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#36 "Shoe Sole" Cookies 1970


I wish I could say these cookies had an interesting shape, or showed off the baker's talent, or boasted a great flavor combination. Three strikes. I'm giving "Shoe Sole" Cookies the boot.

Small round shapes were easiest to form.
First, what could be appetizing about a cookie that in any way resembles a shoe? I'm thinking leathery, flat and hard. Not much going for it in the marketing department here.

In fact, the only resemblance to a shoe sole is the shape. The recipe has us using an oval cookie cutter to mimic the shape of a shoe - not a pretty shape in my opinion. I cut mine into circles and sprinkled them with cinnamon sugar. A ring around the edge remains white because that is the part that is puffing up during baking, and not browning. These do have a light texture, owing to the Pepperidge Farm Puff Pastry.

That's right, "puff paste" and sugar - the only two ingredients in this recipe. Pastry from the freezer and sugar? No talent necessary. That's downright cheating.

Use puff pastry for more interesting desserts, and also
savory dishes.
In fact, this recipe from 1970 is more representative of the late sixties than I'd like to admit. Recipe books of that decade routinely called for popular processed foods - mayo, canned soups, fruit cocktail, refrigerated biscuits. The same processed foods that today's healthy foods movement eschews were a boon to homemaker convenience in everyday cooking 40 years ago.

While cleaning out my mother's home I ran across a 1962 pamphlet entitled "Joys of Jello." Canned fruit, Dream Whip, and marshmallows are staple ingredients for these recipes.

I tried to make little person figures,
but they came out sort of wacky.
Oh, pardon me while I recall fondly just a few of those gelatin salads. Remember the green one with pears? The red raspberry one with a middle layer of cream cheese? I loved that one, and now none of my extended family will eat it so it no longer graces the Thanksgiving table. I really tried to convert them, but each year, it got passed around the entire table, like the spoke of a spinning wheel, and I was the only one who ate it. They won.

How about the orange Jello salad with shredded carrots? I never did take to those shreds in my teeth, but it does bring back an era of holiday memories.

But I digress. The editors of this book say that the "Shoe Sole" Cookies would have been a tour de force in 1970 until "the advent of frozen puff pastry turned them into a cinch." I'm not so sure. Pepperidge Farm had already ventured into frozen foods by that time, and had bought a puff pastry company in 1957. Seems likely the easy frozen pastry was available in plenty of time to use it for this 1970 recipe.

If you still want to know how to make them, the recipe is here. And bake them for only 4-5 minutes, not the 12-15 in the recipe.

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