Ina Garten's Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread

Dear Ina,

Shortbread cookies are delicious and Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread Cookies are PERFECT for Christmas, but I think you left one vital ingredient out of your recipe!

Hands! The secret to getting shortbread dough to come together is using the warmth of your hands to shape the dough together. 

No matter what I do I'm always left with a very crumbly mess that looks like it will never come together with any mixer. I stared at the dough of this recipe and thought I'd have to though the whole batch out and then I scrubbed my hands real well and started forming and mixing and holding and shaping and combining until I got the dough into a ball.

I'm not sure if this happens in your neck of the woods, but I feel like this belongs in every shortbread recipe. The secret ingredient is hands and hot hands at that. You are the machine that will form the dough together!

I say this because I don't want beginning bakers and cooks to get scared off and they might not know what to do otherwise.

Now saying that, once your form that dough together with your hands, rolling it out and baking it is the easy part.

I love the flecks of cinnamon throughout the dough and the scent is amazing while baking. I didn't have nutmeg or cloves for the sugar coating so I opted for cinnamon and pumpkin pie spice. My pumpkin pie spice had nutmeg and cloves but also some other warm spices that worked just great. 

These are the perfect cookie to enjoy while trimming the tree, or wrapping presents, or doing online shopping, or with tea and/or hot chocolate. We loved them!

But hands Ina, please tell the people to use hands.

Sincerely,

Kim 

Cinnamon-Spiced Shortbread

Adapted from Go-To Dinners

by Ina Garten

Makes 16 to 20 cookies*

For The Cookies

3/4 pound (3 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 cup sugar

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

salt

For The Sugar Coating

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon ground cloves

Note: Amount of cookies the recipe makes depends on the size of your cookie cutter and how thin you roll the dough.

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line two sheet pans with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix together the butter, the 1 cup sugar, vanilla, and 1 tablespoon warm water on low speed until they are just combined (don't whip it). In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, the 2 teaspoons cinnamon, and 1 teaspoon salt. With the mixer still on low, slowly add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, mixing just until the dough comes together in large clumps. Transfer to a floured surface and shape into a flat disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for just 30 minutes.

Roll the dough 1/2 inch thick on a floured board and cut with a large (3-1/2") star cutter or any other shape you like! Place the cookies one inch apart on the prepared sheet pans and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, until the edges just begin to brown. 

Meanwhile, for the sugar coating, combine the 1/2 cup sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, sprinkle them thickly with the sugar mixture and allow to cool on the sheet pans. When the cookies are cool, shake off the excess sugar mixture and serve warm or at room temperature.

A Tree Trimmin' Good Time @ IHCC!

American Cookie #10: {The Early 1990's Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie} + The Final Rating For all 10 American Cookies!

 

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the tenth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Bryn, and I'm sharing The Early 1990's Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie! This cookie brings us into the modern era of cookies, and while I will be making more cookies from this book, this is the end of the American Cookie series for now! 

The History of The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie: Well, we all know the history of this cookie, right? This recipe went viral back before the internet! The urban legend says that a woman was dining at the Neiman Marcus Cafe in Dallas, TX and ordered a dessert after a dinner - the Neiman Marcus cookie! The woman thought the cookie was so amazing she asked for the recipe. She was told it was "two fifty" and it was the early 1990's, so she agreed. When she received her VISA statement a month later, she'd been charged $285 - $10 each for two salads, $20 for a scarf and $250 for the famous cookie recipe. The woman was rightfully angry and published the recipe, making its rounds in magazines, newspapers, chain letters, and plain old-fashioned word of mouth. Some say this story is nothing but a legend, but I tend to think it's probably true. I mean where there's smoke there's fire, right? 

Either way, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies were immensely popular in the late 1980's and early 1990's and this cookie has both oatmeal and two different types of chocolate: milk chocolate and semisweet. Plus, it has nuts...you can chose, walnuts or pecans!

