooking” by Sister Frances A. Carr. This is a book for home cooks: honest dishes with lots of good flavors and easy preparation. This paperback costs $12.95 plus $4 for mailing and is available from the United Society of Shakers, R.R. Box 640, Poland Springs, ME 04274.

2/3 cup vegetable oil

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

* Combine oil, sugar, molasses and egg in a mixing bowl and beat with a spoon until well mixed. Combine flour, baking soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt in a separate bowl and stir with a fork until well mixed.

* Add dry ingredients to vegetable oil mixture and stir until blended. This is a stiff dough. Use 1 tablespoon of dough per cookie. You can roll the dough into 1 tablespoon balls by hand if you don’t have a scoop. Drop dough balls 4 inches apart. Pat each rounded ball down to flatten it just a trifle.

* Bake at 350 degrees until crackly on top and browned. They will get crisp when they cool.

36 (2 1/2-inch) cookies. Each cookie: 82 calories; 17 mg sodium; 5 mg cholesterol; 4 grams fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 0.03 gram fiber.