Wednesday, December 21, 2005

For Your Holiday Baking Pleasure

I'd love to do like Julie D. and start a whole extra blog for recipes but I have the feeling that I might never leave the computer if I did that!

Anyway, I was reading about "Whiskey Cookies" over at Martha Martha and that post brought to mind one of our very favorite cookie recipes.

Mrs. Wagner's Cookies
Makes 10 dozen

1 pound butter -- softened (margarine works also)
7 1/2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
5 egg yolk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 heaping tsp. baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup bourbon (we use Jack Daniel's)
1 cup milk
5 egg white
Colored sugar/sprinkles for decorating

Mix flour and butter like pie dough.

Beat remaining ingredients (except egg white and colored sugar) and add to dry mix.
Dough should be STIFF.

Roll thin and cut into shapes. Brush with egg white and decorate.

Bake on greased sheet, 6 minutes at 375. Bottoms should be light brown, tops should be white.

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NOTES : Chill dough before rolling. Chill in refrigerator at least 1 hour.


Mr. and Mrs. Wagner were a retired couple who lived next door to my family during my childhood. They became like "extra grandparents" to us. We'd bang on their back door hoping for cookies, or to be let into their house to play with the toys they kept there for us. For me and my sister, it was a little doll, with a homemade cradle made from a berry basket and lined with a little mattress, pillow, blanket, and baby doll clothes--all handmade with love. I forget what my brother had over there. I still have that doll today; it's the only toy from my childhood that I still have.

They treated us like family, right down to letting my mom know when we were getting into something we shouldn't!

I have a few tangible things that help me remember these very special people. Besides that doll, I have the game board they used to play with us. It's an old German game that is basically the same as "Trouble" but without the famous "Pop-o-Matic." I have a three-tier candy plate. And I have the cookie recipe. If I could only keep one of these, it would be the recipe!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a lovely story. Unfortunately my grandmother's recipe is not the same. Although now that you've shared, I'm curious to make these and let you know the difference ;). It's wonderful how food/recipes can trigger so much memory, and in one sense keep people in your life.

Julie D. said...

Those sound wonderful. I am definitely printing them out to try later. :-)