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.