FRENCH LACE COOKIES

These are the LAST COOKIES IN THE BOOK!!!!!!!! It has been fun but I am looking forward to a break from baking and with UH on vacation, my largest group of tasters are on hiatus...it was nice that this exercise perfectly dovetailed the UH schedule. The best from 1960-1970, they are good but not my favorite. They are similar in look to the Butterscotch lace cookies but the taste is different as they are made with finely chopped walnuts and corn syrup. Instead of using a mixer the dough is actually cooked in a pot. The hardest thing is to get them off of the tray after they sit for few minutes to harden. The directions say to lightly grease the pan but it might be better to grease it well. I couldn't figure out why some came off easily and some were a problem. Oh well....I am done! Anyway, it has been an interesting challenge with some old favorites ( snickerdoodles) revived in my memory and other new ones ( chocolate crinkles) that I will add to my favorite list. At some point I will get around to scanning the recipes of the ones that were good and post them. Otherwise, if you want a specific recipe just let me know and I will email it to you! The most important lesson learned: NEVER make cookies using cereal!!!! Thanks for being good readers and tasters!!!! Aloha!

BONBONS

These were the "rage" from 1955-1960 when women supposedly went crazy for cookies that looked like candies. I really dreaded making these for some reason but they weren't as bad as I had anticipated. There were several steps but nothing that was too difficult. The dough is wrapped around some "surprise" in the center, I used pecans or chocolate, but you could also use cherries or some other candied fruit. After the cookies are baked, they are iced with a colored icing and then dipped in a topping, I used coconut but you can use colored sugar or chocolate. The biggest mistake I made was to tint the frosting with yellow ( the only color of dye I had left!!!) but it ended up looking like the cookies were iced with mustard!!! Oh well, they were very tasty but a bit sweet.

SALTED PEANUT CRISPS

I liked these!!!! The dough was a basic brown sugar cookies with salted peanuts added....even better than cookies made with peanut butter in the ingredients. I will see what other people have to say about the cookies. Only two more recipes to go!!!!!!

HOLIDAY FRUIT DROPS

These cookies are supposed to be the favorites from 1945-50 and they were pretty good, especially if you like brown sugar nutbread! The one change I made from the basic recipe was to omit the dates as I really, really hate dates. I added extra cherries and pecans to compensate and it was fine. I think these would be good included in a plate of holiday cookies!

CARAMEL REFRIGERATOR COOKIES

I am getting close to the end of the book and was excited about these as I love caramel...almost as much as molasses! This recipe was Betty's best from 1940-1945, which was the time of World War II. Because of rationing, bakers switched to brown sugar and limited butter for cookies and by refrigerating and slicing the cookie, they made the dough go farther. All the previous are wonderful things but the cookies did not have enough butter or sugar to taste like caramel. They were crispy but the taste left something to be desired..maybe should be retitled "brown sugar refrigerator cookies".

CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

Betty's best from 1935-1940.......the years when the original CC cookie was introduced to the world! It was created at the Toll House Inn in New England and swept the country. This recipe is very similar to the one on the chocolate chip bag but with a bit less sugar and I like it not quite so sweet. There are only a few recipes left and this has timed out well as UH is no longer in session and so the largest group of tasters are gone!!

MOLASSES CRINKLES

The best of 1930 to 1935! Anything with molasses is great in my book and these cookies are good but more crisp than the chewy kind that I like. I played with the amount of time I left them in the oven and they tasted burned before they got really crisp. Oh well, I still haven't found the perfect recipe yet!

BROWNIES

Betty says that brownies were created when a chocolate cake fell. They were all the rage during the Roaring Twenties so this is the favorite recipe from 1920-1930 and its a good one! These brownies are moist, tasty and easy to make....almost as good as the Ghiradellli box mix.
Enjoy!

