The Trouble With Vermont

It had been weeks, possibly even months, since we'd spent any real time in Vermont, so we were overdue for a visit. It was also just about fall, so when it came time to pick a movie one night, I chose Alfred Hitchcock's The Trouble With Harry,

fig. a: poor Harry

his bizarre and underappreciated dark comedy from 1955, which happens to be set in a small Vermont town at the height of autumn.

fig. b: Hitchcock's Vermont 1

fig. c: Hitchcock's Vermont 2

I could tell you all about the peculiar charms of Hitchcock's film, but others have done it much better already. Suffice to say that although the narrative has quite a bit in common with your average episode of Murder, She Wrote, Hitch's take on murder and mystery in a small New England town is a much cheekier affair. Plus, Shirley Maclaine (in her first appearance on the silver screen) positively shines, and Jerry "the Beaver" Mathers steals virtually every scene he's in. Vermontophiles are in for a special treat, however, because The Trouble With Harry's portrait of The Green Mountain state at its quaint and quirky best has held up remarkably well (even if its mid-1950s setting means that there's a distinct absence of fleece apparel and bumper stickers).

You see, the trouble with Vermont isn't that there's anything terribly wrong with it, the trouble with Vermont is that we love it so. The landscape, the mountains, the towns, the food, the beer. Apparently we're so addicted that when we can't actually be there, we watch films that are set there just to tide us over until our next visit. Sad, perhaps, but true.

Anyway, if you go there right now, you'll find that the Green Mountains are actually pretty multicolored. You'll also find that the colors are quite bright. Not Technicolor + Vistavision bright,

fig. d: AEB's Vermont 1

but bright nonetheless.

fig. e: AEB's Vermont 2

And with those colors the way they are, and temperatures at their autumnal best, now's also the great time for a Vermont hike. We're particularly fond of the Camel's Hump, but one that's a little easier and offers up some similarly impressive views is the Stowe Pinnacle hike.

You get the great views you see above, plus about 2 hours (round-trip) of lush forest

fig. f: touch wood

along a trail that ranges from easy to moderately difficult,

fig. g: VT graffiti

allowing you plenty of opportunities to look around and take in the details.

fig. h: VT heirlooms

A few hours later, after a number of pilgrimages to pick up essentials (coffee, bread, beer) from some of our favorite Waterbury-area haunts, we found ourselves at the City Market/Onion River Co-op in Burlington, admiring the apples. Michelle couldn't believe the selection of heirloom apples, most of which came from Scott Farm. And she was especially happy to see that Scott Farm was growing the infamous Fameuse apple, the original heirloom apple of New France, and an apple that was the most important Quebec variety before the arrival of the McIntosh, but one that has since faded into near obscurity and is now terribly hard to find in la belle province. Which brings me back to the trouble with Vermont--they're awfully good at showing us up.

Michelle recommends using a mix of apples for most of your classic fall apple desserts (pies, crumbles, tarts, galettes). If you can locate a mix of heirloom apples (like the one you see above), all the better. If your mix includes some Fameuses, better still. Trust me.

For directions to the Stowe Pinnacle trail and other hikes in the Waterbury/Stowe region, look here. If you're not the hiking kind, but you'd still like to take in some prime scenery, try the 108 between Jeffersonville and Stowe (via Smugglers Notch), or pretty much the entire length of the 100.

City Market/Onion River Co-op, 82 South Winooski Ave., Burlington, VT, (802) 861-9700

aj

p.s. Thanks to 1,000 Frames of Hitchcock for the screen captures from The Trouble With Harry, and thanks to Tiny Banquet Committee for turning us on to 1,000 Frames of Hitchcock in the first place.

Mexican mystery solved?

Michelle emailed me not long after I posted "The Joy of Mexican Chocolate" to tell me the following: "Sometimes the internet does work...
I typed Saveur Mexican icebox cookies into google and found someone's blog that has the original recipe and who noticed that Saveur put 1/2 c. flour instead of 1 1/2 c. flour by mistake."

According to the said blog the original recipe comes from Maida Heatter's Great Book of Chocolate Desserts. This typo explains why the cookies we made are nearly flourless and why they turned out crisp-style and not like the cookies featured in Saveur's accompanying photo.

