The Comfort of Cookies—Then and Now

Andrea/Cara here, musing today on cookies. First of all, it’s the season to think of platefuls of these delightfully delicious holiday treats! (What would December be without that tradition to add to the festivities . . . umm, and the waistline.) But I also got to thinking about how they are a balm for the spirit in any season. Admit it, a plate of warm cookies and milk (or cocoa) helps lifts the spirit in times of stress.

And I confess, I’ve had some stresses lately. My websites were hacked by some malicious l malware and it’s been a nightmare trying to them fixed—apologies to all of you who got the December Wench newsletter and couldn’t get to the link for my free chocolate recipes. The problem is now fixed, and you can go there now and get it. Just click here.) Trust me, I had more than a few late night cookie breaks!

At this time of year, I always pull out traditional family recipes for cookies. My mother was Swiss, and I have wonderful memories of her and my grandmother making their favorites from the home country. But before I tell you a little more about that, let’s take a quick look the history of cookies in our modern Holiday traditions.

Cookies—or biscuits as they were known in the past—came to Europe during Medieval times, and were inspired by foods brought back by the Crusaders from the Middle East, which featured spices like cinnamon, cloves, ginger and pepper, along with almonds and dried fruit. By the 16th century, variations had become popular throughout the continent. Lebkuchen, a honey-based flat cake, was a staple of the German states—legend says it was invented by the monks of Franconia in the 13th century. (Today it’s still a specialty of Nuremburg.) While in Scandanavia, pepparkakor—or gingersnaps cut into floral or heart shapes—were common. In France, bredala were popular.

Queen Elizabeth was said to have been very fond of gingerbread, and is credited with making the first gingerbread men, as she supposed had the dough cut into the shapes of her courtiers. Along with bringing the Christmas tree tradition from Germany, Queen Victoria and Albert also popularized a taste for gingerbread with the English public.

As I said, as a child our cookie platters featured Swiss staples and here are a few of my cherished favorites. My grandmother loved making springerle, which are anise-flavored egg and flour and yeast dough that rises, then have pattern pressed into their tops with carved wooden molds or rolling pins. (I still have my grandmother’s wooden molds, pictured here.) She also pressed anise seeds onto the bottoms for extra flavor and crunch.

Tirggel was also a favorite of mine, though we didn’t make them—they were sent from relatives. They are rock-hard biscuits made basically of honey and flour—and truly are leftovers from the Middle Ages because they were the type of staple that would last forever! They are always decorated with very traditional impressions, like knights. You break off a small morsel and let it soften on your tongue, and the honey flavor just fills your mouth.

But my special love is biber, a gingerbread flatcake filled with marzipan. It’s traditional to the Swiss canton of Appenzell, which is where my grandmother was born. Appenzell is famous for its biber. It’s also decorated with traditional wooden molds—the most common image being that of a bear, which is the symbol for the canton. (You can see a wonderful blog on the tools and process of making biber here. It’s not only a gorgeous work of art but it's also absolutely delicious! And I loved the spicy smells wafting out from the oven—cinnamon, clove, ginger, melted honey and molasses. To me they are the quintessential scents of the season.

Cookies helped get me through the website stresses. And as the days here in the northern hemisphere darken to their shortest length, curling up by the fire with a plate of warm-from-the-oven treats always brings back wonderful memories of childhood holidays with family and friends.

How about you? Are you fond of cookies? Do you have traditional recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation? What are your holiday favorites? Please share!

Comments

[Beth Elliott]

My first comment is Mmmmmm, those cookies all sound delicious.

One of my grandmother's traditional cakes that I remember from my earliest days is a very simple but delicious treat - Welshcakes. The dough is simply plain flour mixed [originally with lard] now with butter. Add in a few currants and enough milk to bind the dough. Roll and cut out circles with a small glass or cup and cook them on the griddle on top of the stove [in olden days on the hob]. Turn each cake as it toasts and beware children snatching them to eat as soon as you take them off the stove. If enough are left for teatime, sprinkle a tiny amount of sugar on them then butter them. They will keep for a week or two - if you hide the tin.

[StephanieL]

I love cookies. Some of my favorite Christmas memories are associated with the cookie creating marathon I did with my Grandmother. Soft molasses cookies, anise and vanilla scented butter cookies and pecan covered jam thumbprints are the ones that always take me right back to her and it's just not the holidays until they are made. Your biber sounds amazing!!

[Andrea Penrose]

Those all sound wonderful, Stephanie! Holidays really aren't the same without cookies!

[Sonya Heaney]

They're still "biscuits" here and in Britain. :)

I've been eating a gluten-free diet for a while, which has made Christmas baking a little bit more challenging, but shortbread works perfectly with gluten-free flour (actually, it seems to work better!).

Ukrainian baking tends to use plenty of honey, but so far I have NO idea what I'm doing for Christmas. I have left it a bit late this year!

[Sonya Heaney]

Oh, and sorry to hear about the hacking. It's so frustrating and seems so pointless.

I had accounts and sites hacked this year while I was travelling and unable to fix them. Suddenly everything was attached to a Russian email address and my name was changed!

[Andrea Penrose]

Honey is wonderful in baked goods—I love the flavor! And hey, cookies are quick to make, so leaving to the last minute is fine.

Almond meal work nicely instead of flour in some recipes. I found a great gluten free chocolate tarte recipe that my niece loves!

[Andrea Penrose]

It's just awful, and truly malicious. So sorry you had to go through it too. (I hope there's a special Hell for hackers.)

