![]() Regardless of your ethnic background, all Christmas bakers celebrate by breaking out their favorite family recipes for cookies, breads and pies sometime before Thanksgiving. No other holiday has the many sweet and spicy treats with grandmother’s giving permission to indulge. Coming from the German-Russian county of McIntosh, we enjoyed several cookies every year whether from my mother or my grandmother’s recipes. There was some sort of anticipation in knowing what would be on the dessert table following a large holiday meal with a large family. When I think back to those days, my heart is filled with love and then I realize “holy cow, those cookbooks I have collected over the year are considered antiques and are filled with vintage recipes.” After all, it’s been 30-plus years since I lost my grandparents, and my cookbooks predate those events. On a side note, I do still have, however, about 20 aunts and uncles still keeping our family traditions alive. In these COVID-19 quarantine days, people have been honing their kitchen skills by baking bread and cooking meals at home. I have involved my children and granddaughters in the kitchen from the time they could sit on the counter. They learned how to count by cracking eggs or measuring cups of sugar into mixer bowls. Such messy memories. One of my grandfather’s favorite cookies were ginger snaps. My mom passed down to me a recipe for what she termed “cracked-top ginger cookies,” or “molasses cookies.” Molasses was a staple in our childhood cupboard, usually kept there until the holidays. These dark-colored cookies are soft and chewy right out of the oven and when cool become “dunkers,” with your choice of milk or coffee. My original recipe card for these lovely cookies has been used so much the shortening has made invisible ink out of the ingredients and you have to hold it up to the light to read it. Cracked-Top Ginger Cookies 1 cup lard (okay, use shortening – but remember it’s an old recipe) 1 cup sugar 1 egg 1 cup molasses 4 cups flour with 2 teaspoons soda ½ teaspoon salt 2 teaspoons ginger ½ teaspoon cinnamon ½ teaspoon cloves. Beat shortening and sugar, add egg and molasses. Sift flour and soda with spices and blend. Chill dough for at least an hour or overnight. Roll into balls, roll into white sugar and press down slightly on cool cookie sheets. Bake at 350-degrees for 18-20 minutes. Sugar cookies are a staple at our hour year-round. I have a collection of cookie cutters for Easter, Christmas, Halloween and of course, my various size heart cutters can be used to fill in between holidays. I love sugar cookies. There are three recipes I cherish for sugar cookies, each with a personality of its own. Not all sugar cookies need to be cut out and decorated to be enjoyed. I don’t recall where this first sugar cookie cutout recipe came from, I have had it for years and shared it with my favorite editor mentor some 30 years ago and he still uses it today. Sugar Cookie Delights 1-1/3 cup shortening 1-1/2 cup sugar 1 teaspoon vanilla 2 eggs Cream together and add the zest of one orange. To this add: 8 teaspoons of milk Followed by: 3 teaspoons baking powder ½ teaspoon salt 4 cups flour Mix well, wrap tightly, chill, roll and bake at 375-degrees for about 6-8 minutes. NOTE: I prefer crisper cookies, so I bake mine till brown. If you are decorating them you may want to bake until lightly brown as to not interfere with the frosting colors. This recipe, also from my mother, is for “to die for sugar cookies.” They are fast and easy to bake and can be frosted and sprinkled for the holidays, if they last that long. Sugar Cookies 1 cup sugar 1 cup powdered sugar 1 cup butter (may use half butter, half shortening) 1 cup oil 2 eggs 1 teaspoon vanilla 4-1/2 cups flour sifted with 1 teaspoon baking soda 1 teaspoon cream of tartar ¼ teaspoon salt Mix ingredients together, roll into balls. Place on cookie sheets and press down with sugar-dipped drinking glass. You can use colored sugar and then you don’t have to frost them. Bake at 350-degrees. Watch closely. Finally, this recipe came from my mother-in-law born in Pennsylvania. I love these cake-like enormous soft sugar cookies. No frosting needed. Pennsylvania Dutch Sugar Cookies 3 cups sugar ½ cup shortening (or a ¼ cup each of butter and shortening) 3 eggs 1 cup buttermilk 1 tablespoon baking soda ½ teaspoon cream of tartar 4-5 cups flour Cream sugar and shortening, add eggs, beat. Add buttermilk alternately with dry ingredients beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Bake at 375-degrees for about 10-12 minutes. An Aunt Sally success story Not one to ignore the comments people have been making about Aunt Sally cookies, I had to try them. Every time I made Christmas cookies, the recipe in the middle of the old Lutheran cookbook stared me in the face. I turn to that page so often it has torn loose from the binding. Somehow the edges of that cookbook look like they have been dipped in coffee or maybe molasses. Now the first time I tried this recipe, I was amazed at how soft the dough was. I put off frosting them as the recipe for the white frosting seem complicated. The cookies need the frosting though because they bring a strong molasses flavor and need the balance of sweetness that the