#2 Honey Refrigerator Cookies (1942), p. 4

Cookies stamped with star design and ready for the oven.

I continue to try the earliest recipes. I mixed up these refrigerator cookies the night before, a lesson in delayed gratification. When I sliced off the cookies from the cylinder, the dough was still soft, so I poked them into round shapes. I still wasn't impressed by their appearance - simple, flat and round. I remembered the way I'd used the bottom of a fancy glass to press a star pattern into sugar cookies when I was a kid. So, I buttered the bottom of a crystal perfume bottle, dipped it into sugar, and pressed each cookie, dipping again into sugar for each one. Much prettier.

This is the kind of cookie I would have welcomed when I tried to protect my children from super-sweet desserts. They call for part honey, part sugar. They are only slightly sweet, soft and cake-like out of the oven, with the floral scent of my blackberry honey. They cool to a crisp graham cracker texture. They call for shortening, but they would probably be fine with butter. Hmm, maybe they could be dunked in red wine.

I do have to remember the era in which this recipe was published - 1942, a time of deprivation. Sugar was rationed and butter was scarce. People did the best they could with what they had, they didn't complain about supporting the war effort, and they got by.

Admiration for my parents' generation aside, these cookies are not my favorites. Without the essential ingredients (sugar and fat), this girl might have given up cookies altogether, like an extended Lenten sacrifice. In spite of their potential for fewer calories than most cookies, I doubt I'd make them for myself again. If I allow myself a cookie, it had better be flavorful and satisfying. I have to report that these are not.

This recipe can be found here and there.

Comments

#33 Almond Bolas (Portuguese Almond Cookies) 1975

Three almond balls ( bolas ) in a row. "This one is good," my sister-in-law Jill told me. She tried not to express too much surprise, but I have regaled her with too many tales of failed cookies. And forced her to eat a few duds. I was glad this one made the grade. I liked it, too. You might think I am a hopeless romantic to fall for another almond cookie. (Italy, almond cookies. Almond cookies, Italy.) The fact is every country that can grow almonds has its special recipes for almond cookies. Portugal is no exception. The ground blanched almonds combine with dry bread crumbs, then the usual sugar, egg whites and almond extract. The dry bread crumbs are key. When the cookies are fresh from the oven, the bread crumbs add a perfect crunch to their rustic, nutty texture. Holes in the center ready for filling. These cookies don't "drop." You roll them in a ball ( bola ) and press a hole in the center, as for jelly-filled thumbprint cookies. Egg yolk ...

#21 Cornetti 1989

First, the texture. These crescent-shaped darlings came closest to the crisp-outside, soft-inside of the almond cookies I've been craving. The difference with these is their distinct orange flavor, from chopped, candied orange peel, and the cup of white cornmeal that adds a gritty crunch to each bite. Cornetti, dusted with powdered sugar. These firm, hearty cookies, with a ground almond base, are my first real almond cookie success. They are not the same as any cookie I tasted in Italy; I have yet to duplicate those bakery cookies. These stand on their own, apart from the rest, and they are every bit as good. After one minute in boiling water, almonds are ready to have skins removed. Blanching almonds. Orange peels simmering in sugar syrup. The bad news is the labor required, especially if you begin with almonds that have their skins. Although an easy process of blanching in hot water allows the skins to be removed for an all-white dough, by the time I was done, ...

#17 Brazil Nut Crescents 1958

Light as a feather, these cookies showcase the Brazil nut. After my fiasco of many ingredients (the Oatmeal Molasses Cookies seem so last month), I wondered if only four ingredients would be enough to make a decent attempt at a cookie. I creamed the butter, added sugar, flour and finely chopped Brazil nuts, as instructed. I kneaded the dough on a floured surface a bit, and formed my 2-inch cylinder of dough. The ridged crescent shapes emerge when you cut off each slice. As you cut, each round compresses into more of an oval or square. Help it shape by giving it a pat on top. Then, poke a finger sideways into the middle of each slice, and pull the ends toward you to form the crescents. Cookie rounds flatten as you slice them. I expected a firm cookie, like the Mexican Wedding Cakes I've made. But these are lighter. When I bit in, they crumbled like an abandoned sand castle. OK, edible sand castle. I wondered how they had stayed together until then. The texture difference c...

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