My Results: This is essentially an oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with nuts and while I really enjoyed it, it is not my favorite oatmeal chocolate chip recipe. I do like how the edges get crisp while the interior of the cookie stays chewy. I also like the two different types of chocolate, which added a deeper dimension of chocolatey flavor. The nuts were a nice addition, adding extra crunch and a touch of saltiness, but overall I prefer my oatmeal chocolate chip cookies without nuts. I am, however, very happy to have finally tried this recipe, especially since I've been hearing about it ever since I was a teenager! It was a fun recipe to make for that reason!

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5! A really good solid oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, one that anyone would be happy to eat and enjoy! This recipe is truly good, but in the grand scheme of things, it is a busy cookie with the oats and the two chocolates and the nuts. Plus the cookie is crisper than we normally like. Our favorite is a really fat and thick oatmeal chocolate chip recipes from Ruth Reichl's The Gourmet Cookbook. Saying all that, this recipe is a very good cookie and certainly one that I will be proud to share with family and friends.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest! 

The Final Rating For All 10 Cookies, from Best to Least Favorite:

First I'd like to say that baking these cookies and learning the history taught me so much and has been such a fun journey! My cookie venture began with the very first known American Cookie, the Dutch Tea Cookie dating to the early 1600's and ended with a more modern cookie, The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie from the early 1990's. The history of cookies and baking in America is quite fascinating and it was fun to see how ingredients progressed over time. I would wholeheartedly recommend Anne Bryn's cookbook, American Cookie to anyone who loves baking and/or history! The recipes were all fantastic, with the exception of one, and I think any baker would love the book. There are hundreds of other recipes and this is certainly not the last you'll see of the book here on my blog. Saying that, we are quite worn out on cookies and have been eating one or two and happily giving them to family and friends for some time now. 

It was very hard to rate them all, but we did our best. Family and friends who have tasted and tested all the cookies are in agreement with the number one cookie and the two lowest rated cookies, but the other recipes in the middle fluctuated depending on who you asked. I did my best to rank them according to popular opinion, but ultimately I ordered them best I could. Most of us preferred a chewy or softer cookie and that played into the ranking a lot. We also seemed to also prefer a more basic and simple recipe, finding loaded cookies and cookies with lots of ingredients more towards the bottom of the list.

And now for the ranking! (Click on any bold recipe title to be directed back to the original post)!

1) Ruth Wakefield's 1930's Era Chocolate Crunch (Chip) Cookies - This is probably the best chocolate chip cookie recipe I've ever made and I even made these gluten free the first time around. These were my family's favorite and I've made them every week since!

2) 1727 Ursuline Anise Cookies - I made this cookie because it originated in New Orleans at the Ursuline Convent (which I've visited) and I LOVE New Orleans! I don't even like anise, but this cookie was the surprise of the bunch! Soft and chewy, with a slight anise-flavor that was so very subtle and pleasant, and the icing was just delicious. This is a new all-time favorite that will be made over and over in my kitchen.

 

3) 1886 Vanilla Wafer Cookies  -  These cookies smell intoxicating while baking in the oven and had the whole house smelled of vanilla. They taste like vanilla cake straight out of the oven when they're warm, but as they cool they firm up and make great ice cream cookie sandwiches. We really loved these, devoured them, and want to make them again and use them for a homemade banana pudding! I also want to make the Chocolate Wafer Cookies from the book.

4) Dutch Tea Cookies (Oldest Cookie in America, circa 1609-1664) - This was the first cookie in America and also the first cookie I made in the American Cookie series. Four ingredients: butter, sugar, flour, and water - no egg or leavening. Surprisingly delicious when you think about how simple the cookie is. These were akin to a shortbread cookie, crisp on the edges and soft in the center and I can see how they would pair very well with tea. I bet they were very popular back in the times!

