Molasses Crinkles

by Mrs Marvel

These cookies are a sweet and mellow alternative to chocolate. They are great for shipping overseas and if you bake them a bit under, they stay moist for a long time. The also hold up well in the freezer. Molasses crinkles are a family favorite of ours.

Molasses Crinkles

3/4 c shortening

1 cup brown sugar (packed in cup)

1 egg

4 tbsp molasses

1/4 tsp salt

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

Mix in order given. Chill 1 hour or more. Shape into balls the size of walnuts, dip in sugar – sprinkle w 2 or 3 drops water. Bake 10-12 min 350-375.

We decided to try cornstarch pudding

by Mrs Marvel

I wanted to make something for the blog, but not invest a lot of time in it this evening, so decided to try making cornstarch pudding. There are only six ingredients and not a large quantity, so if I messed it up, it wouldn’t be a great loss.

This recipe only calls for 3 tbsp of sugar, so you know it’s not going to be very sweet. My assistant poured the sugar and cornstarch into the pan, then I poured in the milk. I mixed it carefully to be sure there were no clumps of cornstarch lurking at the bottom. I added 1/2 tsp of vanilla and a smidge of salt, maybe less than 1/2 tsp.

One thing I did differently from the recipe is that I cooked the egg yolks in with the rest of the ingredients. The idea of just adding them at the end and not really cooking them is kind of gross to me. If you want to be a purist you can follow the recipe exactly.

We carefully stirred the pudding over a medium heat. After about ten minutes I started to see that it was thickening, and I really watched closely. This was fascinating how it all just sort of happened at once. One moment the mixture was fairly thin and whiskable, the next moment it was beginning to clump and I removed it from the heat, I whisked it and then it was completely smooth. This all happened at about the 12 minute mark and took about five seconds.

Like my neon green dish? The pudding came out a little thicker than an instant pudding, maybe because it cooked a little longer than it should have. We ate it slightly warm and it was a smooth, mellow treat. It’s not terribly sweet, keep in mind, so if you want it a bit sweeter, add another tablespoon of sugar. I added 1/2 tsp of vanilla, but it could have taken a full teaspoon.

Molasses Cookies

by Mrs Marvel

I love some of the old terminology that we just don’t often use today. Everyone kind of knows what “scant” means. It’s something our parents and grandparents say, and so by its use in context, we know that it means “slightly less than…” or “not quite an adequate amount.” A scant cup? What is that? Well, the original recipe says “10 tbsp” which is about 4.5 oz. or slightly more than half a cup. A cup is 16 tbsp. A scant cup is therefore slightly less than a cup. How much less is open to interpretation. I’d go somewhere between 2/3 cup and a full cup.

If you make this, plan on getting two 12 oz jars of molasses. Our store carries the Grandma Moses brand, but I imagine there are others available. If you use Gram’s substitution of 1 cup sugar, you might want to use brown sugar, as that’s sugar with some molasses still in it and may help preserve the original flavor intended.

Molasses Cookies

3 cups molasses – or 2 c molasses & 1 c sugar

1 1/2 c lard (use butter or shortening)

4 tsp soda dissolved in 10 tbsp scant cup water

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

flour enough to thicken

Go with the old standby baking temp of 350 and check them starting at 8 minutes

Mince Meat Cookies

by Mrs Marvel

Mince meat pie is one of my favorites, although it’s not all that popular anymore, having been replaced at the holidays with pumpkin, sweet potato and pecan pies. I made a mince meat pie a few years ago and I think my dad and I were the only ones who had any. Although the name is deceptive, mince meat doesn’t always contain actual meat. Some recipes do call for beef suet (fat), and some even call for venison, but modern recipes contain fruit and nuts (raisins, currants, prunes, walnuts, pecans, etc). The making of mince meat in modern recipes calls for brandy or whiskey.

Mince meat was originally an entree in the middle ages, but with the sweetening from the fermentation of alcohol and the sugars within, it became more of a dessert. It was popular but saw a resurgence in the 19th century as the Victorians made it a yuletide dish. One medieval recipe included a Royal pastry recipe made from butter, egg yolks and flour, so it clearly was intended to be served in some sort of pie or pasty.

You can consider it much like a preservation technique – most 19th century recipes for mince meat have it set for two weeks prior to use. By that point, all the contents are completely pickled in the alcohol. Often, people confuse mince meat with minced meat – which is in fact, meat cut very finely.

This recipe is interesting to me and I think I’ll make it. The cookies might turn out like a raisin/nut cookie and might be pretty good.

Mince Meat Cookies

1 pt mince meat

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup shortening

3 eggs slightly beaten

3 1/4 cups sifted flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp soda

Oven 400

Lemonade Cookies

by Mrs Marvel

These just sound like something you nibble while sitting in the porch swing on a lazy summer day.

Sorry I missed a few days. My life sometimes gets away from me and then I realize as I’m falling asleep that I didn’t post a recipe that day. I’m hoping to finish up the cookies section over the next couple weeks. There are easily 50-75 recipe cards total for cookies, cake and pies. Not that it surprises me, heh.

Lemonade Cookies

1 c butter or margerine

1 c sugar

Cream

2 eggs — add

3 c flour

1 tsp soda

sift together

1 6 oz can frozen lemonade

Combine with first mixture using 1/2 c lemonade. Drop onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake about 10 min. Brush hot cookies with lemonade, sprinkle with sugar.

The note on the back of the card does not pertain to the cookie recipe itself. It says “Icy Lemon Soup in Bach’s Lunch is nice for summer, but use only 7 tbsp of lemon juice.” I don’t know what Bach’s Lunch could be, because there are about a million churches and catering companies using that play on words for their lunch music programs and company names. However, I did find a 1966 Life magazine article about Avgolemono Soup, a Greek dish made from eggs and lemons among other things, and it was called Icy Lemon Soup. Again, I’m not sure how this relates to Lemonade Cookies, but it’s interesting.