Vintage Cookie Recipes

Some time ago I posted about a set of old Christmas cookie cutters that made me nostalgic for my childhood. Last week I got a comment from a reader:

"Do you happen to have the cookie and glaze recipe that I believe was on the lid of the box, on the inside? If so, would you be kind enough to share?"

I had forgotten all about the recipes included with the cutters, so I dug them out of their off-season sleeping place and checked it out. There are actually four recipes printed on the underside of the lid - three cookies and one for frosting.

Sugar Cookies

½ cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 well-beaten eggs

2 tablespoons cream

1 tablespoon vanilla or almond extract

3½ cups cake flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream together shortening and sugar. Add eggs, cream, and flavoring extract and beat well.  Sift flour and baking powder together. Add dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Shape into mound, wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. Roll on board lightly "floured" with confectioners sugar until dough is about ¼ inch thick. Dip cutter in confectioners sugar each time before cutting cookie, the place cookie on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375 F) for about 8 minutes, or until delicately browned.

------

Ginger Snap Cookies

½ cup molasses

¼ cup sugar

3 tablespoons shortening

1 tablespoon milk

2 cups flour

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon ground ginger\

Heat molasses to boiling point; add sugar, shortening, and milk and mix well. 

Sift flour, soda, salt, and spices together; add sifted dry ingredients to the molasses mixture. Shape into mound, wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. Roll on board lightly "floured" with confectioners sugar until dough is about ¼ inch thick. Dip cutter in confectioners sugar each time before cutting cookie, the place cookie on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375 F) for about 8 minutes.

------

Brown Sugar Cookies

2 cups brown sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 well-beaten eggs

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Cream sugar and shortening together until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and beat well.

Sift flour and baking powder together. Add sifted dry ingredients to the creamed sugar and shortening. Shape into mound, wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. Roll on board lightly "floured" with confectioners sugar until dough is about ¼ inch thick. Dip cutter in confectioners sugar each time before cutting cookie, the place cookie on lightly greased baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (375 F) for about 8 minutes, or until delicately browned.

------

Frosting and Decorating

1 egg white

1 cup confectioner's sugar

Few grains of salt

Add sugar gradually to the unbeaten egg white. Beat until smooth and of a consistency to pour slightly. Divide frosting into two or three small bowls and color to pastel shades with vegetable coloring; flavor as desired.

Review: Nabisco Newtons Blueberry Brown Sugar Fruit Thins

Photo from Sunshine's now-defunct website.

Once upon a time, there was a product by Sunshine called Golden Fruit. You might remember them: they had a layer of raisin or cranberry  filling between two crispy cookie-like thin biscuits. Still available in the UK, where they are called "Garibaldi biscuits," production in the US was halted in 1996 when Sunshine was acquired by Keebler.

Golden Raisin Biscuits were one of my favorite cookies back in the day, and I still miss them. I've found close approximations, such as the excellent ALDI Fit & Active Fruit Crisps, but it looks like there will never be Golden Raisin Biscuits again. And that's a shame because there are a large number of people out there who also miss them and occasionally search for them.

Now, the purpose for that long and windy backstory is this: Because I miss Golden Raisin Biscuits, I keep an eye open for products that seem like they'd be similar. That's how I found the aforementioned ALDI Fruit Crisps. And that is also how I found Nabisco  Newtons Fruit Thins.

The illustration on the front of the bag certainly looked promising. Although it wasn't really detailed enough for me to get a great look, they carried Nabisco's Newton brand (known for fruit filled cookies) and they looked thin and crispy like Raisin Biscuits. So I gambled a couple of bucks and tried a bag.

What a disappointment.

First of all, they're pretty sparse on the fruit. There's a scattering of lame dried berries mixed in with the cracker-like cookie. And not just dried - the damn things are totally desiccated little bits, like sucked-out flies plucked from a spider's web. Good thing there's "natural flavor" baked in (according to the ingredient panel) because I'd be hard-pressed to identify a blueberry flavor here without it.

Did you ever go to a petting zoo when you were a kid? Do you remember the crackers you could buy at the zoo to feed the animals? That what these mealy bastards tasted like. Bland, grainy discs of Soylent Newton with the added insult of being topped with whole flax seeds. Gahh, these things are nasty.

(Not everyone agrees with me, of course. Other varieties were reviewed by Marvo at The Impulsive Buy, and he really loved the Apple Cinnamon Oat and Lemon Crisp flavors. I'll never really know what they're like, though, since I hated the blueberry ones so much I'm not going to bother with the others.)

