Category: Cookies

Sweets for the Sweet

1/26/2023

Valentine's Day is growing near, and for the Anderson family, that spells complications. Dad's long work hours makes Mom trade in her no- nonsense pony tail and sweatpants for capris and curlers. Big sister Chloe, who believes that Valentine's day is just an excuse for crass consumerism, abandons her principles and her black Goth style for pretty pinks after getting roses from an anonymous admirer. Much to his consternation, little brother Calvin's hand puppet, Mr. Buttons, falls in love. Only the youngest member of the family, Stevie, seems san as he anticipates the sweet tarts and lollypops he'll be getting at preschool,.

For Hec Anderson, a geeky sixth grader, is so inept when it comes to love that he feels like a sci-fi visitor abandoned on an alien world. All of Hec's confusion reaches a crisis point when the girl of his dreams moves to town and he must challenge the most popular boy in school for her attention at the school dance.

When Hec learns that Sandy loves polka dots, he decides that M&Ms are the way to her heart. Sandy reciprocates, giving Hec a bag of M&M-studded cookies, which he resolves to keep forever. Forever ends up being a very short period of time, and the cookies end up being eaten: by whom, I won't tell you. But if you'd like some of your own to eat, here's a recipe.

Polka Dot Cookies

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup shortening
2 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1 3/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup candy-coated chocolate pieces

Heat oven to 350°
In a large bowl, beat brown sugar, butter and shortening until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg and blend well.
Stir in flour, baking soda and salt.
Stir in chocolate pieces.

Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for easier handling.
Shape into 2" balls and place 4" apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.
You can press an additional 1/2 cup candy into balls to decorate tops of cookies.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, or until light golden brown. Cool 2 minutes before removing from sheets and placing on a cooling rack. Makes 14 large cookies

If you'd like to read something sweet this Valentine's season, Tweet Sarts is available in paperback and e-reader formats from many online books stores. You can also purchase a signed copy dedicated to the one your love directly from the author. She is selling this book at a discount between now and Valentine's day because she loves her readers.

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Two Variations on the Cookie with a Thousand Names

11/14/2021

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Okay, so a thousand names is a bit of hyperbole, but these are the cookies that everyone seems to call by a different name. I’ve heard these called Snowballs, Swedish Tea Cakes, Mexican Wedding Cookie, Russian Tea Cakes, and Butterballs, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you, dear readers, offered me an additional name or two.

Whatever you call them, these cookies have been a constant on the Bohnhoff Family Christmas cookie platter since long before I became a Bohnhoff. In our house, these cookies are made in balls, but I’ve seen them made into logs and crescents, too.

When my boys were young, I doubled this recipe every year. Sometimes I had to make it twice to make sure we had some all the way through the holidays. Then I discovered that one of my daughters-in-law was a peppermint fan, so I found and adaption that pleased her. It has now become a second standard on the cookie plate. The boys are all grown up, and the need for hundreds of cookies lying around the house has lessened, so I’ve adapted once again, to make two kinds of cookies from one batch of dough. I’m including suggestions so that you can make a full batch of regular butterballs, a full batch of peppermint butterballs, or one mixed batch. I’ve found the easiest way to make these is using a food processor. If you don’t have one, you’ll have to grind the nuts and peppermints in a blender, a coffeemill or some other way, then mix the ingredients in a mixer or by hand. However you pursue these, I hope you enjoy them!

Since Sweden, Mexico and Russia all get credit for these cookies, I am including a person from each who immigrated to America and significantly impacted our society.

Butterballs and Peppermint Butterballs

Preheat oven to 325°
If you are making half a batch of peppermint butterballs, whirr the following ingredients in a food processor until the candies are crushed fine, then set aside in a shallow bowl. Double the ingredients if you plan to make all your cookies peppermint.
1/3 cup confectioner’s sugar
1/3 cup broken peppermint candies or candy canes

If you are making half a batch of butterballs, place 1/3 cup powdered sugar in another bowl and set aside. Use ½ cup of powdered sugar if you are making a full batch of butterballs.