[Alison Y]

Anything filled with marzipan sound delicious. Springerle and Pferrernuesse were always made and I have wonderful memories of baking them with my mother. But the best, and most time consuming, were the "tree" cookies. These were like a gingerbread dough, rolled out and cut by tracing around a cardboard stencil that depicted a princess, prince, elephant, horse, clown, church, angel, tree and a few more. This took a good part of a day. Next day we iced then, using 7 minute icing in a few colors, and doing much of the application with toothpicks. Another afternoon to accomplish this. Finally, when the icing had hardened, we threaded a wire through the cookies and hung them on the Christmas tree. It was fun to have visitors pick one off the tree.

[Jana]

How timely! My son and I got home from school to find that dad and the baby were out. The perfect time to make some ginger snaps for the holidays! Like most families, we have our traditional favourites. The whipped shortbread my mom makes that literally melt in your mouth, the ginger snaps, rich with spices, and, course, the sugar cookies, cut into shapes and decorated with delicious frosting and candies. I confess I love them all!

[Andrea Penrose]

Yes, I'm a HUGE marzipan fan. I love the German specialty of making fruits and figurines.

And how fun to know someone else who's made springerle.

I nver do do tree cookies, but they sound marvelous. Time-consuming, yes. But the final effect must be beautiful.

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, yum on the gingersnaps! I love the spices and bite of ginger.

Shortbread is pretty fabulous, as are iced sugar cookies . . . well, all cookies are pretty yummy.
I got so inspired by my own post that I'm sitting here eating a piece of biber, still warm out of the oven!(Mine aren't decorated quite as beautifully as the Swiss ones.)

[Beth Elliott]

My first comment is Mmmmm such delicious cookies and always more special when they are family recipes with those associations.

[Annette Naish]

I love cookies, in fact, not sure I ever met a cookie I did not like.

I love ginger bread and ginger snaps, but also - peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies, chocolate chip cookies....you get the picture.

I am a lost cause.

[Karin]

My mother was Viennese, so she always made vanilla kipferl (aka vanilla crescents). These are traditional Viennese cookies made with ground almonds, formed by hand into crescent moon shapes, and dredged in powdered sugar after baking. They also date back to the Middle Ages, invented by a baker to commemorate the end of the siege of Vienna by the Ottoman Empire.
She made many other varieties, but those are my favorites!

[Sue McCormick]

Not just for Christmas — my children and I went weekly to the public library to renew our books and then across the street to a local bakery for Libekuchen! ( i could never find a good recipe for it!)

We always made pepperkakor for Christmas, and at other times of the year.

But the Christmas special was called "Golden Bars". It appeared in Good Housekeeping in 1930 or 1931 — the height of the depression but it wasn't a depression recipe, it's made with butter, brown sugar, eggs, and walnuts (all of which were very expensive at that time of history).

They are very good indeed!

[Andrea Penrose]

I'll join you in the Lost Cause Gang, Annette! Oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip, molasses . . . yup, few cookies I'm not on a first name basis with!

[Andrea Penrose]

Love that backstory, Karin. My grandmother made a similar nut-based cookie with hazelnuts—but no crescent shape. Wonderful history there!

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh, I love libekuchen, Sue! Haven't tried to make them.

The Golden bars sound fabulous. I'm very fond of walnuts. Will look on the internet for the recipe. One of the pluses of high tech is having the ability to track down esoteric things like this.

[Sue McCormick]

I can post the recipe somewhere if you would tell me where.

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks, Sue! I'd love to have it here, if it's not too much trouble!

[Karin]

I too would love to have the Golden Bars recipe!

[Karin]

And here is an recipe I found online for Vanilla Kipferl. They are really wonderful, they just melt in your mouth. When I was growing up, we would blanch and grind the almonds by hand, but now you can buy ground almonds https://www.curiouscuisiniere.com/vanillekipferl-crescent-cookies/

[Andrea Penrose]

Oh,wonderful, Karin! They sound amazing. Thanks so much for sharing

[Teresa Broderick]

I can never understand the satisfaction these 'hackers' get from doing what they do. They must have a lot of useless time on their hands or just be total idiots. Glad you are back on track.
I don't really have a sweet tooth. I'll always go for savory and if eating out I rarely have a dessert. Your cookies sound delicious though. Gingerbread would be a favorite of mine.

[Sue McCormick]

This is a rich text file. Let me know if it isn't readable.

Golden Bars Adelle Strickler (Mother) from Good Housekeeping

Preheat oven to 350° F. Prepare shallow pan
Melt 3/4 cup Canola Harvest in a saucepan in which the batter is to be mixed. Remove melted margarine or butter from heat. Sift together
1-1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. baking powder Stir into the melted shortening with
2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs, well-beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup walnuts, chopped
Spread in shallow pan (12- x 8-inch) which has been greased and lined with wax paper. Bake in moderate oven (350°F) for 30 to 35 minutes, or until surface springs back when pressed lightly
Cool; cut into bars about 1- x 3-1/2 inches.
Makes about 25 bars

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks SO much, Sue! This looks yummy!

[Andrea Penrose]

Thanks, Teresa. I don't understand it either. Apparently so of the spam e-mail they generate is aimed at trying to sell stuff or boost some google rating. But mostly it's just malicious.

Savory is good too On occasion, I do like cheese to end a meal.However, I do have a hopeless sweet tooth.