 

5) 1891 Snickerdoodle Cookies  - Simplicity is beginning to be a key factor in rating these cookies and these were one of my husband's favorites. He loved how soft they were and the subtle flavor of the cinnamon and sugar. He wanted me to rate these higher, but this is after all my list.

 

6) 1917 WWI Era Banana Drop Cookies - These cookies are like eating soft chewy banana bread in cookie form. We gobbled them up very quickly. Plus, this was one of my favorite history stories.

7) Early 1990's Viral Nieman Marcus $250 Cookie - This is a great cookie, but it was a little too busy for us to be a top favorite. We decided that if we wanted a chocolatey cookie, we wanted a plain old chocolate chip cookie. However, if you love a crisper oatmeal chocolate chip cookie with nuts, then this would be a top recipe for you!

8) 1961 School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies - We love peanut butter cookies, and this was a good, solid recipe but it was also more on the subtle side. The peanut butter flavor wasn't very pronounced. I had a batch of these and a batch of Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies at the same time and everyone kept going for the Chocolate Crunch Cookie. 

9) Revolutionary War Era Joe Frogger Cookies (aka Molasses Spice Cookie) - This was a good solid cookie recipe, if you like Molasses Spice Cookies. I knew I had to include this recipe as molasses spice cookies are a HUGE part of cookie history. We ate them and enjoyed them, but I knew going into it that this wouldn't be a favorite based on our personal taste. We simply don't care much for spice cookies or desserts.

 

10) 1939 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies - I never thought this recipe would end up at the very bottom of the list, but it sure did. This was the only cookie recipe from the book that I didn't care for. The cookies came out too oatemealy, were tough, and just didn't have the right amount of sugar. We didn't care for them at all, which is a shame because an oatmeal raisin cookie is up there on the list for me! 

and now back to the recipe for...The Viral Neiman Marcus $250 Cookie!

The Neiman Marcus $250 Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Byrn

Makes 7 to 8 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, at room temperature

1 cup brown sugar, lightly packed

1 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2-1/2 cups old-fashioned oats*

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups (12 ounces) semisweet chocolate chips

4 ounces semisweet or milk chocolate, grated

1-1/2 cups chopped walnuts or pecans

Notes: Old-fashioned oats are called for in this recipe and that is why you pulse them in the food processor to break down the oats into a flour-like texture. If you have quick-cooking oats on hand that is okay too. Just skip the step of pulsing and add them straight to the dough. Additionally, the author suggests you can use any kind of chocolate in this recipe, but I stuck with the chocolate as written in the recipe, using a mix of semisweet and milk chocolate and I have to say I do think it yields a more flavorful cookie.

Place a rack in the top third of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets (I use parchment paper).

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 2 minutes. Turn of the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, and add the eggs and vanilla. Beat on low speed until combined and smooth, 1 minute.

In a food processor fitted with a steel blade, pulse the oats until finely ground, 10 to 15 seconds. Transfer the oatmeal to a medium-size bowl and add the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Whisk to combine the dry ingredients, and dump the oatmeal-flour mixture into the bowl with the batter. Beat on low speeds until just combined, 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.

Fold in the chocolate chips, grated chocolate, and nuts. Drop the batter by heaping 1" tablespoonfuls, 2" apart on the baking sheets. Place in the oven.

Bake the cookies until they just begin to crisp around the edges but are still a little soft in the center, 8 to 10 minutes. Let rest on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer with a metal spatula to a wire rack to cool. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container. 

 

American Cookie #9: {1961 School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the ninth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Bryn, and I'm sharing School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies with a recipe from 1961!

The History of the School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies: Peanut butter cookies didn't happen overnight. Peanut butter was invented in the 1890's and George Washington Carver spent the 1920's sharing the benefits of both peanuts and peanut butter. However, it took hard times, the war years and the Depression, for peanut butter to catch on as a source of protein and B vitamins.

