SERIES #1: THE 50 YEAR OLD COOKIE CHALLENGE

In this series, I will be recreating all 51 cookie recipes found in the Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook, original circa 1953, revised 3^rd printing from 1962 (50 years ago). 

It is a truly spectacular cookbook with timeless trinkets of cooking knowledge and insight into a world that was not so long ago. Today there have been more than 34 million copies sold and counting.  Yet this 1962 print boasts that “nearly 9 million WOMEN cherish this book.” As I flip through its pages, I’m taken back to another time where men weren’t allowed in the kitchen and large dinner parties of 25 to 100 people weren’t unusual. For 100 guests, it suggests 25lbs of frozen asparagus, 8 bottles of catsup, 20 pies, but just 4 gallons of ice cream. There are tips for how to pack a lunch box, the sandwich being the “backbone”, and a reminder to first simmer your sweetbreads and brains in salt water and vinegar if you wish to refrigerate them.

I could go on and on about what a good read this cookbook provides, but now I go to the heart of my journey.  Tab number 9 in the cookbook – Cookies. I LOVE cookies. My baby loves cookies (please no emails about me giving my 5 month old sugar. I grew up with sweet tea in my sippy cup and I turned out fine). Who doesn’t love cookies, right?  I will be replicating each recipe EXACTLY as it is written. No tweaking, no skipping around.  That means that I will be using tubs of shortening and probably have to google a few things here and there. To start my endeavor, I went out and purchased my first sifter, which I must say is a lot of fun to play with. And I would love it if you read along and went through this process with me.  And if you live nearby, even help me eat all of these cookies so I don’t gain 50lbs.  ; )

I will try to post at least twice a week and I’m super excited to get my first batch of cookies in the oven!  Stay tuned for cookie number one!