I drove into the southern heartland of Saskatchewan last week, threading through the Qu’Appelle Valley, rolling down undulating slopes past hoodoos to the valley floor, across the bridge, then back up again to the upper deck of land that faces south.
The escarpment in the south end of the province remains invisible to anyone traversing it along the Yellowhead or TransCanada Highways. That upswell is the Missouri Coteau, the glacial moraine plateau that slopes across the southern corner of the province.
The river valley and the eroded surface of the coteau provide evidence of the last ice age’s passage, although the coteau’s western slopes sat above the passage of the ice. But the escarpment’s origins go back farther than the last ice age, to the late Mesozoic about 30 million years ago.
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Deep horizontal and vertical fissures buckled the crust ‘s sedimentary layers under internal pressure, heaving, subsiding and elevating the coteau.
When I traverse that landscape, I think of baking. Something about the layers speaks of the construction and textures of cakes and cookies.
The glacial deposits make me think of cake or cookies with chopped-up and mixed-in external elements, like chunks of chocolate, chopped ginger or broken-up candy canes.
Bedrock is all about sponge cake, biscotti or even sheet cookies, while shale clearly evokes my late Grandmother Smith’s classic shortbread cookies, with their distinctive layers like slate or sedimentary rock. Moraine, with its rubble, is suggestive of a cake with nuts, coconut, or broken candy bits strewn over icing and settled along the outer edge.
Last week, I was en route to Shurniak Art Gallery in Assiniboia, about 100 kilometers north of the medicine line, where I’d been invited to present a poetry reading in my role as Saskatchewan Poet Laureate. I didn’t expect to see a literal re-enactment of my cookie metaphor in the gallery’s building itself.
The front exterior was home to a Joe Fafard foal, metal head cocked in the inimitable curiosity of baby animals. I toured the gallery, paying close attention to a travelling exhibit of fibre arts, the resident collection of Group of Seven works, and a painting by the late Wynona Mulcaster, or Nonie, as I’d known her back in the day while she’d been my dressage instructor — a far cry from her vocation as artist!
After the reading, we congregated in the adjacent café, Fresh Start, operated by operations and collections manager Jared Williams’ partner, Marita Williams, for cake and coffee.
That’s where I spotted the Cookie Bar, and fell in love with it instantly: a wooden cart, its counter surface and two raised rear shelves bearing about thirty glass jars, each containing a different variety of house-made cookie. Gingersnaps, chocolate drops, peanut butter, lemon, chai tea…
My drive south was blessed by the ancient Roman baking goddess, Fornax, as well as Isis, who, as the Egyptian goddess of magic, taught women how to bake, brew beer and weave, all magic of the highest order.
So first we eat, then we undertake the transformation of ingredients into cookies.
Triple Ginger and Chocolate Biscotti
The word biscotti means double cooked in Italian, and so they are, for that irresistible crunch.
These are the perfect midafternoon pick-me-ups with coffee, and the best digestif around. They are ideal keepers, and their complex flavours ripen with time, making them the ideal holiday gift. Half-dipping each cooled cookie in melted dark chocolate will up your game.
This recipe is from my 2004 book, The Curious Cook at Home. Cook’s note: In the recipe, I specify Purity brand cornmeal because of its texture. Makes 36 biscotti.
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 cup chopped or sliced almonds
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/4 cup finely grated fresh ginger
- 1/2 cup diced crystallized ginger
- 1/2 cup chopped dark chocolate
- 1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup Purity cornmeal
- 1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- Pinch of kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 325 F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.
Cream the butter and sugar on high speed for 10 minutes, scraping down several times. Add the eggs, then beat on high speed for 10 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and mix until blended.
Divide the dough in half. Transfer the dough to the baking sheets. Run cool water over your hands prior to shaping so dough will not stick.
Shape into logs about one inch shorter than the baking sheet, 1 1/2 inches across and 1/2 inch high. Use the flat of your hand to flatten and tidy the sides.
Bake for 23-28 minutes, until the dough is firm and cooked throughout. Cool on the tray for 15 minutes. While the logs are still warm, slice into fingers on the angle, each about 1/2 inch wide.
Reduce the oven temperature to 300 F. Place the cookies, cut side up, on the baking sheets and bake again for 20 minutes or until completely dry but not browned. Cool, then store in a cookie jar.