GINGER CREAM COOKIES

Betty's best from 1900-1910! A nice spice cookie, very cake-like, but the dab of lemon icing on the top makes it a good cookie. I don't think its a great cookie but would be a good addition to a plate of holiday cookies. I just sampled a cookie ( I am writing this the morning after) and the icing is still firm and didn't melt away. It was not too humid last night which may account for it. These are very good with my coffee and would be even better with tea. I will know put it into the very good category after the morning tasting! Enjoy!

OATMEAL DROP COOKIES

This was the best cookie from 1900-1910, according to Betty! What sets this cookie apart from other recipes is the addition of molasses....I love anything with molasses. They were delicious right out of the oven but will have to see what they taste like today after a very, very wet night. Hope this rain let up soon!

CINNAMON JUMBLES

Cinnamon Jumbles are the best cookie, according to Betty, from 1890-1900. Supposedly, every city had their own variation of the recipe but this one is the basic. If you like cinnamon sugar you will like these. The cookie is very light, almost like a lady finger, and the cinnamon sugar on top really makes the cookie great. We shall see how they hold up overnight but they were very, very good last night!

HERMITS

I have reached the the final chapter of the book which honors the favorite cookie from each decade starting from the 1880's. Hermit cookies were supposed to be commonly tucked into lunch pails and sea chests as kids and men left for work or school ( or the sea since she specifically mentioned sea chests!). The contain nutmeg and cinnamon so have a holiday taste to them. They were easy to make and easy to eat. Yummy with a cup of tea!

COCONUT APRICOT TARTLETS

Interesting but I think they would be better as a breakfast item. The tart base is made from cream cheese, butter and flour and then topped with apricot jam and coconut. The whole thing is baked for about 9 minutes. The dough for the tart was refrigerated for about 6 hours before trying to roll it but it still was very difficult to work with. I had to use a lot of flour to get them off the counter and still they had questionable shapes, as you can tell from the picture. The recipe did not make very many so I don't know if UH will get any or if Alex will have eaten them all!

CHEESE SWIRL BROWNIES

Betty says that this recipe was created by a student from Ohio State that was interning in her kitchen. Alex does not know her...so he says!! The chocolate mixture is split into two parts with the cheese mixture in the middle. After the layering, you are supposed to draw a knife through all three layers to " marble" them. Well, the top layer was very hard to put on top of the cheese part so it was already very mixed and didn't require much extra mixing. However, it did not look swirled or marbled. My other complaint is that brownies should really have a lot of chocolate in them and these were lacking to my taste. The cheese filling was made with cottage cheese and was interesting but not great. It was moist but I would rather have a traditional brownie.

ORANGE OATMEAL COOKIES

I was looking for a recipe that would give lots of cookies so there would be enough for the tasters, UH and lots for Trish so she can start her carbo-loading for the Boston Marathon. She will be leaving Thursday night to run in the marathon on Monday. So......................GO TRISH!!!!! Anyway, about the cookies, they are crisp and tasty with a touch of nutmeg and orange. The only trick is to get them off the tray after sitting for just a few seconds to firm up and not to make them too big. The directions called for baking them 12-15 minutes but I found that about 9 1/2 was perfect, maybe because I made them smaller that called for. Whatever, they are good! Enjoy!

123 PEANUT BUTTER COOKIES

This is another "cheater" recipe that uses yellow cake mix as its base and then adds peanut butter, water and eggs. They were actually pretty good but will have to see how they do tomorrow after a humid night. Yesterday's cookies were good out of the oven but were disappointing today. These cookies were better if baked longer--even when they appeared to be too brown. I am hoping they will stay crispy for tomorrow!

CHOCOLATE CREAM CHEESE COOKIES

This is a "cheater" recipe that uses chocolate cake mix as a base with cream cheese, butter, egg, vanilla and coconut added to it. It was quick, easy and delicious. The dough was easy to work with after being refrigerated for about 1/2 hour and then dropped by hand onto cookie sheets. It was too sticky to use a teaspoon to drop them. The initial ones I baked about eight minutes and were good but I like them baked a bit longer. They are also very, very good with ice cream! Enjoy!

