The only cookies my Mother ever made were Christmas Cookies with our neighbor, Mrs. Mixter. We never got to actually see her make them as she did it at the neighbor’s house while we were in school. She would bring them home in blue Maxwell House coffee tin cans lined with wax paper and hide them in the cupboard over the oven behind the Charles Chip can. But we knew where they were. My favorite was the rum balls dusted with white confectioner’s sugar.
She loved chips over cookies (and I have always loved cookies over chips) so we had a can of Charles Chips delivered to the house, regularly. It lived above the oven in a cupboard by itself, except at Christmas. When our house was robbed, my Mother told all of her friends to hide their money and jewelry in the Charles Chip can. The kitchen, she discovered, was the only room not ran-sacked.
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| I loved baking cookies with my girls when they were little! |
My first encounter with making homemade cookie goes back to Mrs. Greene in 8th grade Home Ec. Class. After my first baking experience with Mrs. Greene I decided I would master the art of cookie baking and never have to deny my sweet tooth again. Our Mother liked a clean kitchen, so messing it up with baking was not a welcome prospect. My Dad went out of town quite often and sometimes my Mother got to join him. Since we did not have family in town, she would hire a grandmother-type matron from the yellow pages. Our favorite was Mrs. Reeves. She taught us to play pinochle and let me bake cookies. My first batch rose bigger than the other cookies in Mrs. Greene’s class. I was delighted, but quickly deflated as the taste test brought ruin to my endeavors. Mrs. Reeves knew immediately what I had done. Lifting that little orange box in the air she asked, her face contorting as her mouth frowned in bitterness, “How much baking soda did you use?” “One half cup”, I replied. Upon inspection of the round canister of oats, I realized it had called for ½ teaspoon. I wondered why they used such a little box. I had cleaned it out trying to fill that half-cup measure to the top, leveling it off with the blunt side of a kitchen knife, just like Mrs. Greene had taught me. I quickly learned that the carpenter's adage, “measure twice, cut once” could be revised and applied to baking, “read twice, measure once”.
I have tried many cookie recipes over the years and oatmeal raisin with nuts remains my favorite. Unfortunately to make a good cookie, sugar is a key ingredient to give it the perfect balance of chewy and crunchy. As a nutritionist I preach against sugar as something that we can easily get addicted to, adds to weight gain and can weaken our immune system. So you can see my great values conflict! But like all things in life there are what I call "worthy splurges". And sometimes the benefit outweighs the cost, and Christmas is one of those sometimes.
When my children were little we made Tasha Tudor’s Christmas Cookies every year. They were simple sugar cookies made with real butter. We rolled them out and cut out shapes and made a mess in the kitchen. It was so fun and the cookies were delicious. My husband’s Aunt Betty loved cookbooks and gave me Tasha Tudor’s Christmas book, Take Joy! as a gift my first Christmas in their family. I think the main reason that Aunt Betty loved Tasha Tudor so much was because of their common bond of Welsh Corgis doggy owners. Her book shares many of their Welsh Christmas traditions, including cutting a live tree on Christmas Eve. We have always cut a live tree, too and make sugar cookies. Now my daughters continue the tradition with their little girls. What are some of your traditions at Christmas?
1 lb. butter
2 eggs
5 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1 tbsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 3 tbsp. milk
Mix all ingredients together by hand. Chill thoroughly. Roll thin on parchment paper and cut out
with cookie cutters.
Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 350 degrees about 8 minutes or until light brown around
the edges. Makes about 80 cookies.
We kept them simple and slightly dust them with nutmeg.
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