7 Vintage Cookie Recipes to Make the Holidays Sweeter

Fri, Dec 11, 1925 – 5 · Tulare Advance-Register (Tulare, California) · Newspapers.com

Whether you’re filling your Christmas cookie jar or hosting for Hanukkah, give your holidays a vintage flair with these mouthwatering cookie recipes from our newspaper archives.

Beneath the original newspaper recipes, we’ve written them out in a way that’s a bit easier to follow. Click on any of the images to see the clipping on Newspapers.com.

[Note: In old recipes, a “moderate oven” means 350–375 degrees Fahrenheit.]

Sugar Plum Crispies – from 1949

1949: Sugar Plum Crispies recipes Thu, Dec 1, 1949 – 34 · The Knoxville News-Sentinel (Knoxville, Tennessee) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• ½ cup shortening
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• ¼ cup water
• ¾ cup flour
• ½ tsp baking soda
• 1 ½ cups rolled oats
• ½ cup chopped raisins
• ½ cup chopped nuts

Directions:

1. Combine shortening, sugar, salt, spices, vanilla, and water and beat thoroughly.
2. Sift flour and soda together. Add to first mixture with oats, raisins, and nuts, and mix thoroughly.
3. Drop from tablespoon on greased baking sheets. Stamp dough thin with a glass covered with a damp cloth.
4. Bake in moderate oven 350 degrees F for 10 to 15 minutes.
5. Remove from pan at once. Makes 2 ½ dozen.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies – from 1936

1936: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies recipe Fri, Dec 18, 1936 – Page 32 · The Akron Beacon Journal (Akron, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

Cookies:

• ½ cup butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• ½ cup sour cream
• 1 egg
• 2 squares chocolate, melted
• 1 ½ cups flour
• ¼ tsp baking soda
• ¼ tsp baking powder

Frosting:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 2 Tbsp milk
• ½ tsp peppermint flavoring, or ½ cup crushed peppermint stick candy

Directions:

1. Cream butter with brown sugar. Add sour cream and egg. Beat well. Add melted chocolate.
2. Sift flour with soda and baking powder, then add to first mixture.
3. Bake on greased baking sheet for 12 minutes at 325 degrees F.
4. When frosting will hold its shape, spread on warm cookies.

Hanukkah Dreidel Cookies – from 1958

1958: Hanukkah Dreidel Cookies recipe Thu, Dec 4, 1958 – Page 24 · The Philadelphia Inquirer (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp grated orange rind
• 2 Tbsp orange juice
• 1 cup ground Brazil nuts
• 2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• ½ tsp salt
• ¼ tsp almond extract

Directions:

1. Cream shortening; gradually add sugar and beat until light and fluffy. Stir in egg, orange rind and juice, and nuts.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in almond flavoring. Chill several hours.
3. Roll out 1/8-inch thick on lightly floured board. Cut into dreidel shape using a paper pattern or cut into desired shapes with 2-inch cookie cutter.
4. Bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 375 degrees F for 8 to 10 minutes. Makes about 5 dozen cookies.

Snowball Cookies – from 1940

1940: Snowball Cookies recipe Thu, Jun 27, 1940 – Page 23 · The St. Louis Star and Times (St. Louis, Missouri) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• ¾ cup butter
• ¼ cup evaporated milk or cream
• ½ tsp vanilla
• 1 ¾ cups flour
• 6 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Directions:

1. Cream butter until very light and fluffy. Beat in the milk or cream a little at a time until it is all taken up by the butter. Add vanilla.
2. Sift flour, then measure. Resift with confectioners’ sugar and add a little at a time to the butter. Add pecans.
3. Roll very small bits of dough, about 1 teaspoonful for each cookie, between palms of hands to form small balls.
4. Place on floured baking sheet and bake in a moderate oven (375 degrees F) until golden brown, about 15 minutes.
5. Roll cookies in confectioners’ sugar while they are still warm. Yield: 6 dozen small cookies.

Gingerbread Men – from 1920

1920: Gingerbread Men recipe Sun, Dec 5, 1920 – 15 · The Enid Daily Eagle (Enid, Oklahoma) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 tsp salt
• ¾ tsp ginger
• 2/3 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup shortening, melted

Directions:

1. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and ginger together.
2. Mix molasses, sugar, egg, and melted shortening together. Add the dry ingredients to make soft dough.
3. Shape in form of little men, animals, or plain cookies on greased pan. Bake in moderate oven 10 to 12 minutes.

Note: The men can be made by forcing the dough through a pastry bag or cornucopia made with plain letter paper. Use tops of cloves, currants, or rice for making the faces and buttons. For colored coats, use colored icing.

Christmas Wreaths – from 1948

1948: Christmas Wreaths recipe Fri, Dec 17, 1948 – Page 12 · The Cincinnati Enquirer (Cincinnati, Ohio) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• ½ cup butter and shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp grated lemon rind
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cups flour
• Pistachio nuts, crushed
• Red and green maraschino cherries

Directions:

1. Cream butter/shortening; add sugar and cream well.
2. Add egg yolks beaten until thick; then add lemon juice and rind. Add one egg white beaten until stiff and dry.
3. Fold in enough flour to make a stiff dough.
4. Roll thin and cut with doughnut cutter. Beat other egg white slightly and brush over tops.
5. Place on greased cookie sheet. Sprinkle with crushed nuts. Place red and green maraschino cherries to represent holly wreaths.
6. Bake at 325 degrees F until delicately browned.

Fruit Cake Cookies – from 1938

1938: Fruit Cake Cookies recipe Sat, Nov 26, 1938 – 14 · The Boston Globe (Boston, Massachusetts) · Newspapers.com

Ingredients:

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 cup shortening
• 2 eggs
• 3 cups pastry flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp cloves
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• ¾ cup milk
• 1 cup each raisins, walnuts, and candied cherries
• ½ cup candied pineapple
• ¼ cup citron

Directions:

1. Cream together sugar and shortening; beat eggs in, one at a time.
2. Sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with milk.
3. Chop fruit, nuts, and citron and mix well in mixture.
4. Drop by teaspoon on greased tin and bake in moderate oven.

Note: Pineapple and citron may be omitted if desired. These cookies will keep for months.

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