Welcome back, dear readers, for Peschel Press’s monthly newsletter. Since Christmas is coming and we’re all busy, I’ll keep this short.
My dad’s been in the hospital, then rehab, and now, it looks like he’ll come home for Christmas. He seems to be doing better. The crisis began when he developed another urinary tract infection. They’re painful for everyone but if you’re older, they can start a cascade of other health issues, including worsening dementia. If you’ve got elderly relatives and friends, watch out for them. My mother is coping. We’re all coping.
The kitties are settling in. They show up regularly in our Instagram feed, trying to earn their kibble.
We plan to press [publish] on The Complete, Annotated Man in the Brown Suit within the next few weeks. We’ll know better by my newsletter in January of 2022. The same is true of The Vanished Pearls of Orlov.
We’re planning our event schedule for 2022 and so far, we’ve signed up for Malice Domestic. As always, it’s in Bethesda, Md. Dates this year are 22 – 24 April 2022. This is the first time Malice has been in-person since the shutdowns began in March of 2020 so we’re looking forward to it. We’ll have our complete line of books, cloth bags, cloth bookmarks, and kisses for anyone who wants one.
We hope to see you there!
After that, well, sign-ups don’t begin for book events until January or later. Many groups that hosted them are gun-shy after the last two years. As we learn more, we’ll let everyone know via the newsletter, the website, and our Instagram account.
After that, my crystal ball is completely overcast as to book production schedules, events, and family issues. We’ll keep plugging away.
In the meantime, since this is Christmas, enjoy two of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes. You can bake them all year, of course, and you should. They’re very good.
First is Butterscotch Crunchies, our classic powerhouse fusion of sugar, salt, and crunch. We don’t hand them out at events since the pandemic began so you’ll need to bake your own to experience their deliciousness.
Second is Blue Eyes. This is a buttery-rich, anise-flavored bite-sized cookie with — what else? — a heart of blue sugar. This recipe uses a lot of blue sugar, so I learned how to make my own.
I include my colored sugar recipe so you can make as much colored sugar in whatever color you need for your own recipes. Once you’ve made colored sugar, you’ll never buy those teensy, overpriced jars at the supermarket again.
If you don’t like anise, use another flavor of extract and change the sugar color. Cinnamon? Red sugar. Peppermint? Pink sugar. Mint? Green sugar. Lemon? Yellow sugar. You get the idea.
Enjoy the holidays, tell the people you love how you feel about them, and join us again in January as we contemplate a new, hopefully saner year.
God bless you all and thank you for being our readers.
PESCHEL PRESS BUTTERSCOTCH CRUNCHIES
a powerhouse fusion of sugar, salt, and crunchiness
This recipe makes a lot of cookies, 10 dozen or more. You’ll eat every one of them, sighing and groaning. They are stunning when warm from the oven and the brickle bits are molten.
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
4 tsp salt (yes, this amount is correct)
4 sticks (1 lb.) butter, softened (NO SUBSTITUTES)
3 cups dark brown sugar, packed
4 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tsp rum or maple extract (optional)
3 8oz bags Heath Bits O’ Brickle Toffee Bits
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. If you don’t use parchment paper, you will never get the cookies off the cookie sheets no matter how heavily you grease the sheets.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside.
In a very large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs, vanilla extract, and rum extract until very light and fluffy.
Gradually add dry ingredients, mixing well after each addition. When the flour mixture is blended in, stir in all three bags of Heath Bits O’ Brickle Toffee Bits, one bag at a time.
Drop by well-rounded teaspoonfuls (the small ones you eat dessert with, not the ones you use to measure salt with) onto the parchment-covered cookie sheets. The dough balls should be a scant inch in diameter. Leave several inches of space around each ball of dough as these spread with abandon.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes per sheet at 375 degrees. The cookies will still be molten from the oven so they REQUIRE five minutes of time cooling ON THE COOKIE SHEET after coming out of the oven. Then, transfer the cookies to wire racks so they can finish cooling.
Even when fully cooled, these cookies are sticky. Storing them between layers of waxed paper will prevent sticking. They freeze beautifully. The batter can be made ahead of time and refrigerated until ready to bake. Cold from the fridge batter won’t spread in the oven quite as much as room temperature batter.
PESCHEL PRESS BLUE EYES COOKIES
If you like anise flavor, you’ll like these. Otherwise, change the flavoring to something you prefer. Use a different color of sugar to fill the cookies.
This recipe makes about 3 dozen blue eyes. It doubles or triples beautifully. Use the leftover egg whites for meringues.
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup white granulated sugar
2 sticks or 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
2 large egg yolks (save the whites for something else)
1 1/2 teaspoons anise extract
1 1/2 teaspoons ground anise (optional if you really like anise)
Blue sugar (recipe follows)
Preheat oven to 350°. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Sift together flour, salt, and optional ground anise.
In a larger bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg yolks one at a time. Beat in anise extract.
Beat in the flour mixture, a portion at a time. Mix it in thoroughly before adding in more flour. You’ll need to use your hands. The dough will be very soft and stiff.
Using a regular teaspoon (the kind you eat dessert with) from small balls of dough about one (1) inch across. Place the balls on the cookie sheet with one inch between balls: they don’t spread much.
Flatten the balls and press a deep well into each ball with your thumb.
Fill each depression with 1/8 teaspoon of blue sugar.
Bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned. Move to racks to finish cooling.
PESCHEL PRESS COLORED SUGAR
After you’ve made colored sugar, you’ll never buy another overpriced teensy jar at the supermarket again. You can make it any color you want. As long as you dry the sugar out in the oven, it will keep indefinitely.
For each color of sugar, you’ll need a glass jar with a tight-fitting screw-top lid. A pint jelly jar or thoroughly washed small jam jar works perfectly. The jars must be well-scrubbed and bone-dry.
Preheat the oven to 150° and have a dry, ungreased, rimmed baking sheet ready.
Fill the jar with sugar.
Pour the sugar into a bowl large enough you can stir it around easily.
Add liquid food coloring (like blue!) drop by drop, stirring and stirring until the sugar changes color. Add coloring until the sugar’s color is darker than what you want. It will lighten after drying.
Pour the sugar onto the rimmed baking sheet and spread it out into a thin, even layer.
Bake the sugar at 150° for twenty minutes, stirring every five minutes to thoroughly dry the colored sugar without melting it.
Scrape it up and press the sugar through a colander to break up any lumps and store in the jar; it should fit perfectly.
Start by making the colors that come in the box of liquid food coloring. Then, experiment by mixing colors such as red and blue to get purple. More food coloring will give you a darker, more intense color but it may take longer to dry out completely.
If the colored sugar is completely dry, it will keep indefinitely in the tightly sealed jar.