Honey Ginger Cookies

I'm back with a little honey for your honey on Valentine's Day. Honey Ginger Cookies, from a vintage recipe, are cake-like cookies, neither chewy nor crispy and are not overly sweet. They taste like honey, so if that's your thing, this is your cookie. I wasn't a huge fan, but my coworkers were -- these disappeared rather quickly. Or maybe my colleagues were simply distraught over the Super Bowl, as I brought them in the day after the game.

They are rather easy to prepare, requiring just a couple of bowls and spoons, and the butter is melted, so they take virtually no planning (i.e,, you needn't wait for the butter to soften, as in many cookie recipes).

Below is the entire mis en place for the cookies. The topping requires many of these ingredients, plus nuts.

To get started, mix the wet and dry ingredients in separate bowls and combine. No need to use a mixer; a spoon works fine.

The batter will look like this when properly combined.

I found it difficult to drop these from a teaspoon (as the recipe card instructed), so with gloved hands, I rolled them into small balls and just pressed lightly on them before baking.

The recipe calls for small cookies and I did make one sheet of them. But I was in a rush, so doubled the size. Both were good. Just don't put both sizes on a single sheet, as the larger ones take a few minutes longer in the oven.

For the topping, simply place the butter, sugar, honey, salt and nuts in a saucepan.

Let it come to a boil and spoon over the cooled cookies.

Production notes: I followed this recipe exactly, except I only sifted once. If I were to make it again, I'd add a bit more ginger. These also don't spread much, so you don't have to place them three inches apart. Note the old-fashioned spelling of the word "cooky."

Buttermilk Cookies and Cat Stevens

Back in 2014, the DH and I traveled to Philadelphia's Tower Theater to see Yusuf Cat Stevens play his first American concert in 35 years. (He had cancelled his NYC appearance because venues here insist on paper tickets, and he insisted on none, as a way to foil scalpers.) The concert was fantastic; he played a mix of old and new songs, his distinctive voice was exactly as I had remembered and his charm has endured.

We spent the night in a lovely inn, and the next morning found ourselves at the Reading Terminal Market, a fabulous hall (reminiscent of European markets) filled with all manner of food and food vendors. And there, I scored real buttermilk (the stuff we buy in supermarkets is not real) plus a dozen double yolk eggs.

I used this buttermilk in ginger cookies, and as the expiration date drew ever closer, I was fortunate to find this vintage gem for buttermilk cookies. They are very easy to make, quite tender and cake-like (on account of the buttermilk) and  really, really good.

Like many old recipes, this one is basically a list of ingredients. Start by creaming the butter and sugar.

Add the rest of the ingredients and drop by teaspoon onto a parchment-lined baking sheet.

Cool the cookies on racks.

Because the cookies looked a bit too plain Jane, I mixed up some frosting -- confectioner's sugar and milk -- to give them a little pizzazz.

Aerial view.

Here's the vintage recipe. I especially like the (Good Luck) at the bottom. And the Ground Metel ingredient. She must mean Gold Medal flour, I've written out the method I used, below.

Butter Milk Cookies

Preheat oven to 350 F

2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (two sticks) softened
3 eggs
1 cup buttermilk (store-bought buttermilk will work fine)
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. vanilla

Cream butter and sugar until well combined.
Add eggs, one at a time.  Mix well.
Mix flour and soda in a small bowl and add this mixture alternately with the buttermilk.
Blend in vanilla.

Drop from a teaspoon onto a greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
Bake 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges have some color.
Good luck!