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Cookies and Christmas. Is there any more universally
traditional food of the holiday season? Sure, there’s fruitcake,
though many people regard it as something best avoided rather than embraced
— but everybody loves cookies. Even folks like my dentist husband, Peter, who
don’t care for sweets, eat cookies during the holidays. For years,
one of the most anticipated events of the season at his office has been the
arrival of Velma Mayes’ Christmas cookies. Mayes, a legendary
Italian-American cook from Springfield’s north side, fills a huge box
with her traditional specialty: pizzelli, fried cookies such as cenci
alla fiorentina and rosetti. Her husband, Wayne,
delivers them. I have to admit that when I hear that Mayes’ cookies
have arrived, I make sure to stop by the office as quick as I can so I can
snag some before they disappear. The antecedents of cookies appeared as long as 10,000
years ago. Archeologists discovered that Neolithic farmers baked a mixture
of grain, water, and “paste” on hot stones. Though we would
undoubtedly find the resultant product unappetizing, it provided sustenance
and was the ancestor of the cookies and crackers we eat today. Sweetened
cakes and cookies became a part of festivals and holidays long before the
advent of Christianity, especially pagan winter-solstice festivals, so when
Pope Julius made December 25 the official date for celebrating Christmas,
it was natural that some of the elements of those pagan festivals, such as
cookies — and evergreen trees — were incorporated into the new
festivities. Those early cookies were sweetened with honey. Middle
Eastern bakers discovered that eggs and butter lightened their texture, and
in the seventh century A.D., in Persia (modern-day Iran), sugar came to be
used in cookie and cake making. Middle Eastern cookie recipes and
techniques spread into Europe as a result of the Muslim invasion of Spain,
the Crusades, and the spice trade. By the 1500s, Christmas cookies were the rage all
over Europe. In Germany there were Lebkuchen (gingerbread cookies) and Springerle (stamped cookies flavored with aniseed). Swedish papparkakor had not only
ginger but also black pepper. In Norway, krumkake were flavored with lemon and cardamom.
Our word “cookie” comes from the Dutch
word koeptji or koekje (“small
cake”), brought to America in the 1600s by the earliest Dutch
settlers. A recipe for “Christmas Cookey” appears in a book
considered by most food historians to be the first American cookbook, American Cookery, by Amelia
Simmons, published in 1796: “Take three pound of flour, sprinkle a tea cup
of fine powdered coriander seed, rub in one pound of butter, and one and a
half pound sugar, dissolve one tea spoonful of pearlash [a rising agent,
predecessor to baking soda and powder] in a tea cup of milk, kneed all
together well, roll three quarters of an inch thick, and cut or stamp into
shape and slice as you please, bake slowly fifteen or twenty minutes;
tho’ hard and dry at first, if put in an earthen pot, and dry cellar,
or damp room, they will be finer, softer, and better when six months
old.”
I just hope they weren’t moldy. Spices such as the coriander in that 1796 recipe and
caraway seeds (which appear in a somewhat similar recipe from 1845), have
largely disappeared from American Christmas cakes and cookies, but others,
including ginger, cinnamon, and cloves, remain popular. Those early rolled
or stamped cookies were usually cut or molded into simple shapes: circles,
squares, diamonds, or hearts. Beginning in 1871, however, a flood of cheap
imported cooking utensils from Germany included the first elaborate cookie
cutters. Suddenly cookies in shapes such as Santas, Christmas trees,
angels, stars, bells, and even camels were possible. Sometimes flavor and
texture suffered in the pursuit of a firm dough that could be cut into such
complex shapes; unfortunately, the same holds true today.
These days there’s an incredible variety
of Christmas cookies. It would be interesting — though probably
impossible — to find out exactly just how many Christmas-cookie
recipes there are out there.
Send questions and comments to Julianne Glatz at
realcuisine@insightbb.com.
These hazelnut shortbread cookies are one of
Peter’s favorites, though (he really doesn’t have much of a
sweet tooth) he prefers them undipped. The chocolate certainly isn’t
necessary, although it does make them prettier and more
sophisticated-looking — and, if you’re a chocolate lover,
tastier. Either way, they’re one of my favorites, too.
Hazelnut Shortbread Cookies (Dipped in chocolate)
1/2 cup ground toasted hazelnuts (measure after
grinding; plan on approximately 3/4 cup
whole nuts to yield 1/2 cup ground)
1 cup unsalted butter, softened 1 cup loosely packed dark-brown sugar 1 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/4 teaspoon kosher or sea salt 2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour Approximately 8 ounces of good-quality bittersweet or
semisweet chocolate, if cookies are to be
dipped
Toast unskinned hazelnuts in a 350 degree oven in a
single layer until lightly browned, 5-10 minutes. Place them in a tea towel
or old pillowcase (preferred) and allow them to rest for a few minutes. Rub
the nuts vigorously in the pillowcase to remove the skins. You won’t
be able to remove all the skins, but that’s not important. Grind the
nuts in a nut grinder or food processor to yield 1/2 cup. Reserve any
remaining nuts for another use. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Combine the
ground nuts, butter, brown sugar, vanilla, salt, and flour until a stiff
dough is formed. Pat the dough evenly into a 9-by-13-inch pan, lined with
parchment paper and preferably one with squared off edges. Cut the dough
with a sharp knife lengthwise in half and then crosswise in fourths. Cut
each rectangle diagonally into triangles. (You should have 16 triangles.)
Prick each triangle decoratively with a fork. Bake for 20 to 30 minutes or
until set. Do not allow the cookies to get too brown. Run a knife along the
cut marks and the edges of the pan. Cool completely. Remove the shortbread
triangles from the pan. If you are dipping the shortbread triangles in
chocolate: Place the chocolate in a small, relatively deep bowl. Cover the
bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the microwave on low to medium power
(depending on your microwave). Microwave for two to three minutes. Uncover
the chocolate and stir. Re-cover the container with plastic wrap and repeat
just until
the chocolate is melted. There may still be small lumps when you remove the
chocolate from the microwave, but stir the chocolate and they should
dissolve. Dip one (or more) points of each shortbread triangle into the
chocolate and place the shortbread on a sheet of parchment paper to firm
up. Alternatively, you can put the melted chocolate in a plastic bag, cut
off a tiny corner and drizzle the chocolate decoratively over the
shortbread. Makes 16 triangles.
This article appears in Nov 29 – Dec 5, 2007.