Nabisco, I Am Disappoint

Remember Nutter Butter Creme Patties? Little wafer pillows filled with peanut butter creme...every bite held an explosion of awesome peanut butteriness.  My friend Michael was visiting last weekend, and mentioned sort of out of the blue that he hadn't had Nutter Butters for quite a while. Come to think of it, neither had I - and so, it became an imperative that we get some.

The wafers were just as crisp and wafery as we remembered - but somehow, those first bites just weren't as delicious as in the past.  Michael snapped one of the patties in half and it became evident why Nutter Butters aren't quite as Nutter Buttery as they useter.

Look at that! They're only half-full of peanut butter creme! No wonder they were better years ago - there was more filling back then.

Shame on you, Nabisco.

Archway Cookies: Holiday Edition!

Last year, the awesome folks at Archway sent us their line of holiday cookies to review. They were completely amazing, and this year, the generous folks at Archway has surprised us yet again with a sampling of their holiday cookies. We got them just before the snowstorm, so they were a delicious, sweet way to forget that we didn't have lights.

These cookies are just as delicious now as they were then. We were given a sampling of Wedding Cakes, Pfeffernusse, Iced Gingerbread, and Gingerbread Men.

The Wedding Cakes are almost as delicious as my grandmother's: a sugar-coated, melt-in-your-mouth treat studded with Brazil nuts and baked to perfection. These are definitely my favorite of the bunch, but then again, I'm biased - these cookies have a huge emotional connection attached to them.

Next up are the Pfeffernusse, which are slightly spicy and almost licorice-tasting with hints of cinnamon, cloves, and raisins (which is not at all surprising, seeing as there's raisin paste added to them.) Chewy and (also) rolled in powdered sugar, these are another delightful treat to have with coffee or tea.

Next, we have two variations on one of my favorite holiday cookies: gingerbread. Dave and I used to make gingerbread houses when I was a kid: huge, elaborate, Necco-wafer-shingled Victorian-esque houses with melted lollipop windows and Twizzler fences. (The best part was eating it.) But I digress. Archway's gingerbread cookies are just as good as any I can make, if not better. The crunchy gingerbread men are a perfect go-with for hot chocolate, and the softer iced gingerbread cookies practically scream wintertime at you as you eat them.

If you've never had any Archway holiday cookies, you're seriously missing out. They're truly "just like homemade" and are just as worthy of a spot at your holiday gatherings as the ones your family makes. Archway holiday cookies should be available at your local grocery store now.

Cadbury Fingers

I know, they're just little cookie sticks. But I keep running into these things at all sorts of places - supermarkets, Walgreen's, job lot joints - and every time I do, my inner Butthead snickers and says, "Hhhhuh huh huh huhhuh...fingers."

Lynnafred's Cookie Base

It was too damn hot in the kitchen for me, but Lynnafred got a jones for cookies, and when that happens she becomes a baking demon, unstoppable until several batches of cookies spill from the oven and the dining room table becomes covered with racks of cooling cookies.

She's come up with a very good "cookie base" - an all-purpose mixture that is highly adaptable to the type of cookie she want to produce.

Lynnafred's Cookies
Makes about 6 dozen

 Basic Mix:

1 cup butter, softened
¾ cup brown sugar, packed
½ cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups of "mix-ins" (chips, nuts, dried fruits, etc.)

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 F.

Cream butter and sugars together and beat eggs in one at a time.  Add vanilla extract and mix until smooth. Whisk dry ingredients together in a bowl until well-combined. Add the dry ingredients to the egg mixture and beat until a batter forms. Fold in the "mix ins." Drop by spoonfuls onto a parchment-covered cookie sheet and bake 8 to 10 minutes.  Remove with a spatula to racks to cool. Cookies will be soft when they come out of the oven and will firm up somewhat as they cool.

Variations:

• For chocolate cookies, substitute 1 cup of cocoa powder and 1¾ cups of flour for the 2½ cups of flour.
• Try "mix in" combos that work well together, using any proportion you like that adds up to the two cups required.  Some of Lynnafred's favorites are cinnamon chips + chocolate chips, white chocolate chips + dried blueberries, and dark chocolate chunks + butterscotch chips.
• Use different kinds of brown sugar for variations in flavor. The darker the brown sugar, the more intense the molasses flavor will be in the sugar.
• Try interesting "mix-ins" that you wouldn't normally associate with cookies.  Chocolate-covered dried cranberries are awesome in cookies.

