Grandmother's Oatmeal Cookies

Sometimes I bake recipes with intriguing names, other times -- like this -- I select a recipe because of the paper it's written on.  Grandmother's Oatmeal Cookies is handwritten on a sheet of office stationery of one Roger Lindoo, general manager of PCA of Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin. I'm surmising that his wife, or other relative, wrote this recipe. (As I never fail to marvel at the interweb, I learned that Roger, who was born in 1914 died just last year at age 101, was active in the community and a great outdoors man. Based on his time of employment, I'd date this recipe from the 1950s.

Now, about this recipe. Not being an oatmeal cookie fan, I couldn't judge -- however, my work colleagues (and the workmen renovating my house) raved about them. And who could argue that Grandmother's cookies aren't delicious?

They are very easy to mix and bake, and call for cooking the raisins first. A good thing, especially if your DH failed to close the bag of raisins, leaving hard little nuggets in place of plump dried fruit.

The raisins cooking below in water.

The first mixture, of butter, sugar and eggs.

The cooked raisins are added, along with the cooking water.

After the dry ingredients are added, fold in the nuts and oatmeal.

The dough is a bit moist, and I found it easier and faster to use a small ice cream scoop to portion out the cookies.  I baked on parchment sheets, which can be reused, as evidenced below. After the first batch, and because the cookies didn't spread, I pressed down the dough balls before baking as they didn't flatten out as expected.

 The original recipe, below, and below that, I've written out the recipe as I made it.

Grandmother's Oatmeal Cookies

Preheat oven to 375F

1 c. raisins
7 T. water
1 c sugar
1 c. butter at room temperature
2 eggs
2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. salt
2 c. regular oatmeal
1/2 c. chopped nuts

Cook raisins and water in a saucepan for three minutes. Set aside to cool.
Cream sugar and butter.
Add eggs and beat well.
Add raisins and water, and mix.
Sift dry ingredients and add, and combine.
Add oatmeal and nuts.
Mix well.
Drop by tablespoons (or use a small ice cream scoop) onto greased or parchment lined cookie sheet.
Press down with wet hands or the bottom of a glass.
Bake until brown, about 10 to 12 minutes.

Coconut Washboards

One reason I began A Cake Bakes was to discover delicious and unusual recipes from the past that for reasons unknown didn't make it to the 21st century. Coconut Washboards are that -- and true rock stars among cookies. These are very yummy and so easy to make. They are shaped like old-fashioned washboards and a fork is used to add the grooves, completing the look,  A little internet research into these gems revealed that they were meant to suggest that hard work (i.e., scrubbing clothes by hand) makes for a sweet reward. 

I baked these for our friend Alec, who joined us to watch the second presidential debate. I figured that we could all use a little old-fashioned sweetness to counter the bitterness (and craziness) that's overtaken our nation.

Start by beating the butter and brown sugar, then adding the egg, vanilla and almond extract.

Combine well and add the coconut and flour, mixing it all together.

Divide the dough in half, and roll out one portion into a rectangle between parchment or wax paper.  (The recipe suggest patting it down, but I found rolling it was easier. Though I still couldn't achieve a rectangle.)

With a sharp knife, cut into "washboards."

With a fork dipped in flour, create the washboard grooves.  I needed to coat the fork continuously so it didn't stick. A bit of flour on the cookies didn't make a difference after baking.

These took me longer than the ten minutes suggested in the recipe. But at the end, the tops were a light golden brown, with the bottoms a slightly darker shade.

Production notes: I followed this recipe almost exactly, but have written out the method I used below. Not sure of the size of a bag of Baker's Cookie Coconut when this recipe was written (in the 1940s), so I used the 7 ounce bad of sweetened coconut available today. I also could not achieve a 10 x 13 inch rectangle. You can just gather the scraps and roll out again. If you want the washboard grooves to be more prominent, you will need to process the shredded coconut so that the dough is really smooth.

