ISSUE 43, CHRISTMAS, Part 5: Cookies
Christmas Cookies in the Shape of Memories
The ancestor of the common Christmas sugar cookie was the caraway seed cookie. It reigned as one of the dominant holiday treats for the last half of the 19th century. It is the Christmas Cookie that used to be everywhere and has now vanished.
Caraway seeds are actually the dried fruits of this member of the carrot family (cousin of cumin and fennel). The volatile oils in the “seeds” give off a sharp anise flavor. Used in sauerkraut, in rye bread, and in goulash. It was imported into North America late in the 18th century and was available at most town groceries throughout the 1800s. In baking it imparted a spicy flavor and an exotic aroma. Hence it went in the special cookies made for holidays. The recipe for the cookie was straightforward. Here’s a formula printed in Ballou’s Magazine for December 1888:
Carraway Seed Cookies
Stir together, till as light as cream, half a pound of butter, and half a pound of white sugar; add three well-beaten eggs, and one ounce of caraway seed mixed with a cup of flour; knead, and then add flour enough to make a stiff dough; roll thin, cut in fancy shapes, and bake.
My family never knife cut cookies into shapes. We had a box of cookie cutters in classic Christmas shapes: snow man, reindeer, Santa Claus, Stars, Christmas Tree. It was only later that specialty cookie cutters became available that permitted punching out lacy snowflakes, or picturesque elvesWe would ice some of the cookies . . . mainly because that was one task that we children could perform with some creativity and not mess up too badly. I did not inherit her cookie cutters . . . only her cook books. One reason was I grew up in Japan when no refined sugar was available in the 1950s, so did not develop much of a sweet tooth. My mother was much more the initiator of holiday bake-a-thons. She belonged to a network of women who traded recipes, and family Christmas cookie recipes were particularly cherished. She has been gone now almost 30 years. But each December her spirit visits. I take out the red book of her recipes--a thick book, for she was a hunter and trader, seeking out the rarest and quaintest receipts from her broad circle of friends. The section of Christmas Cookies is particularly strange and rich. From 1956 to 1992 she lived outside of Washington, D.C., and got to know people from many countries. Various European Christmas treats intersperse with various types of gingerbread, sugar cookie, oatmeal raisin cookie, and shortbreads. One of the most memorable of the Xmas sweets was a Polish cookie, Ziemniaczki (little potatoes). She made the kind covered in chopped walnuts, so imagine the plate below with no coconut covered ones, only nutty ones. What does it taste like? Like a blessing.