Monday, December 20, 2010

Old-Fashioned Christmas Butter Cookies

When the holiday baking season was fast approaching, I grabbed a copy of the new Gourmet Cookie Book. A couple of years ago, there was a cookie article in the magazine that offered the best cookie, as chosen by the editors, from each decade going back to the 1940s, and this book is an extension of that idea. It includes the best cookie from each and every year the magazine was published from 1941 to 2009. What I find particularly interesting about this book is that the recipes were reprinted as they were originally written, and there are notes throughout regarding how recipe writing styles have changed over the years. In some of the earliest recipes, the instructions were a little vague with suggestions to place cookies in a "moderate" oven and "add butter" with no reference to what temperature either should be. If you've baked similar cookies before, certainly you can figure out the process, but it's interesting that these days recipes leave no detail to the imagination. Just in case, the book's editors have provided updated notes on those early recipes to clear up any possible confusion. I started with one of those older recipes, from 1947 to be exact. It's an old-fashioned butter cookie, and I was intrigued by this recipe's use of hard-boiled egg yolks in addition to raw yolks in the dough. I'd seen that done before on a cooking show several years ago, and I wanted to find out how that affected the texture of the cookie.

So, three eggs were hard cooked, the whites weren't used here, but the yolks were pushed through a sieve and set aside. Butter and sugar were creamed, and the instructions suggest doing that by stirring. I only took the old-fashioned concept so far. I used my stand mixer. To the fluffily creamed butter and sugar, the sieved egg yolks were added alternately with sifted flour and three raw egg yolks. Last, some lemon zest was mixed into the dough. The dough was chilled before being rolled and cut into festive shapes. It was an easy dough to roll and cut, and it held its shape well. Before going into that moderate oven, which the editors noted should be 350 degrees F, the cookies were brushed with egg white and sprinkled with chopped nuts and sugar. I used roasted, salted, chopped macadamia nuts for mine.

These were crunchy, crumbly, buttery cookies. They had a nice snap, and I heard that snap repeatedly as these were possibly the easiest-breaking cookies I've baked. Once I realized I needed to handle them more carefully, I started to like that snap with each bite. The sandy, crumbly cookie and the crunchy nutty topping made these a great treat for the holidays or any time of year.



26 comments:

  1. Lovely cookies! A very interesting way of making them.

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. Beautiful. The topping look gorgeous.

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  3. Thanks for sharing this historical recipe. How times and cooking styles have changed over the years. Have a wonderful holiday season Lisa!!!

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  4. Just what I needed this morning to inspire me to keep on baking!!! These look delicious!

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  5. I love those old-fashioned recipes. Sounds really yummy.

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  6. Very interesting. I love history almost as much as I love food and that cookbook sounds like a goldmine for both!
    How bizarre to use hard boiled egg yolks in cookies. I wonder if all the yolks but no whites is what make these cookies especially crumbly.
    Needless to say, they sound fabulous! I love your topping too - a nice change from icing and sprinkles.

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  7. Wait so you used cooked egg yolk in these cookies? How interesting! I've never heard of that before. I think I would have a hard time with this cookbook... I need exact measurements in my recipes!

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  8. Never heard of using hard boiled egg yolk in a cookie - but yours look so incredible, I think I may just try. Plus, crushed Macadamia nuts on top sounds divine.

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  9. The use of the hard boiled egg yolk is fascinating. I'd love to try this cookie and see how that affects its taste. They look beautiful, that's for sure.
    *kisses* HH

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  10. Beautiful cookies. I love the topping. I love all the pretty Christmas cookies I am seeing!

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  11. Roxan: I should have explained better that anything that was unclear in the older recipes has been clarified by the editors. There are measurements and temperatures, etc. either included or noted for each cookie.

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  12. Love those candy cane butter cookies!

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  13. Very different. I have not seen the use of cooked egg yolks in a cookie recipe. I think that 'back then' people knew how to cook so fewer descriptions were necessary.

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  14. Yum! These look so good! Perfect holiday cookies.

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  15. you sold me on that delicious cookie!! I agree a snap adds something to the eating enjoyment!
    The cooked egg yolk is something I have never seen or heard of before, thank you for sharing it
    Cheers
    Dennis

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  16. Fascinating!! I love reading old cookbooks and instructions have certainly come along way - "a dessert spoon of sugar?" Uh huh!!
    Using cooked hard boiled eggs yolks is intriguing - definitely would add to the "snap" factor!!

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  17. Oh dear- if they're that delicate, they'd never last with me. At least I'd get the small consolation of eating all the cookies I'd broken. These look great- love the holiday shapes!

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  18. They look wonderful. Never seen cookies with hard boild yolks in them. Happy Holidays.

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  19. I'm certainly glad I don't have any of those here at my house. I'd weigh 200 pounds by New Year's.

    However, a very interesting recipe!

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  20. I've seen some old cookie recipes that had hard-cooked yolk in them and always wondered about that. So do you think they add lightness and crispness to the dough in some way?

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  21. Wow! That's a little different isn't it using hard boiled egg yolks. Awesome.

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  22. Carolyn: I think the hard boiled yolks did add to the crispness. The dough definitely had a different feel than other butter cookie doughs when being rolled out as well.

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  23. sieved egg yolks. interesting. i've definitely never heard of this technique, especially for cookies! thanks for the eye-opener and lovely images, lisa. :)

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  24. These are as pretty as can be! How interesting that the boiled egg yolks are used in this recipe!

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  25. i have never used hard boiled eggs in a cookie recipe before. this sounds very interesting! Your cookies look delicious! i love the candy cane shapes!

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