To make the dough for both cookies, process in food processor until chopped very fine

½ pecans (you can use almonds or walnuts if you prefer. It occurs to me that pinons would make a lovely New Mexican version of this cookie)

Add to food processor and pulse until mixed with the nuts.

½ cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
¼ tsp salt

Add to ingredients in food processor and pulse until everything is blended into a dough that bunches together in a ball.

1 cup butter, softened to room temperature
1 tsp vanilla

Take dough out of food processor and knead on the counter a few times if you feel the butter hasn’t distributed all the way.

If you are making both variations of cookies, divide the dough in two.

To make butterballs, shape the dough into crescents, logs or balls about 1” large. Roll in the reserved bowl of powdered sugar. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325° for 15-20 minutes until set but not brown. Cool on a cooling rack, then roll again in powdered sugar.

To make filling for a half batch of peppermint butterballs, mix the following in a small bowl. Double ingredients if you are making a full batch

2 TBS peppermint and powdered sugar mixture
1 TBS cream cheese, softened
¼ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp milk

Put a tablespoon of dough into your hand and form into a ball. Use your thumb to make a pocket in the middle of the ball, and fill it with about ¼ tsp of the filling. Seal the ball shut and roll it in the peppermint and powdered sugar mixture. Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 325° for 15-20 minutes until set but not brown. Cool on a cooling rack, then roll again in powdered sugar and crushed peppermints.

The Swede responsible for a famous American icon

Alexander Samuelson was born in Kareby parish, Kungälv, Bohuslän, Sweden in 1862. A glass engineer, he emigrated from Sweden to the United States in 1883 and is credited with designing the famous Coca-Cola contour bottle in 1915. Although the shape has been modified, this bottle remains one of the most recognized trademark and package in the world.

The Mexican American who Fought for better education and voting rights

Jovita Idár was born in 1885, in Laredo, Texas, right on the border with Mexico. She wrote for her father’s Spanish language newspaper, La Crónica, using it as a platform to speak out against racism and in support of women’s and Mexican-Americans’ rights to vote and to receive decent educations. In 1915, when Woodrow Wilson sent troops to the Mexican-American border, Idár wrote a scathing editorial condemning the President’s actions. When the Texas Rangers arrived at the newspaper’s office, intent on shutting it down, she barred the door with her own body. https://americansall.org/legacy-story-individual/jovita-id-r

The Russian who keeps us Entertained at Home

Vladimir Kosmich Zworykin was born in Murom, Russia, in 1888. He studied "electrical telescopy," later called television, at the St. Petersburg Institute of Technology. During World War I, Zworykin served in the Russian Signal Corps, testing radio equipment that was being produced for the Russian Army. In 1918, after the Russian Civil War broke out, made several trips to the United States on official duties. When the White party collapsed, Zworykin decided to remain permanently in the US. He got a job at the Westinghouse laboratories in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where he was able to continue experimenting on television. In 1923, he applied for a television patent.

Jennifer Bohnhoff's latest novel, A Blaze of Poppies is set in the same time period as these three people lived and worked.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a writer of historical and contemporary fiction for middle grade readers through adults. Each year, she sends a book of recipes out to the friends, fans and family on her email list. If you'd like to join this list, click here.

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September is Apple Time

9/12/2021

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Few people would recognize the name John Chapman. Most people would recognize him by his nickname: Johnny Appleseed.

Chapman was born sometime around 1774 in Leominster, Massachusetts. As a young man, he moved west, to Fort Duquesne (now Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania, where he bought a small farm and planted an orchard. A devout Swedenborgian Christian, Chapman provided free food and lodging for the pioneers who passed his farm on the was west to the Ohio Valley wilderness. As a parting gift, he pressed a small pouch into their hands before they resumed their journey.