marshmallow-like frosting brings. Well, needless to say, the cookies worked fine, but the first time I made the frosting, it was disastrous. I had to try again. It worked and executed correctly the frosting is a keeper. All I could think about was chocolate cupcakes would be awesome with this frosting. Now, why these are called Aunt Sally’s is beyond me. I do know someone had to sacrificially eat Spam in order for me to get the can needed to cut them into the familiar rectangle shape. Granted, cans are made with safer edges and pull-top tops so I’m thinking that the old Spam cans would be sturdier and have a sharper edge. The second batch of cookies turned out so well, I’m wondering where I can get an Aunt Sally’s cookie cutter made. These cookies brought out so many memories at our coffee party, you really should try them. Aunt Sally whoever you are, thanks. Aunt Sally Cookies This recipe comes from Emma Miller, Gackle, ND, and was printed in the Emmanuel Lutheran cookbook published in 1975. Cream together: 1 cup sugar 1 cup shortening Add: 2 eggs (well beaten) 1 cup molasses 1 cup buttermilk (I substituted milk made sour with vinegar) 4 teaspoons soda with buttermilk 2 teaspoons cream of tartar ½ teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon ginger 1 tablespoon cinnamon 5 cups flour Mix well, chill dough. Roll medium thin and cut with Spam can. Bake in 350-degrees oven. Icing: Boil to medium hard stage: 1-1/2 cups sugar ½ cup water ¼ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon vinegar At the same time, beat two egg whites until stiff. Add cooked ingredients and 12 large marshmallows. Beat until all melted. Cool a bit. Frost cookies and let dry before storing. And, last but not least, the two most traditional cookies of my childhood – Grandma Meidinger’s honey cookies and Pfeffernusse. Without fail, my mother’s mother would have honey cookies at Christmas time. They were simply a mound of delightful honey-flavored goodness topped with a white frosting and sprinkles. Somehow, she managed to get them perfectly shaped and baked. It took me a couple of tries to get the right amount of flour. As with Pfeffernusse, there’s a wee bit of guessing in the amount of flour, but fear not – they will still taste good, even if they are not perfect. Grandma Meidinger’s Honey Cookies 1 cup sugar 2 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoon anise 1 cup warm honey 2 teaspoons baking powder 3 eggs 1 cup flour Mix these ingredients and let stand overnight (not in the refrigerator). In the morning add enough flour to make a stiff dough. Bake at 350-degrees. NOTE: I apologize, I cannot find the frosting recipe. Someday, I will need to call one of my aunts and hope they can remember. Here’s a recipe for Pepper-Nut Cookies from Mrs. Helen Elhard, Gackle, N.D. from the aforementioned cookbook. Pepper-Nut is English for Pfeffernusse, in case you were wondering. Pepper-Nut Cookies Heat, then cool: ¼ cup sugar ¼ cup butter 1 pint honey Add: 3 eggs, well beaten ½ cup sour cream ½ teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon allspice 2 teaspoons cinnamon ½ teaspoon nutmeg 4 teaspoon soda 2 teaspoon anise 5-1/2 cups flour Mix in order given. Refrigerate overnight. Make into small balls and bake at 350-degrees for 15-20 minutes. Roll in powdered sugar after cool. WAIT, I have to add this final recipe in honor of my Aunt Alice Kaseman. It was her husband and my uncle, Ed, that encouraged me to research and try all the recipes of old handed down by my grandparents. I miss the small Christmas dinners Alice would host for the Bismarck cousins, but I do not miss making this recipe. If you have ever been in your mother’s kitchen or made Hirshonsaltz Keacha yourself, you understand why. Aunt Alice used to make these and decorate them with her granddaughters. A family tradition I hope these recipes has inspired you to try. Alice said they made the best cut outs. Oh, the first time I attempted these I was thinking to myself, “Mr. Clean? What?” Do not, I repeat, do not use cleaning ammonia. Baking ammonia is available online at Amazon.com. Unless it has been outlawed since I last tried these cookies. Hirshonsaltz Keacha Baking Ammonia Cookies 3 eggs 1-1/2 cup sugar ½ cup soft butter ½ teaspoon vanilla ½ cup sour milk (milk with a teaspoon of vinegar works) ½ cup sour cream 1 tablespoon baking ammonia 5-1/2 cups flour Dissolve ammonia in milk. Mix all ingredients and let dough set overnight ina acool place. Roll dough to ½-inch thickness on heavily floured counter. Bake at 350-degrees for about 10 minutes. While warm, frost with powdered sugar frosting and sprinkle with color sugar or coconut. NOTE: you can color coconut by shaking it in a jelly jar with a little food coloring. Bake yourself some Christmas memories this year while in quarantine. Share those cookies with your neighbors and friends. You can do a “ring and run” to stay safe. But most of all, have a blessed Christmas holiday.
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Sue B. Balcom
Writing, or maybe talking, comes naturally to me and under the guidance of a great newspaper editor I have acquired skills that led me to author four books. Archives
January 2023
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