Cinnamon cookies are one of Lynnafred's faves.  Unfortunately, we were running a little low on cinnamon chips tonight, so she made these combo chocolate chip-cinnamon chip cookies.

These cookies feature dried blueberries and white chocolate chips.  They're totally more-ish.

Benton's Fig Bars

So, you're jonesing for a fig bar, but your favorite Fig Newtons are going to cost more money than you can shake loose from under the cushions on the couch.  WAT DO?

Well, you can go to the dollar store, the job lot place, or ALDI and see what you can get for less than a dollar-three-eighty.  At ALDI, that would be Benton's Fig Bars.  But how do they measure up against Fig Newtons - the Real Thing, the Gold Standard against which all fig bars are measured?

Well, for starters, the cutting blade at the bakery must not be up to Nabisco sharpness standards, because the Benton's bars always look like they were cut apart with an old hack saw.  Other than that, the cookie part of the bars are pretty much the same thing you'll find wrapped around the center of a Newton.

The filling is sweet and figgy, as you would expect, though it is somewhat "wetter" and more gooey than that of a Newton.

These cookies will satisfy a fig bar jones, to be sure, and are perfectly fine for the casual fig bar fan, but if Fig Newtons are your OMG FAVE cookie, you won't be satisfied with Benton's.  You'll spend every bite comparing them unfavorably with the Newtons you wish you had bought in the first place.

Archway Introduces Three New Awesome Cookies

Archway Cookies, the Official Cookie of Dave's Childhood, has introduced three additions to their delicious cookie lineup:  Shortcake, Triple Chocolate, and Peanut Butter.

Last week, the folks at Archway sent me a package of each of these new varieties and asked me if I could rate their Awesomeness Factor.  I broke out a big bottle of milk, gathered the family around the table, and passed around the Archways.

The Triple Chocolate cookies are wonderful. Soft and chewy, they have the texture of rich fudgy brownies. Each cookie is generously studded with white, dark, and milk chocolate morsels, and every bite is a satisfying rush of chocolate flavor. They're probably the best commercial chocolate cookie I've ever had.

Peanut butter lovers will really go for the Archway Peanut Butter cookies, studded with chopped peanuts and filled with peanut butter deliciousness. Like their chocolate cousins, they're rich and fudgy in texture.

Everyone and their Uncle Reese knows how great peanut butter and chocolate taste together. We made some simple sandwich cookies by spreading the flat side of an Archway Triple Chocolate cookie with some Peanut Butter & Co's White Chocolate Peanut Butter and then topping it with an Archway Peanut Butter cookies.  The kids enjoyed them carefully, lest the cookie's awesomeness cause a rift in the Snack Continuum.

There were no such snacktime shenanigans performed with the Archway Shortbread cookies, however.  They were far too excellent to fiddle with. In fact, they delivered the perfect shortbread experience: Rich, meltingly tender butter crumb with a huge finish trailing off to just the barest hint of saltiness at the end to accent and tie the flavors together.  "When life sucks," Lynnafred observed, "nothing makes it better like a couple of shortbread cookies and a hot cup of tea.  They're the perfect comfort snack. And these are the perfect shortbread cookies."

These brand-new varieties have been hitting the store shelves over the past few weeks.  If your favorite store hasn't stocked them yet, be patient - they surely will soon.  Or, you could be impatient and ask the store manager if they can get them in more quickly.

Link:

Archway Cookies website.

Keebler Fudge Shoppe Merry Mint Patties

Left over from Christmas, these Fudge Shoppe Merry Mint Patties from Keebler were 4 boxes for a dollar at a nearby closeout grocer.  Let me tell you, it has been a long time since I have been able to buy something so awesome for a quarter.  Especially since when these cookies were generally available, a 7.5-ounce box containing 18 small cookies sold for about $3.00.

These little minty morsels are a clever build of shortbread cookie topped with creamy mint patty, dipped in chocolatey fudge and striped with green frosting ribbons.  They're incredible! They're like eating a cookie version of a York Peppermint Patty. They might even be better than Girl Scout Thin Mints. I can't believe there were enough left over from the holiday season that here we are in March and they're still trying to get rid of them.  And at four boxes for a buck, no less!

If Merry Mint Patties come around for another holiday season next year, I might even pick some up at full price.

