Hundred-Year-Old Advice on How to Easily Make Drop Cookies

Chocolate chip cookie dough on spoon

As the holiday baking season approaches, I’m always on the outlook for tips that will make it easier. So I was pleased to find advice for how to more easily make drop cookies.

To Drop the Cookies Easily

When making cookies or drop cakes, try using a teaspoon. Dip it in hot or cold water each time before putting in the mixture, and the dough will slides from the spoon without the aid of a knife or other spoon to push it. 

W.M., Me.

Source: Good Housekeeping (November, 1919)

To be totally frank, I wonder whether this tip actually solves a major problem. Many cooks use cookie scoops to quickly drop nearly uniform balls of dough on a baking sheet when a lever is pressed. I still use a spoon, and I often push the dough from a spoon using another spoon. But, it goes very quickly, and I never really considered pushing the dough off the spoon to be a problem. It almost seems more time consuming to dip the spoon in water between the dropping of each cookie – but maybe others will find this tip very helpful.

Old-fashioned English Pudding with Hard Sauce

steamed pudding on plate

Steamed puddings are a traditional holiday food which once were slow-cooked on a wood or coal stove that was used for both heating and cooking. They are less popular now that our stoves aren’t constantly operating; but there are some wonderful hundred-year-old steamed pudding recipes that worth the time. For example, English Pudding is a tasty dessert favored with cloves and other cozy spices. It is delightful  when served warm with Hard Sauce.

Here are the original recipes:

Recipe for English Pudding
Source: Recipes for Everyday by Janet McKenzie Hill (1919)
recipe for hard sauce
The Old Reliable Farm and Home Cook Book (1919)

I anticipated that the Hard Sauce would be extremely thick, but smooth; however, when I followed the recipe the Hard Sauce it was so dry that it clumped somewhat. It was tasty – but just did not look quite right. I think that additional butter or water may be needed. This is the second time that I’ve made Hard Sauce using hundred year old recipes – and it did not turn out quite as I expected either time. Maybe Hard Sauce had a different consistency a hundred years ago than what it does now. 

Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:

English Pudding with Hard Sauce

  • Servings: 7 - 9
  • Difficulty: moderate
  • Print

English Pudding
1/4 cup shortening

1/2 cup molasses

1/2 cup milk

2 cups flour

1/2 baking soda

1/4 ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon mace

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup raisins

Put shortening, molasses, milk, flour, baking soda, ground cloves, mace, and salt in a mixing bowl; beat until smooth. Stir in raisins.  

Put the mixture in a greased steamed pudding mold*, and steam for 3 hours. Remove from mold and serve warm with Hard Sauce. (This pudding is also excellent cold without the Hard Sauce.)

*Notes: I used a 2-liter mold, but had some extra space at the top and a smaller mold could be used. BBC Good Food has an excellent video that succinctly describes how to steam a pudding (or follow the directions that come with the mold).

Hard Sauce

1 cup sugar

1/4 butter

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

3/4 teaspoon vanilla

Cream the butter, then slowly add the sugar while stirring constantly. While continuing to stir, add the lemon extract and vanilla.

Note: To make a smoother hard sauce, additional butter or water may need to be added.