The recipe should read as follows:

Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies

1 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup quality “Dutch-process” unsweetened cocoa
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
12 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl and set aside. Put sugar, vanilla, and egg into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add butter and continue to beat on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes more. Using your fingers, work flour mixture into butter mixture until dough is just combined (in other words, do not overwork the dough).

Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 9” log. Wrap each log in parchment paper, twisting ends tightly to make a uniform cylinder. Freeze dough logs for at least 8 hours and as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Unwrap dough and slice each log into rounds and 1/3” thick. Place rounds 1” apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake cookies until slightly puffed and tiny cracks appear on surface, about 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to let cool.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

How are they? Sensational.

aj

The Joy of Mexican Chocolate

If you’re looking for a nice dessert accompaniment to Baja-style fish tacos (see "A Little Taste of Baja in Montreal," directly below), look no further. My sister gave me a call last week and tipped me off to this cookie recipe. She’d tried making them a day or two earlier, and she was raving about them. I’d read the Saveur issue it came from, but somehow I’d glossed over this particular recipe. Maybe it was because this year’s “The Saveur 100” issue was so lackluster. For the past few years their New Year’s extravaganza has been something we really look forward to. The last few lists of Saveur’s faves have not only made our mouths water, they’ve been hugely inspiring. This year, in spite of Editor-in-Chief Colman Andrews’ claim that they, “haven’t run out of things to write about after all,” I think it’s safe to say that the list contains a little too much filler. The smell of bacon? The kitchen window? Peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? Pain au chocolat (not from anywhere in particular, just in general)? C’mon! Don’t get me wrong, the issue as a whole contains a lot of the quality food reportage we’ve come to expect from Saveur, but…

In any case, these Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies are a true winner. I think I’ll even venture to say they’re the best chocolate cookies I’ve ever tasted. When baked on a baking sheet, they turn out thin, like a crisp-style cookie (not like the thick cookies featured in Saveur’s accompanying photograph), but they still manage to have a rich, chewy, chocolaty center to them. This combination of crisp and chewy is ideal, but the real kicker comes from the flavors. The “Mexican” aspect to this cookie comes from the spices, not from the chocolate—any “Dutch-process” unsweetened cocoa will do (although we used Valrhona because we find its flavor to be the best). Your first sensation is the rich chocolate flavor, then, a second or two later, comes the cinnamon, and finally, a few seconds after that, the peppers kick in, giving the chocolate flavor a wonderful spicy warmth. The whole experience is really something else. Oh yeah: and be sure to try a nibble or two of the cookie dough. Michelle and I both thought the exact same thing when we did: Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookie Dough Ice Cream (stay tuned, recipe to follow)!

We brought some Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies to a lovely vernissage (Felicitations, Val!) hosted by our friend Hermine the other night. They were so good, and they were so popular, that she ended up hiding a few of them so that they wouldn’t disappear completely. Today, she asked me if we were going to post the recipe. Voila!

Mexican Chocolate Icebox Cookies

1/2 cup flour
3/4 cup quality “Dutch-process” unsweetened cocoa
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
12 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

Whisk the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, cayenne, salt, and pepper together in a medium bowl and set aside. Put sugar, vanilla, and egg into a large bowl and beat with an electric mixer on high speed until thick and pale, about 3 minutes. Add butter and continue to beat on high speed until smooth, about 3 minutes more. Using your fingers, work flour mixture into butter mixture until dough is just combined (in other words, do not overwork the dough).

Divide dough in half and roll each half into a 9” log. Wrap each log in parchment paper, twisting ends tightly to make a uniform cylinder. Freeze dough logs for at least 8 hours and as long as overnight.

Preheat oven to 350˚ F. Unwrap dough and slice each log into rounds and 1/3” thick. Place rounds 1” apart on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Bake cookies until slightly puffed and tiny cracks appear on surface, about 8 minutes. Transfer cookies to a rack to let cool.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

[This recipe, with a couple small changes, comes from Saveur’s “The Saveur 100” issue for January/February 2005. The original recipe comes from the Liberty Bar in San Antonio.]

aj