In the 1930's farmers faced very hard times, financial ruin and the prices on commodities were collapsing. Parents were out of work and their children were hungry. The US Government stepped in to help through a federally supported lunch program. The government purchased surplus crops to feed the kids a hot meal, but they also employed thousands of women to cook in the lunchrooms.

These peanut butter cookies were perfect for the lunch program because they used lower cost vegetable shortening instead of butter and they could be baked in bulk. They could also be stored at room temperature. They became a staple at public school lunchrooms as well as private. 

In 1961, the Chicago Tribune featured the cafeteria manager of the Catholic Marquette Park School and they found a favorite peanut butter cookie recipe being baked for 1,300 girls by Sister Mary Trinita. The recipe shared here is that very recipe! 

My Results: The cookies were easy to make and the good news is, I had all the ingredients on hand and I bet you do too! The cookies have a subtle peanut butter flavor and aren't too sweet so I can see why they would be perfect for a school lunch. The cross hatch pattern allows the cookies to spread out to be thin and flat, making for a crisper cookie than what I typically like. I did enjoy these and they are quite good, but with their subtle peanut butter flavor they weren't my favorite all-time peanut butter recipe.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5! Good, solid recipe, perfect for the masses. Keeps well for days and stores well, subtle, good recipe. Nothing wrong, but could have a more pronounced peanut butter flavor and a chewier texture.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest!

School Lunch Peanut Butter Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes about 4 dozen

1 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup vegetable shortening

1/2 cup light or dark brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus about 2 tablespoons for pressing into the top of cookies

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 large egg

1-1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets.

Place the peanut butter, shortening, brown sugar, and 1/2 cup of the granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium-low speed until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and egg, and beat on medium-low until the mixture is smooth, about 45 seconds. Turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.

Whisk together the sifted flour, soda, and salt in a medium-size bowl and turn this into the peanut butter mixture. Beat with the mixer on low speed until the dry ingredients are just incorporated, 45 seconds to 1 minute.

Drop the dough in 1" pieces spaced about 3" apart on the pans. Press the top of each ball twice with a fork dipped in the remaining granulated sugar, creating a crosshatch pattern. Place one pan at a time in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the pan for 1 minute, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.

 

American Cookie #8 {1939 Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the eighth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, which is a recipe that dates back as far as the 1880's and had evolved over time!

The History of Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies: Cooks have been folding oats into baked goods to stretch the dough, enhance the dough, and make things seem healthier ever since the 1880's and maybe even before that! Early oatmeal cookies used butter or lard and some used molasses or white sugar. By 1902 oatmeal cookies were made with almond extract and were said to taste like macaroons. But the good old oatmeal cookie really secured its place in American baking in World War I because the country was rationing foods and goods and according to the Lincoln Star & Evening Journal, oatmeal raisin cookies were good for the country, patriotic even, a true "wheat-saving" recipe. 

In more recent times, oats have been lauded as a health food, good for your heart and so the simple, no-nonsense oatmeal cookie, is still as relevant today as it was more than a century ago. The recipe shared here today was printed on the back of the round Quaker Oats box ever since 1939! The cookies are aptly named Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies because the original recipe called for baking soda to vanish in a teaspoon of water, but also vanishing was used to describe how fast the cookies disappeared!

My Results:  For seven weeks now, the American Cookie cookbook has consistently produced the most perfect cookies imaginable, until now. This oatmeal raisin recipe is the original recipe from the back of the Quaker Oats canister from 1939, but I didn't like it. Not at all. First of all, the cookies didn't bake up well. Batch after batch of the cookie dough baked up raw in the center and I found myself overbaking them in an effort to cook them all the way through. Next, the cookies were tough, almost like there were just too many oats. Also, I had a hunch the recipe was calling for too much sugar (3/4 cup brown and 1/2 white) and I was right. The cookies were too sweet. And finally, just not enough raisins. Overall this recipe was just disappointing. To me, an oatmeal raisin cookie is one of my all-time favorites, and what makes the cookie so good is that it's not too sweet, has a good chewiness, and has more of a granola bar kind of breakfasty flavor. This is not that at all. Saying all that, the cookie is good enough to eat, but not as good as the rest of the cookies I've made during this bake off and I wouldn't make it again.