Coconut Washboards

3/4 c. unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks) softened
1 c. packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. almond extract
2 1/4 c, all-purpose flour
3/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. each cinnamon and nutmeg
1/8 t. salt
7 oz bag of sweetened coconut

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, spices and salt. Set aside.
Cream butter, and cream in sugar until light and fluffy.
Beat in egg, vanilla and almond extract.
Add flour mixture and blend until well combined.
Add coconut and stir.
Divide mixture in half. Pat (or roll) each half into a 10 x 9 rectangle between two sheets of parchment or wax paper.
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Chill for one hour.
Cut into 1 x 3 inch rectangles.
Place on an ungreased (or parchment lined) cookie sheet
Press ridges into each with a floured fork.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10 to 14 minutes.
Cool on a rack.

Salted Peanut Cookies

If you're a peanut butter cookie lover, then you'll want to try these Salted Peanut Cookies from a vintage recipe. The strong peanut butter flavor is derived entirely from the peanuts, which also add a lovely texture to the cookies. The sugar coating on top is the icing on the cake, so to speak.

Like most cookies, the batter is a cinch to whip up (providing you've left the butter to soften on the counter). The time suck comes from baking sheet after sheet of these. But you can always bake what you need (as I did for a dinner that night) and leave the dough in the refrigerator to bake at your leisure.

(Full disclosure: I am not a fan of peanut butter cookies at all, mostly because of their crumbly texture, but found these absolutely addicting!)

Mix the peanuts in at the end.

Using your hands, roll into one-inch balls. I always wear gloves for this task, but there's no need to.

Press the cookies down with the bottom of a drinking glass dipped in water and then sugar. I skipped this part, just sprinkling sugar on the cookies, and the results were not as good.

Bake until the bottoms are medium brown.

Voila!

Production notes: I used all butter and light brown sugar. Do not overbake, as they harden while they cool. These don't spread much on the sheet, so you can bake a lot at one time.

Karo Lace Cookies

Depending on who you listen to, these lace cookies are either very, very good cookies or, as my friend Jay exclaimed (after touting their deliciousness), very large communion wafers. They are thin, crisp, buttery and sweet.

Although lace cookies may look complicated -- as in, "How did you get that intricate pattern to appear?" -- they couldn't be simpler to make. Just whip together a few common pantry ingredients and watch the magic happen in the oven. They are somewhat fragile and, while they survived a subway ride intact, I wouldn't send them on a much longer journey.

This vintage recipe is from the estate of a Texas collection.

It's important to note that Karo corn syrup is NOT the much-maligned high-fructose corn syrup.

Unlike most cookies, these begin on the stove top. Combine the Karo, brown sugar and butter.

Bring it to a boil, stirring constantly.

Add in the flour and coconut (or nuts, if you choose that option).

It will look like this when done.

Spoon small portions (about one-inch in diameter) onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

My portion size was too large the first time around and the cookies spread into one another, though someone at my job said that he preferred the very large cookies. Go figure.

I experimented with different baking times and sizes. Both were good, though I preferred the darker version.

Cool on a cookie sheet.

Production notes: I followed this exactly, though substituted butter for margarine and chose coconut over nuts. I used the clear (not the dark) Karo syrup.

Walnut Diamonds (or I Can't Believe There's No Butter)

We've all heard of Diamond Walnuts, but these "Walnut Diamonds" are an almost fat-free cookie that take but ten minutes to make and yields a moist, chewy, delicious and incredibly addictive treat. You truly won't believe these contain no butter! All of my tasters loved them.

This recipe card, probably dating from the 1940s or 50s, is titled Walnut Bars (Charlotte).

First step, and the most "challenging" is to chop up enough walnuts to equal one cup.

Make the batter by beating the egg and adding the dry ingredients.

The batter will be thick and sticky.

Place the batter in a greased and floured eight-inch pan. I donned non-latex gloves and smooshed (that's the technical term) the batter in the pan...

until it looked like this.

Bake it for 20 to 25 minutes.

I cut the first batch into squares, below, and the second into a diamond shape.

Production notes: I followed the recipe exactly, except I did not dissolve the baking soda in water mostly because I couldn't figure out why that needed to be done. I simply added it -- and 1/2 teaspoon of salt -- to the flour mixture.  I added the vanilla to the batter right before the dry ingredients.