A month or so ago, Shara Hall of Mountlake Terrace asked for our help, telling us she’d lost a treasured family recipe for her grandmother’s sour cream cookies. “They are always soft – never come out crunchy or hard – and stay soft and gooey,” she said. “In fact, I’ll never forget that Mr. Fismark excommunicated me for making these sour cream sugar cookies in the fourth-grade cookie contest. He said my cookie was a cake, not a cookie. I couldn’t believe it! I had stars and stripes and little metal candies on it, and I made it in a big heart shape!”
“Let me explain,” Everett cook Nancy Shamrockwrites. “You said no sugar cookie recipe, unless it contains sour cream. But I think I have the recipe that Shara Hall requested for the sugar cookies her grandma used to make. I, too, have my grandma’s recipe, which calls for buttermilk. But Grandma always had buttermilk in the house. And I never do, so I use either sour cream if I happen to have it, or I make the sour milk.
“I, also, like the reader, got to decorate Grandma’s cookies the way I wanted, with chocolate chips to make a smiley face, etc. Anyway, I will give this a try – it’s a very, very old recipe.”
And another great letter and recipe comes to us courtesy of Barbara Friend”of Marysville. She tells us, “I have boxes of clipped recipes. I’m going to have to live to 150 to try all of them! Many I have already tried have become family favorites.
“Shara Hall requested a sour cream cookie recipe. Helen Nelson, the lady that I inherited this recipe from, was a marvelous cook who did catering for years. Her claim to fame was her fruitcake. One year, she made and sold over 700 pounds!!”
You’ll love Barbara’s signoff: “Keep the recipes and ideas coming,” she says. “I still have several empty boxes I can fill!!”
Now for the cookie recipes:
Grandma’s very, very old recipe for buttermilk or sour cream sugar cookies
1cup sugar
1cup shortening or softened margarine
2eggs, beaten
1teaspoon vanilla
3tablespoons buttermilk, sour cream or sour milk
1teaspoon baking soda
Dash nutmeg
3cups flour
1/2teaspoon salt
In mixing bowl, cream sugar and shortening or margarine. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Stir in buttermilk, sour cream or sour milk, mixing well. Add baking soda, nutmeg, flour and salt and mix thoroughly. Cover and chill dough overnight. Roll dough out on a slightly floured breadboard and cut as desired. These were rolled out about 1/4 -inch thick. Bake at 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes. Yummy!
Frosted sour cream cookies
1/2cup margarine, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2eggs
1teaspoon vanilla
21/4 cups flour
1/2teaspoon salt
1teaspoon baking soda
1cup sour cream
3/4cup chopped nuts (optional)
Frosting (recipe follows)
In mixing bowl, cream margarine and brown sugar. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Sift together the flour, salt and baking soda; blend into creamed mixture. Stir in sour cream and nuts. Drop by spoonful onto lightly greased cookie sheet and bake at 375 degrees 8 to 10 minutes. Don’t overbake. While cookies are still warm, spread with frosting. Makes about 50 cookies.
Frosting
2cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons butter, softened
1 1/2 teaspoons grated orange rind
21/2 tablespoons (or more, if needed) orange juice
In mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar, butter, orange rind and orange juice and blend well until mixture is smooth. If too thick, add additional orange juice until frosting reaches the right consistency.
The next Forum will appear in Wednesday’s Food section.
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