My Rating:  2.5 out of 5 stars! My least favorite of all the cookies I've made during this challenge. These are edible, but not worth making again.

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest and five-star being the highest!

Vanishing Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes 4 dozen

14 tablespoons (1 stick plus 6 tablespoons butter), at room temp

3/4 cup light brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract 

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 cups old-fashioned oats

1 cup raisins

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 350F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets. (I like to use parchment paper)

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Add eggs and vanilla, and beat long enough to blend the eggs, about 30 seconds.

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt in a medium-size bowl. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, and blend on low speed to just combine, 20 seconds. Add the oats and raisins, and blend on low until just combined, 20 seconds.

Drop the dough by rounded tablespoons onto the baking sheets (I use a cookie scoop for uniform cookies), spacing them about 2" apart. Place a pan in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly golden brown, 8 to 10 minutes. Let the cookies cool on the pan for 1 minute, then remove to a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes. Repeat with the remaining cookie dough. Store the cookies in an airtight container. 

 

American Cookie #7 {Ruth Wakefield's 1930's Era Chocolate Crunch Cookies and The Origin of The Chocolate Chip Cookie!}

 Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the seventh week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies, which is essentially a chocolate chip cookie!

The History of Chocolate Crunch (Chip) Cookies: The history of the chocolate crunch, or chocolate chip cookie, starts with a woman named Ruth Graves Wakefield. Ruth worked at the Toll House Inn located in Whitman, Massachusetts. One day, Ruth ran out of cocoa for her chocolate jumble cookies and needed to make a substitution. It was the late 1930's, which was still the Depression Era, and cooks were making do with what they had on hand and frequently making substitutions.

Ruth found two chocolate bars which she chopped up and folded into her cookie dough. She thought the chocolate would melt as the cookies baked, but it didn't! And just like that, the Toll House Cookies we all know and love were born! Ruth didn't know it at the time, but this new recipe would turn the cookie world upside down! Nestle made a deal with Ruth, giving her a lifetime supply of chocolate if Ruth would let them put the recipe on the back of the chocolate bar. Before long the chocolate bar turned into chocolate chips and the cookies were renamed.

Here is the original recipe for the cookies the changed the world! It comes from the 1938 Ruth Wakefield's Toll House Tried and True Recipes book. Something different about this original recipe is that you dissolve the baking soda in hot water, which was how it was done in the Toll House Inn back in the 1930's.

My Results: These cookies are total perfection! I've said it before, and I'll say it again, but Anne Byrn's American Cookie cookbook produces cookies that are just complete perfection, time after time. This recipe has loads of chocolate, which we loved! I had never dissolved baking soda into hot water before when making cookies so I found it interesting. I'm not sure that it makes a difference, but it's an easy step which I was happy to try. These cookies are chewy and loaded with chocolate chips. I'm pretty sure this is my new favorite Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe!

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars! Total perfection, tons of chocolate, and they really satisfy! I will definitely be making them again!

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest rating and five-star being the highest!

 Ruth Wakefield's Chocolate Crunch Cookies

Recipe adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Byrn

Makes 6 to 7 dozen 2" cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature

3/4 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed*

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon hot water

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 to 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts*

1 pound semisweet chocolate, chopped (or chocolate chips)

Note: I only had light brown sugar so I used that. In the notes of the cookbook it said you could use either dark brown or light brown sugar. My son is allergic to nuts, and I can't eat them, so I left them out of the recipe. I also didn't have chocolate bars on hand, but I did have chocolate chips so I used those. Either would be fine! It calls for 2 to 2-1/4 cups flour. I wasn't sure what to here so I split the difference and used 2-1/8 cups. Go with your gut and make it your own! In addition, I chilled my cookie dough for about an hour. I've learned while cooking from this book that I always pays to chill your cookie dough, even if the recipe doesn't call for it!

