Vintage Cookie Baking for the Holidays

cherry-winks

Cherry Winks

Sugar Glazed Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Sugar Glazed Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

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Crescent Cookies

Whew! Have you survived Christmas, are you still celebrating with family?

I am not sure that I have survived and recovered yet. LOL

Don’t get me wrong…I love, adore and dream of Christmas, all year long. When it is over, I am like,” what happened, it is over already?”

Gee… I must have blinked. Only a second ago, I had  packages wrapped under the tree, cookies out for Santa, goodie trays nearly finished, and then I blinked and I have wrapping paper, boxes, and bows, cookie crumbs and little pieces of wrapping paper stuck with scotch tape all over the floor.

It was like Christmas exploded in my living room and kitchen.

I will be pulling little pieces of wrapping paper from under my couch till summer along with a few candy canes.

It just makes Christmas last that much longer.

Anywho…enough of my silly chit chat…LOL….lets talk Christmas baking and cookies. This year, I wanted to make new cookies. As in new to me, but old cookies to my Mom and family. I did make a delicious chocolate chip cookie for Christmas I will share with you later, but for my gifts to my teacher friends, I wanted to make some vintage cookies.

I settled on Cherry Winks, Glazed Raisin-Oatmeal Cookie and Crescent Cookies.

I have never posted 3 recipes in one post before and it would make this post really long with all the pictures.

So, let me start with the Cherry Winks.

I promise to add the other two later tonight or tomorrow morning.

My family loves maraschino cherries. I usually have a jar or two tucked away in the cabinet for some random cherry emergency….like….mmm these little sugar syrup little jewels look good enough to eat for a snack. I really am not saying that I do that…. when you have grand children you can always blame the grand kids for opening your mini marshmallow bags, chocolate chip bags and getting into your cherries when you are not looking. haha!

So, when I was looking through a old cookie cookbook and I saw these cookies, remembering that I have tasted them at church fellowship dinners or Christmas parties way back in my youth, I just knew I have to give them a try.

These cookies have little “winks” of cherries put on the top of each cookie, which gives these cookies their name. They also have chopped cherries added into the cookie dough to add flavor and a little pop of color. I loved the dates and the pecans in the cookies and the crunch of the crushed corn flakes that surround the edges and bottom of the cookies.

These Cherry Winks have all those vintage ingredients in them that you don’t see in a lot of recipes…..I mean dates…and rolled in corn flakes…..

But this adds to the charm of this cookie.

So if you are looking for a little nostalgia and a really good cookie all in a crunchy (but tender on the inside) cookie, give this cookie a try.

Here is what you will need! : )

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For this delicious cookie you will need flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, shortening, sugar, eggs, vanilla, milk, chopped nuts, chopped dates, chopped maraschino cherries, and crushed corn flakes.

I took the  ingredients to school and some of my wonderful students make this cookie dough when they were all caught up on their work, so I do not have the usual step by step pictures and directions for this recipe and I am sorry!!! The directions are listed below in the recipe though : ).

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Look at that beautiful cookie dough. It is full of chopped pecans, dates, and maraschino cherries.  I am using my kitchen shears to cut my cherries into small pieces to set down into the cookie dough to form the “wink.”

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I used a cookie scoop to scoop out the dough and then I rolled the cookie dough into the crushed corn flakes. Then I pressed the cherry in the top. I ran out of maraschino cherries so I had to get into my candied cherries I bought for a cake…oh well.

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Place them on parchment paper and bake. They spread out just a bit and get light tan around the edges.

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Then I cooled them on a cookie sheet until I put them in a cookie tin to stay moist.

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Here’s to, “Winking at You.”

Here is the recipe:

Cherry Winks

From Vintage 1958 Cookie Cookbook

Ingredients:

21/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons milk

1 cup chopped nuts (I used pecans)

1 cup chopped dates

1/3 cup chopped maraschino cherries (more for cutting pieces for wink)

21/2 cup crushed corn flakes

Directions:

In a medium bowl lightly stir together flour, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla and milk. Mix well. Blend in the dry ingredients (the flour mixture).

Mix well. Add in the nuts, dates and cherries. Shape the dough into balls. I used a cookie scoop. Roll each ball into the crushed corn flakes and top with one fourth of a cherry. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on a cookie sheet. Yield about 4 dozen cookies. I made mine a tad bigger and I did not get that many.

Hope you enjoy this cookie recipe!

Becky

 

 

 

Meringue Fudge Drop Cookies

Every year about this time, I try to make a few unusual cookies to take to a local business that is our departments partner in education. So, today while I had a break from teaching I thought I would try my  hand at making these pretty holiday cookies.