Handwritten Recipes: Blonde Brownies

A short time ago, I happened upon a truly awesome blog called Forgotten Bookmarks.  Run by independent bookseller Popeks Used And Rare Books, Forgotten Bookmarks is a sort of art project documenting bits of ephemera found between the pages of the used and rare books that come into the store looking for new owners. 

Among the many items found have been quite a few handwritten recipes - some on cards, some on slips of paper, some carefully written out, some in barely-legible spidery handwriting.  Enough of them turned up that shop owner Michael Popek started a side project, Handwritten Recipes, to document and share these forgotten treasures as well.

Mr. Popek thought it would be interesting to have someone actually prepare and photograph the recipes he features on Handwritten Recipes, and I agree.  It's a project that fits nicely with my interest in "heirloom recipes" and culinary ephemera.  Beginning today, I'm going to start working my way through the collected pieces there, preparing the recipes, photographing the results and perhaps the processes, and posting them here with links to the original discovery at Handwritten Recipes.  I hope that you enjoy this collaborative project as much as I will.

Our inaugural recipe was found in a copy of Motherless Brooklyn by Jonathan Lethem (Published by Vintage, 1999.)

 

Blonde Brownies

2 c. flour
1/4 teas. baking soda
1 teas baking powder
1 teas salt
2 c. packed brown sugar
2/3 c.. shortening, melted
2 eggs
2 teas vanilla
2 c. choc. chips
1/3 c. chopped nuts

Mix flour, soda, baking powder and salt
Add sugar to shortening - eggs - vanilla
Add flour mixture to sugar mixture
Spread in 13 x 9 pan. Sprinkle with chips and nuts
Bake 350° for 30 mins
Cool in pan; cut in bars

What a great choice for a first recipe.  I was a little skeptical at first as I spread the batter into the 13 x 9 pan - there didn't seem to be enough to make a good layer on the bottom of the pan - but they came out great.  The consistency was perfectly brownie-like, chewy and rich, and everyone loved them.  This is definitely a keeper.

See the original handwritten recipe here.

Horse Cookies

Maryanne and I give a lot of gifts from our kitchen, as you might imagine.  We spend time during the year making jams, preserves, and jellies from seasonal fruits, and we do a fair amount of pickling and preserving the vegetables we grow.  And then, of course, there's the holiday baking - cookies, breads, pies and so on.  For the past few days, I've been baking cookies...but not for the people on our list.  No, this time around we decided to bake cookies for the various animals in the family.  I'll be sharing my recipes for animal treats here over the coming week, and today we'll start with horse cookies.

One of my sisters has a couple of horses and I thought it would be kind of cool to come up with something they'd enjoy.  Horses like sweet and chewy treats - one of their favorites is big, sweet oversized carrots - so I wanted to come up with something the horses would love and that my sister could carry in her pocket out to the barn.  I came up with this recipe, which horses really do seem to love.

Horse Cookies
Makes about 3 dozen 2-inch treats

4 cups whole wheat flour, plus more for kneading
3 cups uncooked quick oats
¼ cup brown sugar
1 egg
¼ cup vegetable oil
½ cup molasses
1 cup applesauce
¾ cup apple cider (approximately)

Preheat your oven to 300 F.

Stir the flour and oats together with the brown sugar in a large bowl.  Whisk together the egg, oil, molasses and applesauce until well combined, then dump the mixture into the flour and oats and work it in with a strong wooden spoon.  Gradually add cider, kneading it in to make a rather sticky dough.

Turn out the dough onto a heavily-floured surface (I used whole wheat flour for this, too) and knead for several minutes, adding flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking too much to your hands and the surface, until the dough is stiff, somewhat tacky, and easy to form.  This can take half a cup or more of additional flour.

Roll the dough out approximately half an inch thick and cut into cookies with a 2-inch round biscuit cutter.   Scraps should be briefly kneaded into a solid mass, then rerolled and cut.  Arrange the cookies on baking sheets prepared either by greasing them or by lining them with baking parchment.  Bake for 1 hour at 300 F, then shut the oven off and leave the cookies on the pans in the oven as it cools for several hours to help dry them out.

When the cookies are completely cooled, they can be stored in an airtight container to use as needed.

I sampled one of them after the initial baking and before the drying time, and they're pretty tasty (though not exactly my idea of a snack, my sister's horses are going to love them.)

Archway's Incredible Holiday Cookies

On Friday - totally unannounced and out of the blue - a package arrived on the front porch.  I wasn't expecting anything, so imagine my surprise and delight to find that it was filled with samples of Archway's new holiday cookies!