MINT MELTAWAYS

These cookies would be great for St. Patrick's Day. They are delicately minty and more of a shortbread than a cake cookie. They don't spread at all while cooking so I put many per cookie sheet and used all the dough on just two trays. A wonderful tea cookie!

CHOCOLATE COCONUT MERINGUE BITES

I haven't done something with chocolate lately so I decided to do this recipe, also because I love coconut. The bars are basically a chocolate chip cookie base with nuts and coconut added and a brown sugar meringue baked on top. Tasty but I feel that the cookie part was a bit dry. The recipe made enough for UH people so hope everyone enjoys them. Have a great weekend!

ALMOND MERINGUE SHORTBREAD

This shortbread has an interesting mix of flavors. The base is a standard shortbread which is baked and then topped with jam ( I used marionberry jam) after cooling it for a bit. While it was cooling, you make a cinnamon meringue which is placed on top of the jam and then returned to the oven to brown. Oh, the meringue is also covered with chopped almonds. I almost forgot that step and had to pull it out of the oven to add the nuts. When it was all done, it looked very pretty and was tasty but almost too many flavors for me with the nuts, cinnamon and fruit jam. I will be interested to get some feedback on this one!

GINGERBREAD APPLESAUCE BARS

Back to using gingerbread mix with some adaptations. This one calls for substituting applesauce for the water as well as adding nuts and raisins. The final touch is icing the bars with browned butter icing. I am a big fan of cooking with applesauce and these bars prove my point. They are moist and tasty. Without the icing they would probably be a good breakfast treat but the icing puts these into the dessert category. I don't care how the game ended yesterday, the Butler Bulldogs are my NCAA champs!!! What a game!!!

ZIMTSTERNE COOKIES

I have gone back to the Christmas cookie section to complete the ones that I did not have time for during the holidays. This is a Swiss Xmas cookie that did not give an English translation for the name. The recipe used Cinnamon and nutmeg to give it that holiday taste but they were not as crisp as I expected. The dough was rolled out and then baked after being washed with beaten egg whites. I never know how difficult it will be to work with cut-out cookies but this dough was actually very easy to roll, cut and transfer. However, I did not make them as thin as the recipe called for as usually that is a disaster and I was making these while watching the Red Sox/Yankees game and the Sox were behind. I didn't have the patience for dough being stuck to the counter. Maybe that is why they are not as crisp as I had hoped but I think it is more that the recipe called for 2 1/2 eggs. So, these are good cookies but not fantastic. Tomorrow night is the big basketball game!!!! GO BUTLER!!!!!!

GREEK EASTER COOKIES

YUM, YUM, YUM! These are similar to Mexican wedding cakes ( snowballs) but with brandy and clove. The dough was easier to work with after refrigerating it for about 15 minutes but I was still able to do the first tray without that extra help. Next time I would double this recipe as it did not make enough, I hope Alex leaves a few for UH! Happy Easter to everyone!

ORANGE NUT GINGER BARS

These are probably the best of the adapted gingerbread mix recipes. Basically, you add orange zest and nuts to the mix and then top the baked bars with orange icing. I think it really is the orange icing that makes the difference. Every recipe that has used this icing has been a hit...or maybe I just love anything orange! This would be an easy breakfast treat.

GINGER OATMEAL COOKIES

Another adaptation from a mix which is very quick and easy. It added oatmeal, raisins and nuts and used applesauce as the liquid ingredient. These cookies were tastier than yesterdays but we will have to wait and see how they respond to Hawaii's humid conditions.Enjoy!

GINGERSNAPS

This section adapts gingerbread mix like the previous section did with brownie mix. The first recipe was very easy ( it took about 1 minute to adapt the mix) but the resulting cookies were just okay. At least the mix was on sale at Safeway!

UPSIDEDOWN BROWNIES

I actually made these last night but forgot to blog, maybe because I was a bit frustrated with the end result. This brownie adaptation was just an oatmeal cookie layer with the brownie batter poured on top and then baked. The directions said to immediately flip the pan so that the oatmeal was the topping. I followed the directions, even though I had hesitations as brownies take a bit to firm while cooling, and realized that I should have followed my instincts. The brownies slid off the plate and then broke apart when I tried to put them back together. Oh well, they were tasty ( but not my favorite) but the only good looking brownie was the one for the picture!

