By Cate Wells Courtesy of Grandma’s Recipe Box, a classic sugar cookie recipe is a must for Un-Valentine’s Day. Relationships may not always be so simple, but this uncomplicated recipe is an sweet reminder about how everything works out in the end. Remember to leave time for chilling the dough otherwise it’s too sticky to roll it out. Grandmas everywhere would like to remind us that patience is a virtue and share some great relationship advice.
You can decorate these as much or as little as you desire—perhaps you’d like to cut them into other shapes or maybe even do broken hearts? One particular Valentine’s Day I made two sets of heart cookies, with half of them including a smaller heart cut-out in the center. After they were baked I sandwiched pink frosting between the two so the color peeked through the center opening of the top cookie. I picked out the perfect card for my long-distance boyfriend and sent them off in the mail, only to receive nothing in return. Ever since then, I tend to go with simpler decoration, such as just a touch of turbinado sugar for texture.
1/2 cup butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs, well beaten
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 tablespoon milk
1 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw), optional
Grandma’s instructions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and milk, then the flour, baking powder and salt, and enough flour to make right consistency.
My additions:
Wrap disk of dough in plastic wrap and place in fridge for one hour (or up to overnight).
Using extra flour to prevent sticking, roll out to 1/4–1/2″ thick and cut into heart shapes. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar, if desired.
Bake at 350′ for 12–15 minutes.
Things have come along way since the mid-1900s, both in dating and cooking. We’re happy to dwell on the past a little, but the key is to move on. So translating older recipes to modern girls’ kitchens is definitely a perfect adventure for us. I was recently given my late grandmother’s recipe box and it’s filled with her favorite recipes, from soup to nuts (really, there is a great recipe for roasted pecans). There is quite a mix of inspiring and interesting dishes (ham loaf, anyone?). It’s very much a product of her times. Thankfully, the rules of relationships have also changed since the 1950s. Many are little more than lists of ingredients instead of the step-by-step directions we’re used to today. I love the mix of handwritten and neatly typed 3×5 index cards, some of which have cook’s names written on them—from the kitchen of family and friends.
Here at the Breakup Cookbook, we love a culinary challenge almost as much as a good breakup story. So for my first big adventure from kitchens past, I found what is actually one of great-grandma’s recipes. She was a Texan, so I trust her corn bread recipe. I was surprised to not see butter in the ingredients but how far wrong can you go when cooking with bacon fat? Click through for more details.
Talk about comfort food . . . recently two breakup cooks got together to crank out 3 pans of lasagna in one evening. That’s enough to feed 24 people (and, yes, there were some leftovers). Baked pasta dishes are always great for a group—they can be made in advance and also travel well in a foil pan for girls on the go. We used regular noodles but the no-boil ones make it even quicker.
When we asked one of our Grandma’s for her favorite lasagna recipe she said she always just uses the back of the noodle box! So, in honor of non-Italian Grandma’s everywhere, here is our modified back of the box recipe from Ronzoni. Some fresh basil and extra spices gave it a needed kick. Just add a simple salad and warm bread to feed a crowd.
We’re going Dutch today but not on a date. I just saw this fun silent movie from the Netherlands on how to make Spice Cake—too bad my cooking disasters are not nearly as cute or innocent as this video. I do think this recipe qualifies as Grandma-approved.
What do you get when you combine two Welsh ladies, a giant griddle, and an holiday exchange party? Welsh cookies—our family’s traditional holiday treat. I spent a recent afternoon with my mom baking a recipe that comes from generations back as we prepped for our girls get-together. Thankfully there were no men allowed (and no fires like at the start of the Dylan Thomas’s Child’s Christmas in Whales) though bonding and baking is always good for a mother and daughter. I compare the cookies more to biscuits; sometimes they are also called Miner’s Cakes. And you don’t bake them in the oven, instead you brown them on a griddle.
Check out the slideshow to see them in process—complete with wild (non-Welsh) packaging for the party!
Courtesy of Grandma’s Recipe Box, a classic sugar cookie recipe is a must for Un-Valentine’s Day. Relationships may not always be so simple, but this uncomplicated recipe is an sweet reminder about how everything works out in the end. Remember to leave time for chilling the dough otherwise it’s too sticky to roll it out. Grandmas everywhere would like to remind us that patience is a virtue and share some great relationship advice.
What do you get when you combine two Welsh ladies, a giant griddle, and an holiday exchange party? Welsh cookies—our family’s traditional holiday treat. I spent a recent afternoon with my mom baking a recipe that comes from generations back as we prepped for our girls get-together. Thankfully there were no men allowed (and no fires like at the start of the Dylan Thomas’s Child’s Christmas in Whales) though bonding and baking is always good for a mother and daughter. I compare the cookies more to biscuits; sometimes they are also called Miner’s Cakes. And you don’t bake them in the oven, instead you brown them on a griddle.