During Thanksgiving break from school, I was able to go to some flea markets, Salvation Army and Goodwill stores to see if I could find any treasures that I could use. Among some sweaters and cool dishes, I found some old recipe magazines. I figured at a quarter a piece, if I could find two or three recipes I would like to try, I would buy a few (ended up buying 7). This recipe was in one of the magazines. I thought it was a fun and different take on regular meringue cookies and putting the pistachios on top, added a finishing holiday color to them.

I was able to make these in about a hour and half, and that includes cooking and cooling time. There were much easier than I thought they would be to make. After sampling one of them (ok a few of them) I was impressed by the crunch and slight chew to the cookie and when you add that to the creamy fudge topping, it sent these cookies to holiday heaven. One thing I would have suggest that I did not do, is waiting to fill the cookie until you are ready to plate them up. You can make the cookies and the fudge filling a head of time  and when you are ready to eat them, pass them around or take them to a party, fill the cookies real quick, top them with some nuts and you are good to go. Do not store the cookies in the refrigerator (I learned the hard way) as the cookies absorbed some moisture. But, if  you are making the filling ahead of time, put the filling in the fridge because it has two eggs cooked in the filling. Now, the recipe did not say to do this, but just cause I like to do things on the safe side.

If you are searching for a gorgeous cookie to add to your cookie recipe arsenal, then give this one a try. It is even gluten free!

Here is all you need to make these cookies.

For the cookie you will need two egg whites, salt, almond flavoring and cream of tartar. For the fudge you will need two egg yolks, some butter, chocolate chips and powdered sugar, You garnish the cookies with chopped pistachios.

    

Separate the eggs whites from the yolks. Put the whites into a mixing bowl and save the yolks for the fudge filling.

    

With you whisk attachment, whisk the egg whites until they are foamy.

    

Add the sugar one tablespoon at a time to the foamy eggs. Whisk on high until you add all the sugar and the eggs whites form a stiff peak.

With a teaspoon, spoon out the meringue onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. After you get the meringue scooped out on the cookie sheet, take a small spoon and form a little hole in the center of each cookie. After the cookie are baked this little hole is where you will put the fudge filling. Bake the cookies for 30 to 40 minutes in a 250 degree oven. Make sure the cookies sound hollow and are dry. I rotated my pan half way through the cooking process to make sure all the cookies got an equal amount of heat to dry them out.

While the cookies are baking, you can start on the filling.

      

In a small sauce pan, melt the chocolate chips and the butter together.

    

In a small bowl, beat the egg yolks till creamy and stir in the powdered sugar. Add the egg mixture to the melted chocolate.

Whisk the eggs and melted chocolate mixture on the range on low heat until it thickens making sure it reaches a temperature of 160 degrees. Take the fudge filling off of the heat and let it cool.

    

As the filling cools, chop up some pistachios.  You only need a couple of tablespoons but I always like to add more nuts.

With the cooled cookies and the cooled fudge filling. You can fill each cookie with the fudge. I used a small spoon. After you fill them, top them with some pistachios and press them into the filling to secure. If you do no plan to serve the cookies right away, just store the meringue cookies in a air tight container in a dry spot. Put the filling in a sealed container in the refrigerator. When you are ready to serve, then fill and decorate with nuts.

These cookies are so pretty on a plate!

Here are your directions:

Meringue Fudge Drops

Adapted from Taste of Home

Ingredients for the cookie:

2 egg whites

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/8 teaspoon of salt

1/2 cup sugar

Ingredients for the filling:

1/c cup semisweet chocolate chips

3 tablespoons butter

2 egg yolks (slightly beaten)

2 tablespoon confectionery sugar

2 tablespoons chopped pistachios

Directions for the cookie.

In a mixing bowl, beat the egg whites, almond extract, cream of tartar and salt on medium speed until it forms soft peaks. Keep beating, and add the sugar one tablespoon at a time until the egg whites form stiff peaks. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon out meringue, forming little circles. Take a small spoon and make an indentation in each of the cookies. Bake in a 250 degree oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the all the cookies are dry to the touch. Let cool.

Directions for the filling: 

In a small sauce pan, on medium heat, melt the butter and the chocolate chips together. With a whisk, add in the beaten egg and powdered sugar and mix together completely. Turn the heat to low and continue to cook and stir the filling until it becomes thick and the filling reaches 160 degrees. Cool to room temperature.

To finish the cookie, spoon the filling into the indentation in the cookies and top with the chopped pistachios.

Happy Baking!

Becky

If you like this post, you might like to check out these other cookie recipes.

              

   Molasses Cookies                      PIC”s Creamy Peanut Clusters

 

 

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