Cookies and glacé cherries - a lucky dip

"A cookie a day keeps the sadness away. An entire jar of cookies a day brings it back. Anon

I'm not really stuck for inspiration but I felt like a lucky dip and this one was initially marginally disappointing to me, but, as usual, the more I looked into the various associated topics the more interesting it became.

The recipe is called Cherry Delights and is from a small spiral bound book called Cookie Creations. I have only the vaguest memory of buying this book. I think I must have bought it from somewhere like Aldi or one of those pop-up bookshops that have a lot of remaindered stuff. However I am pretty sure I bought it when the grandchildren were small and I thought I would make some cookies with them. And I didn't have a lot of cookie recipes. Actually I don't think I did ever make anything although I don't really know why.

There are all the classic cookies in there as well as some less classic ones, like these cherry ones. It's divided into sections - Classics, Fruit and Nut, Chocolate and then rather more curiously a whole section on Biscotti - which I don't think of as cookies at all and finally a section for the gluten free - well wheat free anyway. There is no author - it's one of those little books churned out for a cheap market.

My first question was What in fact is a cookie and where do they come from? Before I looked it up I had decided in my mind that they were basically American and they were different to biscuits - or biscotti come to that - in that they were thicker, softer and chewier than a biscuit which is crunchy. The closest thing I could think of to an American style cookie was shortbread. I am obviously thinking with my British mind though because Australia has Anzacs just for starters. And they are more like cookies to my mind. So when I looked it up I found that I was sort of right, but not entirely.

Wikipedia was my go to source here - and there is a really quite detailed article on cookies. They seem to think that they originated in Persia in the 7th century AD when they started to use sugar. From here it went to the Arabs, and then to Spain via the Moors. And yes Spain does have quite a few cookie like concoctions. The American thing comes from the Dutch - some of the first settlers of America. They think the word comes from the Dutch 'koekje' which means 'little cake'. The Scots also have a claim to the name, but that one seems to refer to something rather different.

They are obviously not a health food - however much oats and grains and nuts you might put into them, because of the sugar content. So it is interesting to see the gluten free aisle of the supermarket full of cookies and cookie kits. Gluten free, in spite of its healthy associations, is really not necessarily healthy - it just excludes gluten.

Moving on to the glacé cherries which are the flavour component of these particular cookies. Glacé cherries are not the same as maraschino cherries, which tend to be alcoholic, although some recipes for making glacé cherries use maraschino cherries.

Maraschino cherries get their name from a particular variety of cherry called the marasca which comes from Croatia. This cherry was crushed and made into a liqueur called maraschino. Sometimes more marasca cherries were preserved in this liqueur.

Glacé cherries are candied cherries, and the ones you buy in the shops, are, according to several sites that I found, not a healthy thing at all.

"Maraschino cherries are preserved in brine that contains sulfur dioxide and calcium chloride. They are then soaked in red food dye, sugar syrup and other things from a chemical warehouse. Glazed cherries (sometimes called candied cherries) are maraschino cherries' processed further by cooking them in thick flavoured syrup' and talking the stalks off.

Both types of cherries can last unopened in the cupboard for about two to three years.

That is not a food. That is something that can survive a nuclear disaster. We will be dead and the glazed cherry will still be looking good post-apocalypse. No wonder it's so smug looking." Jacqueline Lunn - MamaMia

So having read this I thought that surely one could candy one's own. And indeed one can. However, I found three different ways of doing this which ranged from extremely tedious, to pretty simple.

The extremely tedious came from Country trading Co. and took some eight days. I think you basically kept reheating the cherries in more syrup and then leaving them to dry for a day at a time. At this point (for I could find no other method) I was beginning to understand why I could find no recipes in my cookbook selection - no Maggie Beer, Jane Grigson or River Cottage, not even Eliza Acton. And I was thinking I really couldn't pass this on.

Then I found one from King Arthur Flour, which was much easier but which used bottled maraschino cherries from the supermarket. So possibly with alcohol and also possibly full of chemicals. At this point I despaired of finding something a 'normal' person could use if they could be bothered. And here it is from Sew Historically, which, ironically, is a website about sewing and not about food. And it has two recipes - one Edwardian, and one modern, and both simple, plus a bonus recipe for cherry syrup and what to do with it. So maybe one day when you somehow or other have a lot of cherries (not likely really) and time, have a go. And then maybe make some Cherry Delights. Recipe below:

CHERRY DELIGHTS

125G butter

1 tablespoon sugar

1 tablespoon Golden Syrup

170g plain flour

1 level teaspoon baking powder

few drops of vanilla extract

60g chopped glacé cherries

Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line two cookie sheets with baking paper.

Melt the butter, sugar and Golden Syrup together in a saucepan. Sift the flour with baking powder.

Pour the melted mixture, while hot, into the dry ingredients and mix quickly. Add vanilla and cherry pieces and form into small balls.

Place on cookie sheets, leaving a gap between them. Flatten slightly with a fork, then bake for 12-15 minutes. Remove and cool on a wire rack.