MOUNT HOPE, Ohio -- Miriam Miller, because she's Old Order Amish, lives without electricity. As a result, the kitchen in her tidy two-story house on a small farm in the heart of Ohio's Amish country is dimly lit on a rainy Friday afternoon. One wonders how the mother of three -- in her telltale below-the-knees blue frock, a black kerchief bobby-pinned to her head -- can tell the cookies she's pulling out of the woodstove are done.

Is it the smell? The fact the vanilla orbs are starting to stick? Or does the faint stream of light shining in the window behind the old-fashioned appliance provide just enough illumination to see them browning around the edges? It's not like you can set it at 350 degrees and start a timer.

With a best-selling cookbook under her apron, though, and another gaining steam, Mrs. Miller is something of an expert in the art of baking in a woodstove. She knows they're done because, well, they're ... done.

It takes practice. Lots and lots of practice. The strength of the flame is what regulates temperature, and you have to keep in mind that the left side of the stove (above the firebox) is hotter than the right. But she's been at it since she was a little girl, and so is well versed in a woodstove's intricacies -- both inside and on top.

In 2000, when she was just 17, she published "The Wooden Spoon Cookbook" (Carlisle Press, $10.95), a spiral-bound collection of hundreds of her mother's and grandmother's favorite recipes, with a few of her own culinary treats thrown in. It's since gone through 10 printings, each with 5,000 sales.

A second book, "Wooden Spoon Wedding Sampler Cookbook" (Carlisle Press, $10.95) followed in 2007, after her three-year courtship and then marriage to Aden Miller.

In other words, she's something of a rock star when it comes to Amish cooking. Acoustic, of course.

She wrote her first cookbook at 14. The oldest of seven children, she has always loved to bake, cook and read. So after seeing an ad in the back of a book seeking would-be cookbook authors, she thought, "Why not?"

"My mom thought I was too young but told me to go ask my dad," she recalls, her hands folded primly in front of her atop a large oak kitchen table. Her toddler daughter is napping in the next room, oblivious to the delicious aroma of fresh cookies; two young sons are visiting down the road with Grandma. When Mrs. Miller crosses the room in her black tennis shoes to fetch a few cookies for sampling, the rubber soles barely squeak. "He said yes, so I sent one in."

Only a few hundred copies sold, but she wasn't deterred.

A few years later she tried again with Amish-owned Carlisle Press in nearby Sugarcreek, Ohio. Publisher Marvin Wengerd's deft touch -- he added a new cover and asked her to include personal stories and illustrations -- proved homespun magic. After being advertised in a few outside newspapers, it took off like a wildfire, says Mrs. Miller. Not only that, but perfect strangers were asking for her John Hancock on the title page.

"I've signed my name many times," she says with a shy smile.

Not that the 26-year-old cares all that much about fame. Quite the contrary. Like most conservative Amish women, she's as humble as she is soft-spoken. She's also pretty hard for the non-Amish to get a hold of.

(Mr. Wengerd, who as a New Order Amish can use a telephone, had to set up the interview for this story by letter, and I didn't know until I showed up at her door and was ushered into her large and sparsely furnished kitchen -- fingers crossed -- if she'd allow a photo. She wouldn't, of course, not even of the farm from across the road. "Oh, no," she demurs, shaking her head. "No, no." I felt guilty for asking.)

Mrs. Miller is no stranger to the "English," or our fascination with their culture and pared-down lifestyle: Tourism has become an important source of income for a growing number of Amish, and for a while her mother opened their home to day-trippers in search of an authentic home-cooked Amish meal.

She sold "a lot" of cookbooks at those midday dinners, and happily so. What writer doesn't want to see her book in others' hands?

One reason she thinks the original book has proven so popular with Amish and non-Amish alike is that the recipes are easy to follow and use ingredients most everyone has in their kitchens. But it's also quite charming, thanks to the many childhood memories, simple illustrations and bits of "Wooden Spoon wisdom" sprinkled throughout like sugar on the top of her cookies.

They're meant, she writes, to put a smile on your face and bring joy to the "everydayness" of cooking.

"Even those who don't like to bake like it," she says.

Mr. Wengerd says the fact she was still in her teens when the book was first published and had such a good command of English (most Amish at that age speak only Pennsylvania Dutch) adds to its appeal. "It's a window into a 17-year-old's life, which you don't get very often," he says.

Little surprise, then, that people kept asking for a second cookbook.

To oblige, Mrs. Miller used the opportunity of her 2003 wedding as a jumping off point. Amish weddings, which take up to a year to prepare for, are a giant community event, with nearly everyone in the family pitching in to help. "Wedding Sampler" includes many of the recipes served to the 300 guests who attended the October ceremony. (Some were contributed by her mother, aunts and grandmother and others from her husband's family.)

Following the whimsical format of "Wooden Spoon," the soft-back cookbook includes personal wedding memories, along with Mrs. Miller's poems, special thoughts about specific recipes and musings on married life -- something she calls "love notes." Illustrations by Aden Miller, who's an accomplished woodworker and bends wood for a living, are interspersed throughout.

"We spent many hours together on the book," says Mrs. Miller, who is expecting her fourth child in November. She smiles. "That made it even more special."

Amish weddings, she continues, are "way different" from what most of America is used to. "Wedding Sampler" is a great way to find out how.

Miriam Miller's cookbooks can be purchased at lehmans.com (1-877-438-5346) or directly from the publisher (1-800-852-4482 or email at cpress@cprinting.com).

Cake Mix Cookies

Amish cookbook author Miriam Miller was baking these fragrant sandwich cookies when she allowed us to visit her home in rural Mount Hope, Ohio, in October. They're tasty, but they're also on the (very) sweet side. The recipe works well for any flavor of cake mix -- if you want chocolate cookies, use a chocolate cake mix and pudding, or you can use a yellow cake mix and a vanilla pudding.

-- Gretchen McKay

• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 1/2 cups brown sugar
• 2 cups margarine
• 6 eggs
• 1 package instant pudding mix
• 1 box cake mix
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 5 cups all-purpose flour
• For whoopie filling
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 7 to 8 cups confectioner's sugar

Mix cookie ingredients together in given order. Drop batter by rounded tablespoons two inches apart on cookie sheets and flatten with the bottom of a glass dipped in white sugar. Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes or until cookies are done. Cool.

Make whoopie filling by creaming together cream cheese, butter and vanilla. Add confectioner's sugar and beat until smooth. To assemble: Spread some filling on the bottom side of one cookie; top with a second cookie. Repeat with remaining cookies and filling. Store tightly covered at room temperature so they stay soft.

Makes about 25 cookies.

-- Adapted from "The Wooden Spoon Wedding Sampler" (Carlisle Press, $10.95)

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