If you're making cookies for a Pioneer Day celebration, maybe you'd like to make cookies like the pioneers made.
Well, maybe not exactly like the pioneers.
Early pioneer homes usually had two rooms, notes Millie Foster Cheesman in her "Pioneer Recipes and Remedies Cookbook," published by the International Society of Daughters of Utah Pioneers. A large fireplace dominated one wall — a vital heating and cooking area.
Cooking on the hearth near the fire was done in iron pots and kettles, but many homes also had a beehive-shaped brick oven on the fireplace wall for baking. "Because it had to be done by a hot fire that had burned for several hours, baking was only done once or twice a week. After the ashes had been removed, the breads or foods were placed in the oven and baked by the retained heat of the original fire," she says.
Baking was an art in these ovens, she notes, and women learned timing as well as where the hot spots were that might impact the finished results.
But cookies were a popular baked treat for pioneer families, says Jane Watson Hopping in her "The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen" cookbook.
Cookies used common ingredients of the day — molasses, honey, lard. Ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg were popular spices; raisins or currants were sometimes added. Alas, chocolate chips didn't come until much later.
Many pioneer women made large batches of cookies that would keep well and then brought them out only for special occasions or when unexpected visitors dropped by.
So, making true pioneer cookies might be a bit of a challenge. But if you want some cookies with pioneer flavor — but with updated measures and techniques — here are some possibilities.
Walnuts were a popular ingredient for pioneers, and the maple syrup adds an old-fashioned twist. This recipe is easy enough for young cooks to try:
WALNUT STICKS
1/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg, slightly beaten
1 teaspoon maple flavoring
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, cream the butter, then add the sugar and cream the two together. Add the egg and maple flavoring and beat well.
In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt. Add to butter and sugar mixture, mixing well. Fold in the walnuts.
Grease an 8-by-8-inch baking pan and dust it with flour. Spoon the dough into the pan and with moistened fingertips spread dough evenly over the pan bottom. Bake until firm and light brown on top, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit about 20 minutes, still in the pan. Remove from pan and turn right side up. Slice into bars. When thoroughly cooled, store in an airtight container. Makes about 16 bars. From "The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen," by Jane Watson Hopping, Villard Books.
DANISH SOUR CREAM COOKIES
This recipe came from Donna Larsen Cooley of Newton, Utah, who said: "My maternal grandmother, Anna Birgitte Andersen Albretsen, was born near Copenhagen, Denmark, in 1859; my mother also was born there in 1890. This is grandmother's recipe, passed down to my mother and to the rest of us. All the neighborhood children considered it a special treat if Mother treated them to her sour cream cookies."
5 cups flour
3 or 4 tablespoons lard
Mix as you do for pie crust, only not as rich
Add to flour:
1 big cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
Mix:
2 beaten eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 pint sour cream mixed with 1 teaspoon soda
Add above liquid to flour mixture. Make a soft dough, roll, cut (or drop by spoonfuls) and bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes 8 dozen cookies. From "Pioneer Recipes & Remedies" by Millie Foster Cheesman, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
JOE FROGGERS
An old man called Uncle Joe made such good molasses cookies that they became known throughout Marblehead, Mass., as "froggers," because they were as plump as the frogs in the pond near Joe's house. His recipe was kept a secret until he died, but versions cropped up all along the New England coastline and were brought west by pioneers.
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 cup molasses
1/4 cup apple juice
4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ginger
1/2 teaspoon each allspice, cloves and nutmeg
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Cream shortening and sugar. Stir in molasses and juice. Sift dry ingredients together and stir into shortening mixture. Chill overnight.
For fat froggers, roll dough the size of walnuts, flatten slightly. Or roll the dough out as thin as you like and cut into circles.
Sprinkle lightly with sugar and bake until firm. Timing will depend upon thickness. Allow to cool a few minutes on the sheet before removing to a rack. Store in a jar. From "Pioneer Recipes & Remedies" by Millie Foster Cheesman, International Society Daughters of Utah Pioneers.
HONEY COOKIES
This honey cookie, says author Jane Watson Hopping, tastes even better after standing in a crock for three to four months! "It will remain soft, moist and delicate in flavor for up to three years in a tight container! (The honey acts as a preservative.)" But could you keep from eating them that long?
2 cups honey
3 tablespoons baking soda
1 cup shortening or margarine
1/4 cup hot water
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 to 4 cups all-purpose flour
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large saucepan, warm the honey over low heat, then stir in the baking soda. Add the shortening, water, ginger and salt and continue warming gently until the shortening melts.
Remove from heat and stir in enough flour to make a stiff dough (start with 3 cups, then add more if needed). Turn onto a floured surface; roll 1/8- to 1/4-inch thick. Using a small glass dipped in flour (or a cookie cutter), cut into small circles and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake until cookies are lightly browned on the bottoms, about 8 minutes. (Honey browns faster than sugar, so be careful they don't overbrown.)
Immediately remove from pan and cool on a wire rack.
Note: If desired, you may dust the cookies with lightly mixed spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) and powdered sugar as you layer them in the container. Makes 5 dozen cookies. From "The Pioneer Lady's Country Kitchen," by Jane Watson Hopping, Villard Books.