Grandma Daisy Noyes' Christmas cookies! Yum-m-m-m-m. I can't remember ever not having Grandma's Christmas cookies! I can remember back in 1948-54 (I'd have been 8 to 14; my sister Clarice would have been 6 to 12) we lived in Madison, Wisconsin--about 40 miles from Hebron where Grandpa and Grandma lived. We'd make weekly or bi-weekly visits out to see them. Even into July, just before we'd leave in the evening for home, Grandma would take us into her parlor, uncover her card table and let Clarice and me each take one cookie to eat on the way home. We'd ponder over which cookie to select. On the way home we would compete to see who could make their cookie last the longest. We'd slowly nibble on a few crumbs, working our way up to the head and then saving the "eye"--silver nonpareils--for the very last bite. Grandma's cookies were nearly all animals--lions, dogs, cats, rabbits, roosters, some stars, some bells; very few trees and Santas. I nearly always won! As an adult I've often wondered how Grandma could keep those cookies so long! Granted, their parlor was always cool and dark, and they had better control over their sweet tooths--but--6-7 months? I can't help but wonder if perhaps she replenished that card table periodically just for the benefit of Clarice and me!
I have a more updated recipe--which includes instructions! But I wanted to go back through Mom's and Grandma's recipes to see if I could find Grandma's original recipe. The recipe above is in my Mom Arlene's handwriting. It does include the source of the recipe--but NO instructions! My goodness, how cooking and baking has changed! This was likely handwritten in the 1920's. The Ludemans were neighboring farmers to Grandpa and Grandma. Eventually, perhaps upon my prodding, Mom added the instructions: grind the nutmeats and raisins together with a little flour; mix all ingredients; chill overnight; roll; cut; bake at 400 degrees until done; frost with powdered sugar frosting while still hot; decorate.
After Grandma died in 1956, Mom would continue to make the cookies--but Clarice and I were always part of the process. It really takes an assembly line when they come out of the oven--one person to frost while still warm, more than one to decorate--depending on how fancy we want to make them! Once the frosting hardens, the sprinkles and "eyes" don't stick! After Clare and I were married in 1963, we'd go to Mom's to make a batch every Christmas. Even after Clare and I moved to San Diego in 1980, she'd make them (and a special box of pecan fingers just for Clare) and mail them to us out here.
I still have Grandma's meat grinder. The day after Thanksgiving, our son Brian and I decided we were going to try to make Grandma's Christmas Cookies!
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| "L. F. & C. NEW BRITAIN. CONN U.S.A. No. 2 UNIVERSAL FOOD CHOPPER" |
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| PAT. OCT. 12, 1897. APR. 18 1899. RE. SEPT. 5, 1899 |
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| "PAT. MAY 15, 1900. CANADA PAT. OCT. 12, 1897" |
Brian is grinding the raisins and walnuts with a little bit of flour. We had to run it though a couple times to get it fine enough so we could roll out the dough and cut the cookies.
Here you can see the changes in cookie cutters over the years. The oldest ones that were Grandma's were sturdy metal (note the rabbit, heart and traditional sugar cookie cutters). Later cutters had wooden handles screwed on (note the star). Still later, metal handles were soldered on (note the rooster with the red handle). More modern ones just had a handle sliced into the cutter and stretched up. Now days, most are plastic--and don't cut nearly as nicely!
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| Brian rolling out the dough. |
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| All these from one batch! |
we used parch-
ment paper (didn't want to scrub those cookie sheets).
READY TO EAT AND SHARE!
Many thanks to Helen Ludeman Thayer for help in identifying Mrs. J. Ludeman, and to Brian Sampley for a wonderfully fun day!