Place a rack in the center of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 baking sheets, covered with parchment paper.

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large bowl and beat with a mixer on medium-high speed until creamy and light, 1 to 1-1/2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until just combined.

Place the baking soda in a small measuring cup and stir in the teaspoon of hot water to dissolve the soda. Spoon this into the butter and sugar mixture along with the vanilla. Beat on low speed until just combined, 15 seconds. Whisk together the flour and salt in a medium-size bowl, and add to the batter, beating on low speed until just combined. Turn off the mixer, and fold in the nuts (if using) and chocolate with the spatula until well distributed (I like to use a wooden spoon).

Drop the dough by teaspoons onto the baking sheets, (I like to use a small cookie scoop) spacing the dough about 2" apart (I baked about 6 cookies per sheet, but my cookies were a little bigger than the recipes calls for). Place 1 pan in the oven.

Bake the cookies until lightly golden brown, 7 to 9 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and transfer the cookies to wire racks. Repeat baking with the remaining dough, making sure you allow your sheet pans to cool down before adding the dough (a hot pan will melt the dough and make your cookies spread out and become too crisp). Store the cookies in an airtight container.

 

 

American Cookie #6: {1917 WWI Era Banana Drop Cookies}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the sixth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing Banana Drop Cookies, dating back to 1917! 

The History of the Banana Drop Cookie, as well as other popular banana desserts: In 1917, America had just entered WWI and all the ships that transported things like bananas to America from Hawaii, were busy with the war effort! The problem was, the banana crop was BOOMING! The Hawaii Agricultural Experiment Station had a director that pleaded with everyone in Hawaii (which was not a state but a U.S. Territory back then) eat one banana per day, hoping this would boost banana consumption. With the ripening, rotting surplus of Hawaiian bananas on hand, the wife of the director of Hawaiian Agriculture went into the kitchen and started cooking up ideas. She developed recipes for banana pudding, banana bread, banana custard, banana dumplings, banana fritters, and this banana drop cookie recipe, which she shared with the Honolulu newspaper.

My Results:  If you love banana bread, then you will love these cookies! They are pillowy and soft with a subtle banana and cinnamon flavor, and not too sweet. In the book, she says you can cook them for 8 minutes, or up to 10 minutes if you want them to be crisper. I don't usually love crisp cookies (I prefer them chewy) but these cookies have a little more flavor when they cook a little longer and I found that 10 minutes was perfect. They are addictive and irresistible and I had to slap my hand away from the cookie jar!

My Rating:  5 out of 5 stars! I really loved these and can see myself making them again. I think of them as more of a breakfast cookie as they are much less sweet than a traditional cookie. I will definitely make them again!

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one-star being the lowest rating and five-star being the highest. 

 Banana Drop Cookies

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Byrn

Makes about 4 dozen

2 large ripe bananas

10 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 375F. Set aside 2 ungreased baking sheets.

Peel and slice the bananas into a small bowl. Mash with a fork until smooth. Set aside .You should have a generous 1 cup.

Place the soft butter and sugars in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer until creamy, about 1 minute. Add the vanilla and eggs, and beat until incorporated, 30 seconds. Fold in the mashed bananas.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and cinnamon in a medium-sized bowl. Add the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture and beat on low until combined, 30 to 45 seconds. 

Spoon tablespoons of dough about 2" apart onto the prepared baking sheets.

Bake the cookies until golden brown around the edges but still a little soft in the center, about 8 minutes. Or bake them until crispy, a full 10 minutes. Let the cookies rest on the pans for 1 minute, then transfer them to wire racks to cool completely.

 

American Cookie #5 {1891 Snickerdoodles}

Each week, I'm going to be highlighting a new American Cookie and sharing its history, as well as my results. This is the fifth week of baking with American Cookie by Anne Byrn, and I'm sharing one of America's most cherised cookies, the Snickerdoodle.