As awesome as the people at Archway are for sending them, these new cookies are even more awesome.  Just in time for the holidays, they've gone and made a special line of cookies that are delicious enough to serve to guests.  Many of the labels say "just like homemade."  I know you've heard that before, but in this case it's true - the cookies are indeed just like homemade.  Let's try them out one by one, shall we?

Snow Tops are chocolate cookies with walnuts topped with a royal-icing-like frosting glaze.  They're as rich and chewy as fudge, bursting with chocolatey goodness with just the right amount of chopped walnuts baked in.  These quickly became a favorite here.

Archway's Pfeffernusse are a delicious variation of the German Christmas favorite.  Cloves and cinnamon are prominent in the cookie, which is just slightly soft and chewy and rolled in powdered sugar.

If you're a fan of Archway cookies at all, you'll remember their Cashew Nougat cookies.  A few years ago when the company was in dire straits, Cashew Nougats were discontinued.  But they're one of Archway's most beloved and fondly remembered product, and even the quickest of Google searches will turn up dozens of recipes attempting to duplicate them.

No need now, though - Archway has brought them back, and they are every bit as delicious now as they were back in the day.  Sweet just a bit brittle, they melt in your mouth.  The cashews are the perfect compliment to the nougat and the nuts' hint of saltiness makes the sweet cookies even more delectable. 

If your holiday traditions included a few packages of Cashew Nougats, you are not going to be disappointed.  And if your holiday traditions don't include them, it's a great time to start!

Wedding Cake cookies are a time-honored tradition in our family.  Ever since she was a wee lass of four summers, Lynnafred has spent time with her Nonnie (my mom) making Wedding Cakes just before Christmas.  It was an inexpensive way for Lynnafred to give everyone in the family a delicious Christmas treat, and it got her involved in the kitchen early on.  

We still make wedding cakes, but this year they'll be joined by Archway's Wedding Cake cookies.  Sweet and walnutty and delicious, they're another melt-in-your mouth delight.

Candy Cane cookies are another new addition to Archway's holiday lineup.  They're semisoft shortbread cookies, studded with peppermint morsels and drizzled with icing glaze.  They're cool and sweet and minty and taste like an eight-year-old's dream of Christmas morning, as painted by Norman Rockwell, with full stockings hanging from the mantle and candy canes hooked on the branches of the Christmas tree.

If I were expecting a visit from Santa Claus this year, these are the cookies I'd put on the plate for him.  After all,  I presume they're made with Essence of Kid's Christmas, which isn't actually on the label unless of course it's classified as a "natural flavor."

Even with all the other delicious offerings, the holidays just wouldn't be the same without gingerbread.  Archway's Iced Gingerbread cookies are soft and tender and fun to eat.  Yes, the icing has something to do with it, but then there are the red and green sprinkles studding the icing.  You can never go wrong with gingerbread.  Or icing.  Or sprinkles.  Especially sprinkles.

Last, but by no means least, are Archway's Holiday Gingerbread Man cookies.  They're very similar to gingersnaps, but in the form of happy little gingerbread men seemingly rapturous with the thought of being dipped into coffee and munched.

For more information about any of these cookies, visit Archway's website.  It includes a store locator you can use to find a retailer near you carrying them, so you can experience the awesomeness for yourself.

Benton's Best Maple Leaf Cream Cookies

Another quick review, this time for another ALDI store brand.

I couldn't believe how deliciously mapleicious these maple-creme-filled sandwich cookies are.  Truly awesome.

Also, truly 110 calories per cookie.  Sorry to be a spoilsport, but nothing good comes without a cost eh?

Minees: A Great Deal at Dollar Tree

These are Minees.  They're little cookies which come in small lunchbox-sized packages, ten packages for a dollar, in five different flavors: chocolate with chocolate creme, chocolate with banana creme, chocolate with vanilla creme, vanilla with vanilla creme, and vanilla with strawberry creme.  I get them at Dollar Tree; it's one of the Tree's regular items and they're almost always in stock.

I know what you're thinking - Dollar Tree, junky food, probably pretty bad stuff.  Sometimes, the knock-off food products at the dollar store really are nasty.  Not this time, though.  Minees are great - the cookies are fresh and crispy, the filling isn't sticky-sweet, it's just right, and the individual packs encourage limits on snacking - after all, each of the ten packages weighs in at just 1¼ ounces and carries 165 calories.  (No, it's not health food, but it ain't bad, either.)

