18-year-old Helena Muffly wrote exactly 100 years ago today:
Saturday, September 6, 1913: I made some cookies this morning—and fortunately we all have pretty good teeth.
Her middle-aged granddaughter’s comments 100 years later:
Hmm—I wonder what kind of cookies Grandma made, and what went wrong.
Maybe Grandma made Apple Cookies. They’re wonderfully moist—and a little chewy (but I don’t think that they’d require good teeth to eat.) 🙂
Old-fashioned Apple Cookies
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 cup milk
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup unpared apples, chopped
1 cup raisins
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Cream sugar and butter, then add egg. Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts and fruit. Add walnuts, apples, and raisins. Drop by teaspoonful on greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.
Yield: approximately 48 cookies
A Hundred Years Ago 
I wouldn’t dare bake those, I’d polish them off all by myself. I especially love Hermits and these seem similar.
I ate more of them myself than I’d like to admit. 🙂
I remember making jam in a school cookery class. Now everyone’s jam looked brilliant newly spooned into the jars. But spooning it out again proved a problem for some, especially those whose jam had set rock hard! Rock cakes also proved their name. Wishing you a nice day!
As a result of doing this blog, I’ve experimented a little with making jellies and jams–and in the process I’ve learned that it is a real art.
For an example of a failure I had see my post on making currant jelly.
https://ahundredyearsago.com/2011/07/05/old-time-currant-jelly-recipe/
I hope that you also have a wonderful day!
Woohoo, I’m going to test these out this weekend.
They’re a nice fall cookie. I think that you’ll like them.
Maybe Helen made rock cakes ;o)
maybe 🙂
Yum!
They are delicious!
Goodness what did Helena bake that was so hard?
Maybe she over-cooked them. I think that it was really tricky to successfully make cookies in an old-fashioned wood or coal stove.
Yes, I think it would have been tricky. Those old stoves were incredible but my grandmother produced the most amazing meals in hers. Not cookies, that I remember, but meals and baked puddings.
Your comment reminds me of an elderly neighbor when I was a child. She used to say that it was impossible to make a good plum pudding using an electric stove.
She was probably right. The pikelets (like little pancakes) that my grandmother made on top of the coal range were the best ever.
I love your Grandma’s dry humor….!
She did have a wonderful dry sense of humor. 🙂
Grandma must have had the same luck I’ve had at times with cookies. 🙂
Cookies can sometimes be surprisingly difficult to successfully make. 🙂
That was a funny diary entry– She has a good sense of humor and can laugh at herself — that’s something we all need in life! 🙂
Yes, it’s a valuable skill to be able to laugh at oneself.
Living in the country, in a house without A/C, and heated by a wood stove (in which we can cook in during winter), we have learned that atmospheric conditions, such as temperature and humidity can change a recipe. One day those cookies might be crunchy and another soft. Of course, a hundred years ago, folks would have cooked with what they had, not what grociery stores consider uniform for selling. Milk and eggs, even the grind of flour, could alter a recipe, depending on the cycle of the cow or goat, or whether the eggs came from chickens or ducks. Keeps life interesting, as you cannot count on the same dish every time you cook it.
Oscar
Thanks for the information. There sure were a lot of different variables that could affect how cookies turned out. I had never really thought about how the grind of flour and where a cow/goat is at in her lactation cycle could affect the results. In spite of the challenges of cooking when everything isn’t standardized, in general I want to think that food quality was better back then. 🙂
We have learned of these factors by raising milk goats with our neighbors. Milk’s goat is richest right after kidding, when the kids need the extra milke fat. Makes for a great cup of latte!
Oscar
Sounds wonderful!
What a cute entry–so subtle and wry! Your recipe looks worth trying!
It is a fun diary entry. 🙂
Those sound like the chocolate chip cookies I made recently – not the rock hard part, the ingredients! I think next time I’ll use apple chunks instead of the chips. I can imagine that makes them more healthy, even though with that cup and a half of sugar that’s a stretch.
The recipe does call for a lot of sugar. Maybe that’s what makes them so tasty. 🙂
I think the cookies were fine, your Grandma is showing her sense of humor, I like the cookie recipe and will probably try it soon 🙂
You might be right.
unpared apples? Appeals to my impatience! Maybe Helena said good teeth, not because they were hard, but super sweet!
The small pieces of red apple skin really add to the visual appeal of the cookies.
Those do sound good, hubby loves soft cookies. My mom used to make one similar with fruit cocktail. Hopefully Helena’s cookies softened a bit after baking.
The fruit cocktail cookies sound good.
This entry made me laugh. Your Grandmother had a way of using few words but really putting a lot into what she said. I can just picture the results!! But actually some cookies are tricky to bake.
It’s so easy to not to get them out of the oven at the right time, and to then end up with burned cookies. I’ve the years I’ve determined that I’m not very good at multi-taskiing when baking cookies.
🙂 Grandma evidently had a great sense of humor! The teeth comment left me giggling. Great recipe too.
It was a funny comment. 🙂
Mmmm, sounds good. Maybe that’s what I can do with the apples I picked today instead of making applesauce.
This recipe will only require a couple apples. I think that I diced two apples to get 1 cup.
maybe she overbaked them? or maybe she found the cookies too sweet and that indulgence required good teeth too, lol…
I’m leaning towards your first suggestion–but your’ second suggestion is fun to think about. 🙂
😀
The self-deprecating humor reminds me of my dad. So cute.
Her writing does portray a nice sense of humor .
sounds good – I may have to try these.
They are good.
Rico!!! 🙂
I just found your blog through pinterest (looking for crabapple recipes). I love it! This post really made me laugh. What a great idea! You do a great job of adding to your grandmother’s quick entries.
Thanks for taking a moment to write the kind note. I have a lot of fun researching and writing this blog, and it’s always wonderful to hear when someone enjoys it.
Hi. Nice recipe for fall with all those warm spices! Jane
I do like the fall spices. Cinnamon and nutmeg are two of my favorites.
Hahaha, I love how she worded that.
She did have a fun way with words.