cake-like cookies

The other day my father called us all together for a family meeting. He has cancer. He wanted to talk to all of us about the way his estate would be settled when he dies. I was assigned dessert for the dinner portion of the meeting. I decided on nostalgia and made these cookies for the event. It was great to be together with my brothers and sisters and my dad. They are amazing people and I am a better person just because I am related. My dad opened the meeting saying something like “When I die and things are settled I want you to make your mother proud.” He ended the meeting by telling us that none of the “things were his and none would ever really be ours. “Everything belongs to God.” At any rate–I made the cookies and I’m pretty sure that they brought back more than a few good memories for my family. So I decided to give them a re-post. If you haven’t made these yet, give them a try. I’m sure you will have a new family favorite of your own.

The photo above was taken this particular occasion. You will notice yellow sprinkles on a few. On the last 2 dozen cookies I added lemon extract, lemon zest and a few lemon chips. They were a delightful twist to an old favorite.

And now the re-post…..

Fair warning; this is going to be serious.

I love the kitchen! I love dishes, dishtowels, kitchen gadgets, family conversations, recipe books, oh yeah…I also love cooking/baking. It’s just a little something that I picked up from the hours I spent in the kitchen with my mom when I was growing up. You will hear a lot about my momma over the years. In fact, it’s because of her that I started collecting my favorite recipes to put on a blog ! She is the reason for so many things. I’m not really ready to talk about it yet, but my mom passed away a couple of months ago. She was my biggest cheerleader and inspiration. She was also my editor. I don’t know how objective she was about my writing but I do know that she had me correct a few misspelled words now and then. Mostly she would just read through the post and then call and tell me how wonderful I was. I miss that. I miss her. Wow.

I thought it might be appropriate to come back to blogging with a recipe of her mother’s. I was one of the youngest of the grandchildren and my memories of my grandmother are sketchy at best. What I do remember of her, though, was complete kindness and really encompassing hugs. I wish that I had the same memories as my cousins and siblings about these cookies, but my memories come from my own mother making these unique cookies. I’m told that grandma would bake them in her wood burning/coal stove and then store them in a big roaster. Grandkids and friends alike were welcome to stop in and dip their hands into the roaster for one of these nostalgic cookies. I’ve collected a lot of recipes over the years and I’ve never run across one quite like it. I find these cookies to parallel a grandmother in many ways; they take time, they are sweet and they bring happiness to all around them.

I made these cookies shortly after Momma died. Somehow digging out this recipe and laboring with love over them made me feel closer to both her and grandma. I took a few to a cousin and dropped some off to my brother who always claimed to love them most. I reintroduced them to my own children who had no memory of this cookie and was glad I had taken the time to share a memory.

Make them for the people you love. Take a few minutes and tell them a story about your own grandmother. There’s just something about the kitchen. I feel close to my momma there. She wrote a post for me in the spring and asked me to post it in the fall. That will be my next gift to this blog and any who love their mother and grandmother. If you will notice these ingredients are so simple and most surely found in most pantries– nothing fancy here except the finished product.

The first thing to remember is that this is a sticky dough. Refrigerating the dough for at least 2 hours makes it manageable, so there’s no reason to get all excited and preheat the oven when you crack the eggs…

The happy ingredients:

In a large bowl ( and I mean Large bowl) cream together:

1 cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening

Add:

1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Carefully incorporate:

5 1/2 to 6 cups flour
2 cups canned milk
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans * optional (Okay I have a confession: I don’t love nuts in these cookies so I make them in stages and add nuts for those in the fam who love nuts or are nutty…)

Remember, the dough will be sticky. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or a minimum of 2 hours. I always tell my girls to do a test batch of cookies when they start baking, just to see how the shape holds. If you feel like it needs more flour, toss it in!
I’ve never been successful using a cookie scoop with these cookies. I always use either two spoons or a spoon and knife. This would be called the “old-fashioned” way of shaping cookie dough. This is how we did it in the old days. My momma taught me that.

Cookie Dough, Sweet Suppertime, Grandma's Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and drop cookies onto parchment-covered cookie sheet or greased cookie sheet. Bake about 12 minutes or until the edges begin to brown and the top springs back when you tap it carefully with your finger, avoiding burning yourself. Come on and try it. If grandma could manage this in an old coal stove 80 years ago I think you can do it! If you can’t handle that do the standard insertion of a toothpick coming out mostly clean. You are baking the equivalent of a mini-cake here. Some of mine will turn out flattish and some will turn out nice and rounded. Either way they will melt in your mouth and flood your mind with a million happy memories.

Cool 2 minutes on a cookie sheet before moving to them to a cooling rack, or as grandma did; a dry, clean dish towel.

Frost with vanilla frosting of your choice. Grandma Reba’s recipe is below. I always use her recipe when I make these cookies, flour and all. 🙂 There are some things you just don’t mess with. You will want to frost them while they are still slightly warm so that the frosting sort of runs down the sides just a bit. Sprinkle them with chopped walnuts if you love walnuts.
Share a few… because that’s what your grandmother would do.

Grandma's Cookies

This old fashioned cookie is well worth the effort. Cake-like in texture, this cookie evokes memories of days gone by and visiting with good friends and family.

Author: Shanon for Grandma Dunsdon

Recipe type: Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup white sugar
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup shortening
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 whole eggs
2 cups canned milk
5½ to 6 cups flour (sometimes even more if it is humid)
*optional chopped walnuts or pecans
Grandma's Frosting
1 square butter softened
2 Tablespoons flour
1½ package powdered sugar
canned milk to desired consistency

Instructions

Cream together sugar and shortening. Add salt, soda, vanilla and eggs just until blended. Carefully incorporate flour and milk. Add chopped nuts if desired and reserve a few for sprinkling on the top of the cookies if you are nutty. Scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically to make sure that you the dough has mixed up nice and even. Refrigerate overnight or at least two hours.
Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees until the edges brown and the top of the cookie springs back when touched.
Cool until just slightly warm and frost with vanilla frosting. Top with chopped nuts as desired.

There you have it….a memory.