Retro Baking: Christmas Booty 2010

I'm a teacher.  And sometimes when Christmas break begins I just want to flop.  This year was different.  All this week I had the urge to bake and decorate Christmas cookies from my favorite cookie book:  Betty Crocker's Cooky Book published in 1963.  My mom always had this cooky book since I could remember and it was our favorite book to bake cookies from.  I love the 1960s display pictures throughout the book.

Groovy cookie displays

  I am a history lover and there is a section of the book that explains story behind the most popular cookie from every decade from the 1880s to the 1960s.  My favorite decade cookie is the Carmel Refigerator cookie which became popular during the 1940s since women had to work outside the home during WWII and they needed to find less time-consuming recipes that required only a few common ingredients.  They are soooooo deceptively wonderful.  They look pretty plain.  Little misshapen brown ovals.  Then you put one in your mouth and it just melts.  Dan's friend calls them "little delicious clouds".

Carmel Refrigerator Cookie

When I moved out of the house and got married I missed the Cooky Book.  The pages were sticky and stained on the pages where our most treasured recipes were. 

Ethel's Sugar Cookie with cream cheese frosting

Then one day at Sam's Club I spotted THE Cooky Book.  A reprinting of the 1963 classic in its original format!  I was beyond excited and bought it on the spot.  Now the pages of my favorite cookie recipes have their "battle scars" too:  Ethel's Sugar Cookies, Cream Cheese Cookies, Snickerdoodles, Gingerbread Cut Outs and of course Carmel Refrigerators.  One day I will branch out and try the colorful Bon Bon cookies that were so popular during the 1960s French style cooking craze. 

Mrs. Brennan's Scottish Shortbread

One new cookie that I tried this year was Mrs. Brennan's Scottish Shortbread.  I got the recipe from a blog online.  In the 1940s a woman got it from the Scottish family that rented the basement out in their building.  It was passed down in the woman's family until it was posted on the blog this Christmas.  It was so easy to make (only 3 ingredients) and really delicious.  Here is what my poor kitchen looked like after my cookie baking fiesta.  (YIKES!)

  Oh and I tried to make my snowflake gingerbread cookies look like this:
but instead they turned out like this:

My sorry excuse for a piped snowflake cookie.

Ha Ha Ha!  Oh well. . . at least they tasted decent.  All the leftovers are going to work with Dan tomorrow while I go to spin class!  =)