The pouch contained apple seeds. Chapman collected the residue from local cider presses, then laboriously picked the seeds out of the sticky mash, dried them, and placed them in little deerskin bags that he had sewn. He felt that the pioneers in the wilderness needed orchards just as much as he did.

After many years, Johnny began to worry about the orchards in the wilderness. He gave his farm to a widow with a large, needy family, bought two canoes from the Natives and lashed them together, loaded them with apple seeds, then floated down the Ohio River. He traveled all over Ohio, planting new orchards and tending those that were planted before his arrival. He lived by trading seeds for food and for used clothing, and was known for wearing his one cooking pot as a hat as he walked from settlement to settlement. Native Americans regarded him as touched by the Great Spirit. Even hostile tribes left him alone. Myths began to rise up around him. One story is that, after noticing that mosquitoes flew into his fire, he doused it and said “God forbid that I should build a fire for my comfort, that should be the means of destroying any of His creatures." Another says he had a pet wolf that had started following him after he healed its injured leg. He reportedly could play with bear cubs while their mother looked on.

As settlers continued west, so did Chapman. In the 1830s he left Ohio and began planting trees in Indiana. He moved on to Wisconsin, Michigan, Iowa and Illinois. He died in 1845, his body found lying in an orchard near Fort Wayne, Indiana. In his lifetime, the botanist/herb doctor/missionary had planted thousands of trees. endeared himself to pioneer families, and become an American legend.

These cookies are crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, just like the apples that inspired them. Before I made these, I visited my mother, picked apples from her tree, and made up several quarts of applesauce. You can use bottled sauce from the store if you're not as lucky - or industrious - as I am.

Applesauce Cookies

1 cup sugar
½ cup shortening
1 ¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 egg
2 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp cloves
¼ tsp salt
1 cup raisins
½ cup chopped nuts

Heat oven to 375°. Spray cookie sheets with oil.
Beat sugar and shortening until light and fluffy. Add applesauce and egg and blend well. Stir in flour, baking soda. Cinnamon, cloves and salt and mix well. Sir in raisins and nuts. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until light golden. Immediately move from sheet to cooling rack.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is a retired middle school language arts and history teacher. She now writes historical and contemporary fiction from her home in the mountains of central New Mexico. You can read more about her and her books on her website.

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Back to School: Cookies and Teachers

8/8/2021

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It’s August, which should mean high summer.

For many of us, though, school is starting. Here in the mountains of New Mexico, the sunflowers start to bloom about the same time the school bells start to ring, and the smell of chili roasting wafts on the air. All of these are signs that summer is on the wane and fall is coming.

These cookies really have a bit of a fall feel to them. The molasses gives them an earthy, satisfying taste that calls me home. Time to settle in and enjoy the last of the season before fall, with all its activities, starts again.

Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

½ cup (1 stick) butter, softened
½ cup molasses
½ cup cocoa
¼ cup sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
1 ½ cups flour

Topping: ¼ cup powdered sugar
Heat oven to 350
Beat all ingredients except flour until mixed.
Add flout just until blended
Form into 1: balls and roll in sugar
Place 1” apart on cookie sheet
Bake 9-10 minutes until puffed and cracked.
Cool 1 minute before removing from cookie sheet.

Over the years, there have been many outstanding teachers in the history of the USA. They worked to make the world a better place by improving the educational system and teaching practices. Their contribution changed the whole perception of education and shaped our society. Here are famous educators who have made a difference in the world.

Anne Sullivan
Anne Sullivan reimagined special education, using her experience and natural pedagogical talent. She is famous for being a teacher of Helen Keller, a deaf and blind girl. Anne became her educator and eventually a friend. Being visually impaired herself, Sullivan knew what the girl was experiencing. It allowed her to choose special teaching techniques to help Hellen communicate with the world. Anne would take her hand and spell each word on the girl’s palm. This creative method proved to be effective, and soon, Hellen learned more and more words. With Anne’s help, Helen Keller became a well-known author, political activist, and the first blind-deaf person to earn a bachelor’s degree.

