Posted on: Wednesday, May 4, 2005

FOOD FOR THOUGHT
In search of cookies, bars, pies

By Wanda Adams
Advertiser Food Editor

Inquiring minds want to know:

• Barbara Buchanan of Mililani is looking for a recipe for coconut bars similar to the ones once available from Mililani Bakery. The bars had a thin, flaky crust and were packed with coconut filling.

• Linda Bailey is hoping someone has the recipe for broken glass pie that was served in the Sears employees' cafeteria. An employee would bring it in once a week and it would disappear fast — only the early-bird lunchers would get a taste.

• Susie Chu is in search of school days-kine turkey corn scallop. "I'd be sure to stand in the lunch line at Roosevelt High School when this was on the menu," she recalls.

• JoJo Sykes e-mailed to ask, "Does anyone have the recipe for the fabulous, huge almond cookies that were sold in a Kaimuki bakery in the '60s and '70s? We lived in Honolulu while my husband was the doctor on the Nathan Hale submarine. I think the bakery may be closed. It was on the opposite side of the street in the same block as Kaimuki Dry Goods." Could she mean Kwong On?

Anyway, you have but to ask, JoJo: Almond cookie recipes are everywhere. I found a recipe in "Kauai Cookbook," a 1954 collection from the Kekaha Parent-Teachers Association on Kaua'i, in which the cookies are called Hung Nyen B'eng. There was also a recipe in the classic "Still More of Our Favorite Recipes" by the Maui Extension Homemakers Council (1967). Two modern collections I consulted were Jean Watanabe Hee's "Hawai'i's Best Local Desserts" and "Dd's Table Talk" by my friend Deirdre Keiko Todd, longtime cooking demonstrator at the old Liberty House.

The older recipes use less sugar and lard instead of shortening and are leavened with baking soda but no baking powder. The older technique was to cut the shortening into the dry ingredients as you do for pie crust, then to add the remaining wet ingredients. Newer recipes employ modern cookie technique, creaming the shortening and sugar, then adding dry ingredients.

Here's Hee's version. Hee says this is an authentic recipe, given to her by her Aunty Clara Chun.

Almond cookies

In a large mixing bowl, beat together 1 cup plus 3 tablespoons shortening (or butter) and 1 cup sugar; add 1 beaten egg and 1 teaspoon almond extract and mix. Sift together 2 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda; add to sugar-egg mixture. Mix well. Shape into walnut-size balls and place on ungreased cookie sheet at least 2 inches apart. With thumb, gently press center of balls to make a depression. Using the end of a chopstick dipped in red food coloring, place a dot in the center of each cookie. Top with a blanched almond. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-18 minutes. Makes 5 1/2 dozen.

• Per serving: 70 calories, 4.5 g fat, 1 g saturated fat, 5 mg cholesterol, 25 mg sodium, 7 g carbohydrate, 0 g fiber, 3 g sugar, 1 g protein