PEPPERMINT BROWNIES

These are for Trish who loves all things mint! I also am a mint lover so I am enjoying these very easy, delicious brownies. Basically, you bake the brownies according to directions and then put peppermint patties on the hot brownies and return them to the oven for a few minutes. When the candies are soft, take a knife and spread them until they cover the whole pan. I kept the pan on the oven door while spreading them out so they didn't harden too fast. Also, use more mints than you think. Hot brownies always break apart until they cool so the less you have to touch the top the better.

BROWNIE DELIGHTS

These really are delightful and tasty! This time instead of adding toppings after the brownies are baked , a meringue is made and placed on the dough which is then baked together. All of these recipes depend on a good basic packaged brownie mix and I bought the Safeway brand on sale but would probably buy Duncan Hines next time...especially for the recipes I like. Hope everyone enjoys them.

BROWNIE CONFECTIONS

This chapter is all about the many ways to adapt fudge brownie mix. This recipe calls for adding two layer of icing to the baked brownies. The first is a cooked icing which is then topped with a chocolate icing. The hardest part was waiting for the brownies to cool so that the icing could begin. The first cooked icing hardens quite quickly so just be ready to spread it as soon as you take it off the heat. Otherwise, they were good!

ST. PATRICK'S DAY COOKIES

Happy St. Paddy's Day!!!! I went back to the holiday chapter to make these shamrock cookies in honor of the holiday. They were basically a sugar cookie flavored with peppermint instead of vanilla or almond. Instead of rolling the dough out and using cookie cutters, the shamrocks were shaped by making four dough balls, pressing them into clover shape and then adding the stem. A bit labor-intensive but I learned quickly to make the balls bigger so the project went faster. You can see from the picture how the size progression went. Anyway, it was fun and would be a good project to do with kids. Oh...also put green decorator sugar on them Hope everyone gets a green beer today!

Chocolate Wafer Cookies

Easy but not a typical cookie...more of a chocolate hard biscuit. These are pan cookies that the recipe gave a set bake time for of 15 minutes. I kept an eye on them but it was hard to test them for "doneness" as they were so thin. So, I pulled them out a minute early but it wasn't early enough as the cookies in the middle were fine but the ones on the perimeter were overdone. The directions also caution to immediately cut and remove them from the pan and that was the truth! I had trouble getting the last few off the pan but was able to, thank goodness, as those were the best ones. These would be good with tea or coffee....or ice cream!

CHOCOLATE ORANGE PUFFS

These are bite-sized cream puffs stuffed with chocolate/nut/orange filling. The recipe seemed a bit intimidating but it ended up being much easier than I expected. In fact, the filling made much more than the cream puff part so I made a second batch to finish it up! They were so easy that I started thinking of all the things they could be filled with. I also made the filling part too difficult by trying to inject the puffs using a 10cc syringe. Well, the filling was too thick and I ended up having to push the plunger too hard to get it out and got it everywhere but in the puff. So, I ended up just slicing the top off with a thin, sharp knife and spooning the filling in with a baby spoon. As for the filling, I liked the chocolate part but would leave the nuts out next time. Also, they need to be refrigerated and so when tasting them tonight, they lose some of their crispness after being cooled and filled....try to serve them immediately if possible.

ALMOND BUTTER COOKIES

These are even better than the cookies from yesterday and definitely better than the the almond cookies from several days ago. If you like thin, crisp cookies then you will love these. After putting a very small amount of dough on the cookie tray, you pound the dough with the back of a glass dipped in sugar until it is wafer-thin. Keep the thickness consistent or you will have the cookies coming done at different times. I baked one batch longer to see if there was difference in crispness or flavor but I felt that taking them out when they were barely brown at the edge was the best. The recipe also made a lot of cookies which was good since they are good!