William McGuffey
William McGuffey was born in 1800 and was such a precocious child that he began to teaching classes at age 14. While teaching in Ohio and Kentucky, McGuffey saw that there was no standard method to teach students how to read; often, the Bible was the only book available.

McGuffey paused his teaching career to attend college himself. By age 26, he was Professor of Languages at Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. In 1835, his friend Harriet Beecher Stowe asked him to write a series of readers for the publisher Truman and Smith. McGuffey Readers, a series of books for elementary school students, was used in American schools for the next 70 years.

Emma Willard
Emma Willard made education accessible for women. She founded the first higher education institution for females in America, the Troy Female Seminary. The school still exists as the Emma Willard School. Emma Willard made the promotion of education her life-long aim. She fought for women’s rights to achieve higher education of the same quality as men could get. In her institution, female students studied science, mathematics, philosophy, and other subjects that were not previously available to them. Willard’s progressive outlook prioritized equality changed the perspective people had on education.

Vivian Paley
Vivian Paley was a preschool teacher and the author of numerous books. She emphasized the importance of storytelling and play for the development of children. Paley believed that teachers who promoted fantasy and make-believe evoked the most interest in their students. She made her lessons memorable for students and encouraged them to express feelings and ideas in the classroom. Vivian Paley received numerous awards acknowledging her contribution to preschool teaching.

Sal Khan
Sal Khan tried to make education more accessible to people around the world. This American educator founded the Khan Academy, and online platform that granted people access to educational topics. It covers many different school subjects, including math, computing, history, and the arts. His use of technologies revolutionized education.

Jennifer Bohnhoff taught English, Social Studies and History at the middle school and high school level. She is now retired so that she can devote her time to writing historical novels.

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Cookies and Quakers

7/4/2021

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My husband loves cookies. He comes by that love naturally: his mother was a prolific cookie baker. Her Christmas cookie platter brimmed with dozens of different types of cookies. I didn’t get all of her recipes, and even if I did, I couldn’t match my mother-in-law’s cookie baking skills, but I’ve tried, for my husband’s sake. Although he likes many kinds of cookies, these oatmeal and raisin ones are one of his favorites. They are chewy and satisfying and, as cookies go, good for you. I added ground flax to this recipe around 20 years ago, when Hank developed high cholesterol. The doctor said that if he didn’t get his numbers down, he’d have to go on medication. Hank started exercising more, and I added almonds to his lunches, more fruits and veggies to all meals, and flax and oatmeal to many of my recipes. It seemed to do the trick. Hank’s still medication-free and his cholesterol numbers are good.

Hank’s Special Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

¾ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
½ cup butter, softened
½ tsp vanilla
1 egg
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp apple pie spice (you can use cinnamon if you prefer)
3/4 cup flour
2 tbs ground flax
1 ½ cup quick-cooking oats (you can use regular oats, and your cookies will be a little chewier)
½ cup raisins
½ cup chopped pecans

Heat oven to 375°.

In large bowl, beat sugar, brown sugar and butter until light and fluffy.
Add vanilla and egg and blend well.
Add baking soda, salt, apple pie spice, flour, and flax and blend well.
Stir in oats, raisins and nuts.

Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls, 2” apart, onto greased cookie sheets.
Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes until golden brown.
Cool 1 minute, then use a spatula to remove from cookie sheets onto a cooling rack.

Famous American Quakers

Unless you’re like me and use generic and store brands, the oats you use for these cookies might come from a box that has a picture of a Quaker on it. According to the Quaker Oats Company, this man was America's first registered trademark for a breakfast cereal. Registered on September 4th, 1877, the logo featured a full-length Quaker man holding a scroll with the word "Pure" written across it.

Back in 1909, the company identified this figure as William Penn, the founder of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and called him the "standard bearer of the Quakers and of Quaker Oats." Now, however, the company says that he is not the representation of an actual person, but symbolizes the Quaker virtues of honesty, integrity, purity and strength.