 

The History of Snickerdoodles: Cornelia Campbell Bedford was a New York City cooking teacher and newspaper columnist, better known as "Nellie." Nellie was developing recipes for the Cleveland Baking Powder company when her recipe for snickerdoodles, which was essentially sugar cookie dough spread into a pan and sprinkled liberally with cinnamon and sugar, went viral. At the end of the 19th century, going viral meant that Nellie's bar cookie was discussed in newspaper columns daily for the next year! Good job, Nellie! 

Earlier Snickerdoodle recipes called for butter, but in 1923 Crisco marketed Mrs. T's Snicker Doodles: the favorite recipes of an English-woman in their advertising and sometime after that there was a shift from using butter in the recipe to using vegetable shortening. Somewhere around the 1930s, the Snicker Doodle was changed from a bar cookie to a cookie. 

The quirky name, "Snickerdoodle," has always been part of the appeal. John Mariana says in The Dictionary of American Food and Drink, that this nonsense word "Snickerdoodle" implied the cookie was quick to make. Others think Snickerdoodle sounds like Yankee Doodle and also characters out of Raggedy Ann, like Snickersnapper, Snitznoodle, and Snarlydoodle. It just makes us smile!

My Results: I don't think I've made a Snickerdoodle before, but I was excited to give it a try! The cookie dough was in fact easy to come together and didn't require any chilling prior to baking. The dough calls for both butter and vegetable shortening and the baking notes in the book said that baking with butter and vegetable shortening is the best of both worlds because butter adds flavor and shortening helps the cookies keep a rounded shape while baking. The cookie dough has to be spread about 2" apart on the cookie sheet because they do tend to spread out quite a bit, but they did bake up flavorful and round with just the perfect hint of cinnamon and sugar. Everything about the recipe was perfect and we really loved them!

My Rating: I would give this recipe a 4 out of 5! The recipe itself is a perfect recipe and turns out perfectly (deserving a 5 star rating), but I am rating them based on my taste preferences and while I loved these, I do tend to prefer a thicker, chewier cookie. 

I'm going to be rating all the cookies with the five-star format, one star being the lowest rating and five-star being the highest.

Notes on the recipes in American Cookie: After making my fifth cookie recipe from American Cookie, one thing I can say is that this cookbook produces some of the most perfect cookies I've ever made (and I've made a lot of cookies)! I highly recommend this cookbook!

 

Snickerdoodles

Adapted from American Cookie

by Anne Bryn

Makes about 4 dozen

1-1/2 cups granulated sugar

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 large eggs

2-3/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

topping: 1/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon granulated sugar and 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Place a rack in the upper third of the oven, and preheat the oven to 375F.

For dough, place the sugar, soft butter, and shortening in a large mixing bowl and beat with an electric mixer on medium speed until creamy, about 2 minutes, scraping down the side of the bowl once with a rubber spatula. Add vanilla and the eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat on medium speed for about 30 seconds.

Place the flour, cream of tartar, and baking soda in a medium size bowl and stir with a fork to combine. Add the flour mixture to the butter and sugar mixture, and beat on low speed until incorporated, scraping down the side of the bowl as needed.

For the topping, stir together the sugar and cinnamon in a shallow bowl.

Using a teaspoon, of cookie scoop, scoop the cookie dough into balls about 1-1/4" in diameter. The dough will be soft but manageable. Sprinkle the balls with the cinnamon sugar mixture until evenly coated (or roll the balls in the mixture). Drop them about 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet.

Bake the cookies until the edges are lightly golden but the centers are still a little soft to the touch, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and let the cookies rest on the pan 1 minute. Using a metal spatula, transfer the cookies to wire racks to cool completely. Scrape the baking sheet, then repeat the process with the remaining cookie dough, letting the baking sheet cool first so the dough does not spread too much. Store the cookies in an airtight container.