CHOCOLATE LOGS

YUUUUUUUUM! These are little brownie cookies. After making the dough, you shape it into a rectangle on a cookie sheet and then refrigerate until you can easily cut it ( about an hour) and transfer them to another cookie sheet. I made them a bit smaller than called for to make as many as possible as Alex has several friends visiting. I let them bake the minimum amount but keep an eye on them because you don't want to over bake them--they do harden while they cool. Enjoy!!!

EASY CHINESE ALMOND COOKIES

Hmmmmm...the almond cookies that I did previously were better. These are a sliced refrigerator cookie also but these are not "almondy" enough and a little too salty. I may just be sensitive to salt so will see what others say. Anyway, you don't use a mixer for this dough, just knead all the ingredients together. Keep an eye on the cookies while in the oven as they brown very quickly at the end. It is better to under cook them than overcook them!

CHOCOLATE OATMEAL REFRIGERATOR COOKIES

I made the dough last night as it needed to refrigerate all night and I wanted to be done before 24 came on. Things happen so fast on that show that I can't bake cookies and focus at the same time! These are a crunchy , chocolaty cookie that is quite good. The directions say to cut them very thin but I gave up and made them thicker since it was more important to keep them uniform.....cutting them an 1/8th of an inch was just too difficult. Anyway, they seem to come out fine. Hope you all enjoy them!!!!

CHOCOLATE PEPPERMINT COOKIES

We are eating these while watching the Academy Awards and really enjoying them. I don't know if its the amount of wine we are having or if they are really good but boy oh boy, they are going very fast!!!! The recipe made only about 25 cookies since it takes two cookies and peppermint filling to make the final product. So, there is a good chance that UH may not get any tomorrow as Alex did not get very many tonight! The one suggestion I would have is to thin the peppermint filling as it was too thick, hardened too fast and there was barely enough.

Delta Bars

These butterscotch bars are very tasty but not very pretty. They are a cookie base with a baked meringue topping that cracks very easily so they are hard to cut nicely. They were very good with ice cream also. Are they good enough to make again? We shall see what the testers think tomorrow!

Cinnamon Coffee Bars

The coffee flavor is not very strong in these bars even though I made the 1/2 cup of coffee VERY strong. The cinnamon was not overpowering either. All in all, it was a good bar that was very good warm. I have a feeling they will be a great breakfast treat but not an exceptional dessert to bring to a potluck. Also, there is a thin icing on top that was a nice addition but the 1/2 recipe that was called for was almost not enough....I really had to stretch to get the whole thing covered!

ESSIE'S COOKIES

I don't know who Essie is but her cookies sure are good! These are a bit like a small, crisp snickerdoodle. The recipe says to use a small cookie cutter and the only small one I had was a heart ...no other reason why I used hearts. The dough was easy to handle and didn't require much chilling before being able to work with it. The cookies didn't rise very much so you can put many on a tray but keep an eye on them so you don't overcook them. Keep them bite-sized so you can just pop them in your mouth! Enjoy!!!

Glazed Oatmeal Brownies

I was excited to have something in the chocolate realm and with chocolate chips in the recipe, these qualify. They are also glazed with an orange topping that gave them an interesting taste mixed with the chocolate and oatmeal. My complaint was that they did not hold together very well. I initially thought it was the attempt to cut them when they were still warm ( I was attempting to give Guido a warm brownie with ice cream!) but even when I waited until they were warm it was hard to cut them and they did not stay in a nice square. As for the taste, Guido felt it was too many flavors in one item. We will see what the others say!

Butterscotch Shortbread

The picture may look great but these cookies are not! They don't taste like butterscotch and they are too salty. I followed the recipe exactly but questioned the amount of salt ( one tsp vs the 1/4 or 1/2 tsp that is usually in recipes) but the intent of the blog is to follow the recipes as written. They were easy to roll and cut out but I made small cookies so they needed to be watched and removed from the oven earlier than noted...about 3 or 4 minutes early! These may be okay with tea but I would not make them again.