William Penn was born in England on October 14, 1644. King Charles II owed his father, the admiral and politician Sir William Penn, a great deal of money, and in 1681 he handed over a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic coast in what is now Pennsylvania and Delaware to cover his debts. The younger Penn, who had been imprisoned in the Tower of London several times for his membership in the Religious Society of Friends, commonly known as Quakers, immediately set sail for America. As soon as he arrived, he convened the first Pennsylvania General Assembly. The democratic principles that he established in the Pennsylvania Frame of Government served as an inspiration for the members of the convention framing the new Constitution of the United States in Philadelphia in 1787.

Penn’s pacifist theories helped him propose a European Assembly, whose deputies would discuss and peacefully adjudicate issues among the nations, an idea no dissimilar to the European Union in place today.

Penn founded the city of Philadelphia, directing that it be laid out in an easy-to-navigate grid that was very different from the tangled street of his native London. Because Pennsylvania means "Penn's Woods," he named the cross streets after types of trees.

In addition to being an early advocate of democracy and religious freedom, Penn is known for his good relations and successful treaties with the Lenape Native Americans. He died on July 30, 1718.

But although he is the most famous Quaker, William Penn is not the only one. American folk hero Daniel Boone’s family emigrated to the U.S. because they were Quakers and raised their famous son in their beliefs. Cassius Coolidge, the painter who created the famous Dogs Playing Poker was born in upstate New York into a family of abolitionist Quakers. Actor James Dean was raised Quaker and is buried in a Quaker cemetery. President Richard Milhous Nixon’s mother was from an old Quaker family, and he attended a Quaker college in California named Whittier College. Joan Baez's father, Albert, a co-inventor of the X-ray microscope and a well-known physicist, converted to Quakerism when Joan was a child, influencing her anti-war stand. Blues guitarist Bonnie Raitt was also raised in a Quaker family. As far as I know, none of them have ever advocated eating oatmeal.

Author Jennifer Bohnhoff was raised Lutheran and eats a lot of oatmeal. She is especially fond of it when it is in cookies. You can read more about her and her books at her website. You can sign up for her newsletter here and be among the first to know about her upcoming books and special offers.

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Shortbread and Scots-American Presidents

2/15/2021

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Since February has Presidents Day, I'd intended to write a piece on George Washington and include a recipe that had something to do with him. Martha Washington was a famous cook in her day; surely I could find a recipe for cookies that she made for her husband.

But as I began planning, I remembered this shortbread pan that I've had a long time. (It might have been a wedding gift, but as I've been married over 40 years, I can't remember.)

Although I usually make shortbread at Christmas, the lovely hearts on the pan make it very appropriate for Valentines Day, and that led me on a search to find a connection between shortbread and February. Turns out I didn't have to search very hard at all, and my search led me right back to George Washington.

George Washington may have been our first president with ties to Scotland, but he wasn't our last.
Scotland.org states that 34 of our 44 presidents have been of either Scottish or Ulster-Scots descent. This includes George Washington, James Polk, Theodore Roosevelt, Gerald Ford, Ronald Regan, and Bill Clinton.

Even Barack Obama, our first African-American president, has some Scots blood. Genealogists have found that his ancestry can be traced back to William the Lion who ruled Scotland from 1165 to 1214.

So this President's Day, enjoy a bit of shortbread and think about what Scotland has contributed to the United States.

My recipe for shortbread has a secret added ingredient: corn starch. While it is unusual, I've found that it leads to a tighter crumb. These cookies won't shatter when you bite down on them, but they are still rich and not too sweet.

Shortbread

1/2 lb.(2 sticks) butter

1/2 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 cup corn starch

Preheat oven to 325 If you have a shortbread pan, place it in the over and let it preheat.

Melt butter.

Mix sugar, flour and cornstarch together. Pour melted butter over and blend together. Pat into preheated mold.

