This 150-Year-Old Cookie Recipe Is a Family Heirloom (2024)
I am culinary-trained, but baking has always been a passion of mine. I come from a long-line of top-notch bakers, so I always say that it’s in my genes. That also means I have some pretty good cookie recipes in my arsenal.
None of them have a date attached to them, but maybe that’s part of the allure of the 150-Year Old Cookie recipe posted on Reddit awhile back. The skeptic in me had a hard time believing that a cookie with only three ingredients was worth eating. I put on my apron to see what all the fuss was about and here’s what I learned.
How Do You Make 150-Year-Old Cookies?
The creator responsible for sharing the recipe on Reddit, Nolyn’s Kitchen, claimed that the cookie was an old family favorite. I can see why. The ingredients are few and the method is simple. Combine softened butter with brown sugar and self-rising flour. Mix everything with your hands, then cover and refrigerate for 20 minutes. Divide the dough into 25 equal-sized balls and bake until golden.
How It Went When I Made Them
After a quick review of the recipe, I gathered my ingredients (all of which I conveniently had in my fridge and pantry) and got to work. Once my butter was softened, I added it to a bowl along with brown sugar and self-rising flour.
I used my hands, as instructed, to mix everything together which was fun and satisfying. If you have kids, let them do this part (but make sure they wash their hands first—you should too), they’ll love squishing everything and watching the dough ball come together.
After a quick trip in the fridge to firm up a bit, I divided the dough into 25 equal-sized pieces, which came out to be about 15 grams each. That’s a pretty small cookie, but maybe that’s just by American standards.
Since there was no instruction regarding spacing on the baking sheet, I assumed more on a pan was better than fewer (this was not a good judgment call). I baked them at 310 F for about 18 minutes and when I went to retrieve my cookies, they had become a cohesive cookie sheet. They smelled great, but were flat as a pancake and stuck together and required a bit of bending and breaking in order to separate.
Make Your Own Self-Rising Flour With One Easy Trick
How Did They Taste?
Even though they looked awful, they tasted great. I’m a sucker for butter and these deliver big butter flavor! I enjoyed the crispy edges that reminded me of butterscotch and the chewy inside which complimented that crunch. The cookies felt surprisingly light and airy, but somehow satisfying. One of those small cookies was delicious and also plenty.
The Secret To Success
Simplicity is always a winner, especially when it comes to cooking and baking. The use of only three ingredients makes preparing these cookies approachable—a kind of “every day” cookie. It’s also the combination of those ingredients that make these cookies impressive. The butter, brown sugar and self-rising flour all work together to provide the flavor, texture, and structure these cookies need. Let’s not forget the ease of making them either! All you need is a bowl, your hands, a baking sheet, and an oven and you’re good to go!
Use unsalted butter—Self-rising flour is made with all-purpose flour, baking soda, and salt. You can expect between 300 to 350 grams of sodium per quarter cup of self-rising flour. That’s more than enough to flavor these cookies. Because of that, I recommend using unsalted butter for best results.
Sift your flour—Self-rising flour has a tendency to clump. To ensure your ingredients are evenly dispersed, consider sifting your flour before adding it to your dough. A simple fine-mesh strainer will help you get the job done.
Provide ample space for baking—Don’t make my mistake: give your cookies plenty of room on that cookie sheet for baking. At least 2 inches between them should allow enough space for spreading!
Decorate after baking—The recipe says to press the cookies with the back of a fork to make a simple decoration before baking. I found that to be quite frustrating since the cookies were so small and the dough was sticky which led to my fork getting stuck. A better method, I found, was to press the cookies after baking, right after removing them from the oven. I followed that with a little dusting of sparkling sugar, just for fun.
