Of Cookies and Change
The cookie recipes above were clipped from a newspaper sometime in the late ’70s. Back then, we lived just outside D.C., where my dad was stationed at the Marine Corps Barracks, called 8th & I. It’s where the Commandant resides and is said to be the oldest continuously occupied public building in Washington, D.C.
Which makes me suspect these recipes came from The Washington Post. However, the font and spacing between paragraphs make me wonder if the Almond Melting Moments recipe might have been clipped from The New York Times.
As someone in the news business, I can’t help but wish she’d at least written the date on it. I want documents!
What dates these recipes is the option to use margarine, which is made with hydrogenated vegetable oil. Margarine gained popularity during the Great Depression and World War II due to shortages of milk and beef tallow. I imagine my grandmother used it to be thrifty and thrift is passed through generations. My mother always kept margarine in the house: we used it for baking and saved butter for eating, which felt like a treat, I guess.
What’s missing from these recipes? A standardized format, lengthy intros, detailed instructions, or mentions of kitchen appliances.
Back then, we creamed sugar by hand with a big spoon, chopped pecans with a knife, and crushed cornflakes into crumbs using a rolling pin. And yet, the cookies turned out great.
I’ve tried making these with European butter—not the same. I’ve used a stand mixer for creaming and a food processor for the pecans and cornflakes—still not the same. But they’re still very good.
Trying to improve a classic recipe from your childhood comes with the tension between preserving tradition and making it your own. When I make these cookies, they bring back decades of Christmases (and make me miss my mom). But time moves on, things change, and recipes pass to the next generation.
That said, I did tweak one thing. Highly recommend sprinkling some flaky sea salt on top of the cinnamon balls before baking.
Thumbprint Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 egg yolk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 1 cup sifted flour / cup finely chopped
- walnuts
- Jelly
Instructions
- In mixing bowl cream together butter, sugar, salt, egg yolk and vanilla.
- Gradually stir in flour blending well. Cover and chill until firm enough to handle.
- Work with half of dough at a time, keeping remaining portion refrigerated.
- Shape well-rounded teaspoons of dough into balls about the size of marbles, roll in nuts.
- Place one inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets, gently pressing thumb in center of each cookie to make a shallow indentation; fill with jelly.
- Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Cool on wire rack.
Cinnamon Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup soft butter or margarine
- ⅓ cup sugar.
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 cups sifted cake flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup corn flake crumbs
- 1 cup finely chopped pecans
- 1½ cups sifted confectioners' sugar
Instructions
- Blend butter, sugar and vanilla.
- Sift together flour and cinnamon; add flour mixture, corn flake crumbs and pecans to butter mixture; mix well.
- Shape into small balls; place on greased baking sheets.
- Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes
- Roll at once in confectioners' sugar.
- Makes about 48 cookies, 1½ inches in diameter.
Almond Melting Moments
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsifted all-purpose flour
- ½ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup unsifted confectioners sugar
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 2 teaspoons almond extract
- 1 cups (about) flaked coconut
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
- Mix flour with cornstarch and confectioners sugar in mixing bowl.
- Blend in butter and almond extract until a soft dough is formed.
- Shape into small balls, ½ to 1 inch in diameter. Roll in coconut and place on ungreased baking sheets about 1 to 1½ inches apart.
- Flatten cookies with lightly floured fork, if desired.
- Bake at 300 degrees for 20 to 25 minutes, or until lightly browned.
- Makes 3 to 3½ dozen.
- NOTE: If dough is too soft to handle, cover and chill about 1 hour