Back at 325 for 40 minutes. Reduce heat to 300 and bake another 20 minutes, or until edges are slightly brown. Turn out shortbread onto a plate as soon as they come out of the oven. Use a large knife to slice the wedges apart when the shortbread is still warm.

Variations

If you don't own a shortbread pan, you can use any of these four variations.

Wedges: pat into two 8" circles. Cut into 8-12 wedges, but don't separate them. Back at 325 for 30 minutes. Recut while warm

Thumbprints: roll into 1: balls, Place 2" apart on a cookie sheet and press thumb into the center of each to make a deep indentation. Back at 325 for 18 minutes. Immediately after removing from over, fill each indentation with 1/2 tsp preserves. Cool before removing from cookie sheet.

Pecan spice: Substitute brown sugar for white and add 1 tsp of pumpkin spice to the original recipe. Pat into a 9x13" pan. Cut into 1x1/12" rectangles. Place a pecan half on each rectangle. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Recut while warm and let cook in the pan before sprinkling with powdered sugar.

Shortbread triangles: Substitute brown sugar for white and add 1 tsp of pumpkin spice to the original recipe. Pat into a 9x13" pan. Sprinkle dough with 1/4 cup chopped pecans; press them into the dough. Cut into 16 squares, then divide each square crosswise to make triangles. Bake at 325 for 25 minutes. Recut while warm. When cool, drizzle with vanilla icing.

Vanilla icing: 1/2 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, 2-3 tsp milk, stirred until smooth.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and writer who lives in central New Mexico. You can learn more about her books here.

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George Washington Carver

1/10/2021

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When many people hear the name George Washington Carver, they think of peanuts. But the American agricultural scientist and inventor’s greatest contributions may have been in soil conservation, environmentalism, and helping the poor.

Carver was born a slave sometime in January 1864 in rural western Missouri, and freed at the end of the Civil War. When he was in his 20s, he moved to Iowa and began attending Simpson College, then Iowa State Agricultural College (now Iowa State University), where he was their first African-American student. Iowa State Agricultural College was the country’s first land-grant university, and its mission was to teach the applied sciences, including agriculture. Carver studied botany.

When he graduated in 1896, Carver became the first black man in the U.S. to hold a degree in modern agricultural methods. He took those lessons south to Alabama, where Booker T. Washington, the first leader of the Tuskegee Institute, was opening an agricultural school. What he saw as he rode the train south broke his heart. Instead of the golden wheat fields and the tall green corn of Iowa, he “scraggly cotton, stunted cattle, boney mules, and fields and hill sides cracked and scarred with gullies.” Because of his training, Carver knew that the poor condition of the land was due to the overplanting of cotton, a lucrative crop that depletes the soil. Carver knew that something had to be done to make the soil rich again. One of his solutions was peanuts.

Because of a symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that live on their roots, peanuts produce their own nitrogen, fertilizing themselves and restoring nutrients to depleted soil. Additionally, their growing periods are different than cotton, so peanuts and cotton could be grown in the same fields on a rotating schedule. Finally, peanuts are high in protein and more nutritious than the “3M--meat, cornmeal and molasses” diet that was the foundation for most poor farmers’ diet.

Most black farmers in turn-of-the-century Alabama were so close to ruination that they weren’t willing to try something new. Carter encouraged them by coming up with literally hundreds of recipes and uses for peanuts, including peanut bread, peanut cookies, peanut sausage, peanut ice cream, and even peanut face cream, shampoo, dyes and paints.

But Carver was not just pushing peanuts; he was pushing a lifestyle that connected the farmer to his soil, enriching both. He encouraged farmers to grow other vegetables so they would spend less money on food. Rather than going into debt buying fertilizer, he encouraged composting. Well before the hippies and back to nature movements reached the mainstream, Carver pushed the interconnectedness between the health of the land and the health of the people who lived on it.

"It has always been the one great ideal of my life to be of the greatest good to the greatest number of ‘my people’ possible and to this end I have been preparing myself these many years; feeling as I do that this line of education is the key to unlock the golden door of freedom to our people.”