According to the author, the “family cookie recipe” is 150 years old (or 152, as it was posted two years ago) pinpointing its exact birth year to 1871. The recipe (which looks of English descent) only calls for three ingredients: self-rising flour
self-rising flour
Self-rising flour is a type of flour that includes leavening agents, which ensures perfectly risen baked goods. You don't need to use additional leavening agents (such as baking powder or baking soda) when you use self-rising flour. The ingredient was invented by an English baker named Henry Jones in the mid-1800s.
Pizzelles are the oldest known cookie and originated in the mid-section of Italy. They were made many years ago for the “Festival of the Snakes” also known as the “Feast Day of San Domenico” in the village of Colcullo in the Italian region of Abruzzo.
As a general rule of thumb, you should refrigerate cookie dough for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. More than that, and you won't see a noticeable difference in the final product. Once the dough has chilled, let it warm up at room temperature until it's just pliable (about 5 to 10 minutes).
Cookies appear to have their origins in 7th century AD Persia, shortly after the use of sugar became relatively common in the region. They spread to Europe through the Muslim conquest of Spain. By the 14th century, they were common in all levels of society throughout Europe, from royal cuisine to street vendors.
The "Oreo Biscuit" was first developed and produced by the National Biscuit Company (today known as Nabisco) in 1912 at its Chelsea, New York City factory in the present-day Chelsea Market complex, located on Ninth Avenue between 15th and 16th Streets.
On this day in 1912, Oreo cookies were first developed and produced by Nabisco in New York City. It's time to celebrate the iconic crunchy chocolate sandwich cookie with the sweet vanilla cream filling that Americans have enjoyed for over one hundred years. March 6th is National Oreo Cookie Day!
And because sugar enhances flavor, additional sugars from amylase activity also affect the taste of the cookie. But aging also gives distinct flavors—from vanilla extract, butter, brown sugar, and all the other ingredients—time to meld together into a more unified taste.
Popping your dough in the fridge allows the fats to cool. As a result, the cookies will expand more slowly, holding onto their texture. If you skip the chilling step, you're more likely to wind up with flat, sad disks instead of lovely, chewy cookies. Cookies made from chilled dough are also much more flavorful.
I bet you didn't know that the American classic dessert, the chocolate chip cookie, wasn't invented until 1938. The chocolate chip cookie was created by Framingham State University alumna, Ruth Graves Wakefield in Whitman, Massachusetts at the Toll House Inn.
'Cookie' as a nickname has a long history. It's often just a name given to the cook, or whoever the duty of cooking falls on. It's also often given to folks that are fragile, 'crack up' easily, or are just sweet in nature. Perhaps it is a name referring to a particular 'cookie incident'.
Likewise, it is possible to overbeat your mixture—if it starts to look soupy and oily, you've gone too far. This whole process typically takes between 2 and 5 minutes.
Resting your dough in the refrigerator will almost always yield better results. But why? Chilling your cookie dough in the refrigerator after mixing it allows the flour to hydrate and gives the other ingredients time to blend, resulting in a richer, more well-rounded flavor profile.
Too much butter makes cookies turn out just as you'd expect: very buttery. This batch of cookies was cakey in the middle, but also airy throughout, with crispy edges. They were yellow and slightly puffy in the middle, and brown and super thin around the perimeter.
The earliest known record of a cookie is from the 7 th Century in Persia, which is now known as Iran. This was one of the first countries to harvest sugar cane, one of the main ingredients in cookies. Many of the first cookies in America were adapted from other countries.
Bakery or homemade cookies can be stored at room temperature two to three weeks or two months in the refrigerator. Cookies retain their quality when stored in the freezer for eight to 12 months.
Pure Vanilla Cookie, an Ancient Cookie of Healing class, is one of the hardest to find cookies in the game. His position is prioritized to the Rear by default. His in-game description reads as: "There are not many Cookies on Earthbread who could inspire hope as Pure Vanilla Cookie did.
Introduction: My name is Pres. Lawanda Wiegand, I am a inquisitive, helpful, glamorous, cheerful, open, clever, innocent person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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