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The Traditional Fisher Family Christmas Cookies (slightly revised and optionally gluten-free))
This came to us through J's dad's family. The non-revised version called for "1.5 inches" of butter! I remember seeing J's mom measuring a stick of butter with a yardstick... Thing is, this made tasty but, er, STURDY cookies; they took some serious gnawing, and could probably be described as tasty granola nuggets.
Since I am fascinated by both the formulae of cooking, and food history, I re-thought this. At the time the recipe was written, it seemed likely that butter was sold in 1-pound blocks, not 0.25-pound sticks... which would mean 4 times the butter. When I checked this against other cookie recipes, the quantities looked reasonable, so I tried it- and the results were very cookie-like (and LOTS easier to mix!).
Gluten-free flour, like from King Arthur, makes more tender but just as tasty cookies.
Fisher Christmas Cookies
0.67 (2/3rds) cup butter (1.5 inches, or 5.33 oz.)
1.5 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups all-purpose or gluten-free flour
2 cups shredded coconut (5.25 oz.)
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 pound chopped dates
Heat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets, or use Silpat or parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix in.
Mix baking soda and salt with flour; add to butter mixture and mix.
Slowly add the rest of the stuff, mixing by hand (and often, just using your clean hands to stir it up is fastest and easiest!).
Drop from spoon (or fingers) in roughly 1 tablespoon+ blobs. Bake for around 10 min- it may be a bit shorter or longer. Cool on rack or whatever, and when cool, put in bowl or tin.
Since I am fascinated by both the formulae of cooking, and food history, I re-thought this. At the time the recipe was written, it seemed likely that butter was sold in 1-pound blocks, not 0.25-pound sticks... which would mean 4 times the butter. When I checked this against other cookie recipes, the quantities looked reasonable, so I tried it- and the results were very cookie-like (and LOTS easier to mix!).
Gluten-free flour, like from King Arthur, makes more tender but just as tasty cookies.
Fisher Christmas Cookies
0.67 (2/3rds) cup butter (1.5 inches, or 5.33 oz.)
1.5 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
0.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 cups all-purpose or gluten-free flour
2 cups shredded coconut (5.25 oz.)
1 cup rolled oats
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped
1 pound chopped dates
Heat oven to 375F. Grease cookie sheets, or use Silpat or parchment paper.
Cream butter and sugar till light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix in.
Mix baking soda and salt with flour; add to butter mixture and mix.
Slowly add the rest of the stuff, mixing by hand (and often, just using your clean hands to stir it up is fastest and easiest!).
Drop from spoon (or fingers) in roughly 1 tablespoon+ blobs. Bake for around 10 min- it may be a bit shorter or longer. Cool on rack or whatever, and when cool, put in bowl or tin.
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Now, based on other reading I've done, I date the recipe to roughly 1910-1920; this was when exotics like dates and coconut were starting to be popularized- but were very much luxury items! so suitable for "fancy" cookies.
I also think the basic recipe would work great with any kind of dried fruit replacing the dates, and maybe some cinnamon or pumpkin pie spice, if using a tarter fruit than dates. I have not tried this yet, because HERESY, but think it'd be a tasty idea. :)
Also note that these have a LOT of fiber, so eating a whole bunch at a time is contra-indicated. :)
We do make at least 2-3 batches of these every year. It's fun, because they are SO not-fussy.
The only thing from my side we make several times is the julekaga; the cookies my mother liked were either not that good or way fussy, and I mostly do not do fussy cookies.
-And honestly- my family NEVER MADE julekaga; they bought it... but when I moved out to the NE and there WAS NO JULEKAGA, I started to make it- because it's not the season without julekaga!!!
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It makes sense that this would be from a time when dates and coconut were exotic. I've seen some other old recipes with dates that seemed to regard them as much fancier than I think of them.
I like the idea of making with dried apricots too. I may have to try that at some point.
I'm not sure that I've ever had julekaga. We used to make braided cranberry bread for Christmas every year when I was growing up. My effort to figure that recipe out hasn't been as successful as I'd like. It came from a newspaper clipping 40-50 years ago and part of the clipping is missing while the rest is very discolored.