Canadian Oatmeal Shortbread

This was supposed to be a salute to the Vancouver Olympics but it didn't quite work out! The dough is supposed to be a rolled out and then cut with cookie cutters but it just didn't work. I refrigerated it overnight as the directions recommended but still didn't work. So, I just turned it into a pan cookie and it tasted alright but was not great...not worth making again! Sorry to be blogging late again but watching the Olympics takes up a lot of my nights!!!!

CENTENNIAL MOLASSES SPICE COOKIES

You have probably already sampled these as I am a bit late posting.....got delayed watching figure skating last night! These are supposed to be similar to cookies made by pioneer women and they use apple cider vinegar to cut the sweetness of the molasses. The end result is an average, cake-like cookie. I think the vinegar is actually too strong, I would like the molasses to be the stronger flavor. This is probably not a cookie I would make again. One day I will find the perfect molasses cookie!

BUTTERSCOTCH LACE COOKIES

These are probably the most fragile cookies I have ever made. They look like the picture in the book so I don't think I made a mistake but they are very difficult to handle and if you would drop your tupperware, you would have a lot of tiny cookies pieces. The directions read to not place too many cookies on a sheet at a time as they spread out at an amazing rate. Also, keep them small and let them sit on the tray for a long time to cool before removing them. I ruined the whole first batch by making them too big and they joined into one giant cookie, which I couldn't separate. Trying to remove them too soon also made them into s sticky clump. Were they worth all the trouble? I don't know....will look forward to some feedback. They may also not survive the humid night here.

JAN HAGEL COOKIES

In honor of the Olympics, I made Dutch cookies...also because the USA/Canada hockey game was sooooo exciting that I couldn't be diverted to make a recipe that required putting cookie trays in and out of the oven. This recipe is a bar cookie, easy, and very good. The base is a cinnamon cookie with walnuts baked onto the top with an egg-white wash. We have eaten many of them and have found them to be especially good with tea. Enjoy!

PLANTATION FRUIT BARS

When I looked at this recipe I couldn't figure out why they were called "fruit bars" when there was no fruit in the ingredients. However, I think they count raisins as a fruit but I think this is like ketchup being considered a vegetable in school lunches. I guess they are dried grapes.............hmmmm. I am not a big raisin fan but in combination with the chopped walnuts, these bars are good. The "icing on the cake" is the lemon glaze topping which gives them an added kick. They would be great with a cup of tea!

THUMBPRINT COOKIES

I remember making these cookies with my grandmother when she would come to visit for Thanksgiving. She was a master cookie maker and she was so patient with my attempts to roll the cookies in nuts and to gently press my thumb into the dough to make the depression to fill later with jam. These are great cookies to make with kids since there are so many jobs that are possible for little hands. This recipe did not make too many cookies so I hope everyone at UH gets to taste them. A few things to remember, use a good jam to fill the cookies. I was lucky to have some marionberry jam that Bob and Allison brought us back from Oregon--it is delicious! Also, chop up a lot more nuts than the recipe calls for. I am getting better at using my electric chopper ( I did not make nut powder this time!) and it was perfect for this recipe as the nuts need to be chopped finely. I hope you enjoy these and hope they bring back memories for other people. ***** This is a morning addition after having to soak the cookie pans all night---lightly grease the pans before baking even though the recipe calls for ungreased pans!!!!!

SESAME SEED COOKIES

Betty says that these cookies are supposed to be similar to seed cakes that pioneer women used to make. Hmmmm...where did they get sesame seeds in the middle of the woods when Longs doesn't even sell them! Anyway, the first step in making these cookies was to toast the sesame seeds in butter. Part of the mixture was used in the dough and the other part to make the icing. The final cookie is a thin, crisp cookie that I made smaller than called for so Alex would have enough for the UH group. The only problem I had was with the icing as it set up very fast so the last cookies were difficult to ice. I found that I actually liked the cookies better without icing. The cookies didn't really require the added sweetness.