My wife and I both brownbag it for lunch;  we work at places where it's really inconvenient to go out at noon.  When I tuck a pack of Minees into her kit, it's like handing off a little piece of sunshine, because everyone loves cookies.

Happiness for a dime.  It should be so easy all through life.

SPONCH

They're kind of like a macaroon - a cookie base with spongy "creme" on top - and I found them in a Hispanic market in Baltimore.  Love the name.

More posts starting tomorrow.

Archway Cookies Recipe Contest!

As you know from my previous post about them, Archway cookies are back, and they're as delicious as you remember them.  We've already taken a look at some Archway varieties, and we'll be reviewing more of them in coming days, but today I'd like to tell you about the Archway Sweet Summer Treats Recipe Contest.  Not only does it give you a terrific excuse to pick up some Archway cookies, but you can win a $250 Visa gift card and have your recipe featured in Archway cookie promos!

The categories are mouthwatering:  Desserts with Ice Cream, Desserts Without Ice Cream, and Non-Dessert Creations (things like muffins, appetizers, and so forth.)  It's easy to enter - you must be a legal resident of the US and be 18 years of age or older as of June 22, 2010.

To help inspire you, Archway has opened up a one-stop contest entry page.  You can browse through recipes, check out the contest rules, and submit your entry right there.  And - best of all - you can jumpstart your kitchen wizardry with a $1.00-off coupon for any variety of Archway Cookie!  Click here to visit Archway's contest page.

Lynnafred and I are psyched for this contest - we've got some great ideas but we'd be perfectly willing to bask in the reflected glory of your win as well.  Go for it!

Links:

Archway Cookies website

Full Terms and Conditions for the Archway Sweet Summer Treats Recipe Contest

This post was sponsored by Archway Cookies.

Archway Cookies - First in a series

Dave's Introduction:

When I was a kid, Archway cookies were always on hand.  Always.  Especially the ginger snaps: not only did my mom keep them available, so did my grandmother.  Maryanne tells me that her family always bought Archway cookies when she was young, too.  Archway became a staple in our cookie jars, too.

Unfortunately, the company ran into some troubles a few years ago.  The troubles led to bankruptcy, and we noticed that the cookies didn't seem to be available in our area any more.  But now, Archway is back!

Not too long ago, a PR rep from Archway contacted me and asked if we'd be interested in sampling some cookies and writing about them.  We received a very generous cookie assortment which we've been enjoying for a couple weeks now, and Archway has some pretty cool stuff coming up later this month that Lynnafred and I will be letting you know about soon.   For now, though, we're kicking off a series of posts with a review of some of the cookies Archway sent along to us - and I'm handing off to Lynnafred now for the first few reviews.

Lynnafred's reviews:

First of all, I want to thank Archway for their generosity.  Having a carton of cookies showing up on the front porch is like having a sweet dream come true!

I'm going to start the series with reviews of the Iced Molasses, Windmills, and Frosted Lemon varieties.

Although the Iced Molasses cookies are, so far, my least favorite , Mom and Dave both really like them. They're about an inch and a half in diameter, nice and soft, and with a generous swipe of hard icing on top.  Very flavorful; they're rich and sweet, and just a tad spicy, but there's a lingering fruity flavor in them that I don't particularly like. When I checked the ingrediets, I found that they contained raisin paste.  That accounted for the fruit flavor and for why I didn't care for them - I'm not much one for raisins.  Dave said the raisin paste went well with the deep taste of molasses and the spices in the cookie.

Next, at the insistence of Dave, I opened up the package of Windmills that Archway sent. Apparently, they were a childhood favorite of his and he wanted to see if they stacked up against his memories.These cookies are crisp and flat and about three inches long. They taste really good; they've got a lot of cinnamon in them. They're spicier than a typical cinnamon cookie - like a reduced-ginger ginger snap, and are accented with minced almonds throughout them that gives them an interesting added flavor and texture. I really enjoyed these.  Dave said they were just like he remembered

And last but not least, we have Frosted Lemon cookies. These were my favorite by far. Soft and almost cakey, these cookies have a light, refreshing lemony flavor that isn't too sweet or tart, and is nicely accented by the icing on top.  We brought this package to a family picnic and everyone there was delighted, it was like they were greeting old friends.  I was disappointed that the cookies got scarfed up so fast. but I guess everyone remembered how much they used to love them and ate them up.

We have more cookies to try and we're all taking notes as we go.  And Dave hinted to me that Archway has something fun coming up soon.  So keep an eye out for upcoming Archway posts.

.