When Carver died on January 5, 1943, President Franklin D. Roosevelt said that “The world of science has lost one of its most eminent figures.”

Peanut Butter Cookies, two ways

Peanut Blossoms

George Washington Carver may have invented a recipe for peanut butter cookies, but it wasn’t this one. This cookie first appeared in 1957 as a prize winner in a Pillsbury Bake-Off contest.

1 ¾ cup flour
½ cup sugar
½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup shortening
½ cup peanut butter
2 TBS milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg

¼ cup sugar, set aside in a shallow bowl
About 48 milk chocolate candy kisses

Preheat oven to 375°

Combine flour, sugar, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, shortening, peanut butter, milk, vanilla, and egg at low speed until stiff dough forms.

Shape into 1” balls. Roll in the bowl of sugar.
Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet.
Bake at 375°for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Remove from over and immediately press a candy kiss into the center of each.
Let cool 2 minutes before removing to a cooking rack.
Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Variation:

Peanut Butter Crisscross Cookies
Make dough, shape into balls and roll in sugar as above.
Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet.
Flatten each cookie by pressing a fork dipped in sugar into it in a crisscross pattern.
Bake at 375°for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown.
Immediately remove to a cooking rack from cookie sheet.

Jennifer Bohnhoff is an educator and writer who lives in the mountains of central New Mexico. Her books are written for middle schoolers and adults, and are mostly works of historical fiction.

This article is, she believes, the first installment in a monthly series on famous Americans and cookies inspired by their stories. She intends to compile all the stories and recipes into a cookbook to give out to my friends, family and fans at the end of 2021. If you'd like a copy, go to her website and join her email list.

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Christmas in New Mexico

12/5/2016

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By John Phelan (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Bizcochitos have been part of New Mexico traditions since Spanish colonists brought them here centuries ago. They are such a holiday favorite here that the legislature made them the official cookie of New Mexico in 1988.

Bizcochitos
Makes 4 dozen

1 1/2 cups lard (you may substitute butter, but the cookies will not be as crisp and moist)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp anise seeds
4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
About 3 TBS brandy (may substitute apple juice)

Topping: combine 3 TBS sugar and 2 tsp ground cinnamon

Beat lard and sugar until fluffy.
Add eggs and anise seeds and beat until light.
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
Add to the creamed mixture along with enough brandy to make a stiff dough.
Spread dough out of a piece of waxed paper. Put another piece of waxed paper on top and chill in the refrigerator. When stiff, roll out between the two sheets of waxed paper until 1/2” thick.
Cut out with a round cookie cutter, dipping cutters in flour to prevent the cookies from sticking.

Dip one side of the cookies in the topping mixture.

Place cookies on ungreased baking sheets.
Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes until tops of cookies are firm but cookies are not browned.
Cool cookies on a wire rack.

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Sweets for the Sweet

Polka Dot Cookies

Two Variations on the Cookie with a Thousand Names

Butterballs and Peppermint Butterballs

The Swede responsible for a famous American icon

The Mexican American who Fought for better education and voting rights

The Russian who keeps us Entertained at Home

September is Apple Time

Applesauce Cookies

Back to School: Cookies and Teachers

Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

Cookies and Quakers

Hank’s Special Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Famous American Quakers

Shortbread and Scots-American Presidents

George Washington Carver

Peanut Butter Cookies, two ways

Christmas in New Mexico

ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

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Archives

Polka Dot Cookies

​Butterballs and Peppermint Butterballs

The Swede responsible for a famous American icon

The Mexican American who Fought for better education and voting rights

The Russian who keeps us Entertained at Home

Applesauce Cookies

​Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

​Hank’s Special Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

​Famous American Quakers

​Peanut Butter Cookies, two ways

ABout Jennifer Bohnhoff

Categories

Archives

Butterballs and Peppermint Butterballs

Molasses Chocolate Crinkles

Hank’s Special Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Famous American Quakers

Peanut Butter Cookies, two ways