This recipe is from the 1946 Better Homes and Gardens Cook Book. Myrna says it’s the one our mom used - to make my very favorite chocolate cookies – she’s right! I had used a recipe from my 1968 cook book that I got when I first got married, and although good, they weren’t quite what I remembered, so I was eager to try these.
These looked terrible in the oven at first – they appeared to be melting and losing their shape completely – turning into thin cookies before my eyes. Then, a miracle, they began to rise and there they were – those favorite cookies I remembered - tender and cake-like!
My husband, not a chocolate fan, eagerly cleaned the bowl and beaters and thought these were just OK for chocolate cookies – high praise from him. I had to fight him for the last ones. These are the best - and I make them more often now.
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| Mom's 1946 Better Homes & Gardens Cookbook |
Both Myrna and I remember shelling black walnuts from our trees for these – a thankless job, except that I, for one, loved these cookies. Do put a whole nut half on top.
Mom's Chocolate Frosted Cookies
1 large eggs -- well beaten
1 cup Brown Sugar -- 8 ounces
1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/4 cup butter -- 2 ounces
1/4 cup shortening -- 1 3/4 ounces
2 Baking Chocolate Squares -- melted with butter and shortening
1 2/3 cups Cake Flour *-- 8 ounces
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon soda
1/2 cup milk -- sweet or sour (I used buttermilk I had on hand)
1/2 cup Walnuts, Broken (2 ounces) Or pecans
Melt the chocolate squares with the shortening and butter. Let cool. Beat egg and sugar until light; add vanilla extract, then shortening and butter, (melted with chocolate and cooled); blend well.
Add the sifted dry ingredients alternately with milk; add nut meats. The dough will be very soft, almost like very thick cake batter. (Use a spoon or whisk for this step so your cookies don't get tough from overmixing.) They also benefit from chilling the dough. Be sure you don't use a warm cookie sheet.
Drop from teaspoon two inches apart onto greased cooky sheet. (I used a size 100 scoop on parchment paper). Bake in 350° oven 10 to 12 minutes.
Frost with Mocha frosting and top with a walnut or pecan half. Makes 3 dozen.
Mocha Frosting
3 tbsp cocoa
1-2 tbsp hot coffee or milk or cream
3 tbsp butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
36 walnut halves or pecans
Per Serving: 99 Calories; 5g Fat (42.8% calories from fat); 1g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; trace Dietary Fiber; 12mg Cholesterol; 58mg Sodium. Exchanges: 1/2 Grain(Starch); 0 Lean Meat; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 1 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.
*Cake flour has a 6-8% protein content and is made from soft wheat flour. It is chlorinated to further break down the strength of the gluten and is smooth and velvety in texture. Good for making cakes (especially white cakes and biscuits) and cookies where a tender and delicate texture is desired. To substitute cake flour for all-purpose flour use 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons cake flour for every cup of all-purpose flour. Make your own - one cup sifted cake flour can be substituted with 3/4 cup (84 grams) sifted bleached all-purpose flour plus 2 tablespoons (15 grams) cornstarch.
OMG! I wonder if these are like the ones I remember from a restaurant years ago! Will have to study the recipe & maybe give them a try. Those were the best! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteNadine,
DeleteI think these are the favorites that my mom made - everyone else likes them too.
Cookies like they used to be, delicious but not over the top. Hope you like them.
Do these freeze well? b/4 or after frosting? Also, I'm a bit confused with the substitution. I don't normally have cake flour on hand. I'll have to find my substitution link to plug it in so I can use all purpose flour. I use High Altitude flour.
ReplyDeleteNadine,
DeleteThey freeze very well, both before and after frosting. I don't thaw them ahead of time, by the time I have coffee made they are ready to eat if I just lay them out on a cookie plate.
Put 3 tablespoons of cornstarch in the bottom of your measuring cup and add the all-purpose flour to make the 1 2/3 cups. You should be OK. Notice that the flour is "sifted" weight because it is an old recipe. They probably would be ok with just 8 ounces of all purpose flour too, especially as you are at high altitude. High altitude flour is very high protein, 13.3%, cake flour is 6-8% and all-purpose is 8-11%. I keep some cake flour in my freezer all the time - for these cookies and some cakes. It does make a difference in tenderness, more so in cake, however, we are just below 1000' here.
May have to bake these Sunday along with my bread. Thanks for sharing. M
ReplyDeleteI just want to double check on the chocolate b/4 I make these. What I bought: Baker's Unsweetened Chocolate Bar (4 oz) which appears from the box picture to have 16 pcs. It says 4 pcs = 1 oz. There is a recipe for one bowl brownies on the back. Is that what the recipe calls for & I use 2 pcs? or how many ounces? I know this is different from what I got years ago. Maybe I should have looked longer. They also had semi-sweet & something else (maybe milk choc?) Thanks!
ReplyDeleteThe unsweetened chocolate is what you want. The squares in the recipe were 1 ounce squares so you need a total of 2 ounces, Yes, they are now packaged in smaller weight squares. Like everything else, raise the price and lower the amount in the package.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Myrna! Yes, sign of the times indeed! Merry Christmas!
ReplyDelete