My holiday cookie baking has begun. Today I made a hundred-year-old recipe for Trilbies. They are a lovely date-filled cookie that brings back warm memories of day gone by.
Here’s the original recipe:
A hundred years ago recipes sometimes called for sour milk. Back then much milk was not pasteurized and it soured after a few days. This sour milk was sometimes used in recipes. Today milk can be soured by adding a little vinegar to it.
Here’s the recipe updated for modern cooks:
Cookies 1/2 cup sour milk (Make milk sour by adding 1 1/2 teaspoons of vinegar to the milk) 1 cup butter, softened 1 cup brown sugar 2 cups flour 2 cups rolled oats (old-fashioned oatmeal) 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 teaspoons baking powder 1 teaspoon vanilla Preheat oven to 400° F. Put the milk in a cup or small bowl. Stir in the vinegar to sour the milk. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and brown sugar. Stir in the sour milk, baking soda, baking powder, and vanilla. Then add the flour and rolled oats; stir until combined. On well-floured surface, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness. Cut into circles using a cookie cutter or small glass. (The cookie cutter I used was 2 inches in diameter.) Place half the circles on greased baking sheets. Place a heaping teaspoon of date filling (see recipe below) on each circle and spread to the edges of the cookies; put a second cookie on top of each date-filling topped cookie. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Date-Filling 1 pound chopped dates 3/4 cup sugar 1 cup water Put the chopped dates, sugar, and water into a saucepan and stir to mix; put on medium heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and boil gently until the dates are soft and the filling a nice consistency for the cookie filling (5-10 minutes). Cool slightly before using as a filling. http://www.ahundredyearsago.comTrilbies (Data-Filled Cookies)
A Hundred Years Ago 
those will fun to make today, in full expectation of the remembered outcome.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed that you got the remembered outcomes.
Oh yes!!!
I remember those.
It’s nice to hear that this post brought back some food memories.
Love these! I will definitely make them.
I hope that you enjoy them.
These sound good and worth a go.
If you like dates, I think that you’d enjoy this recipe.
🙂
My mother always made date-filled cookies for Christmas, but I don’t think the dough contained oats. And she want around the edges with a fork to seal so the filling didn’t escape. I loved them!
I also was surprised that the recipe called for oats. The oats in the dough made it a little more difficult to cut out the circles for the cookies – but I just pressed firmly. The oats did add a nice flavor and texture to the cookies.
Prior to making these cookies, I asked friends and family whether they thought I should seal the edges – since the recipe didn’t say to do it. And, I wondered if I sealed the edges if I would need to cut a slit in the top cookie to let the steam escape. In the end, I decided to just follow the recipe and not seal the edges – though that may not be what the recipe author implicitly intended.
Yes, I remember now that Mom did cut slits in the cookie tops!
Good to know. If I make them again, I might try sealing the edges and cutting a slit in the top – though they turned out fine without sealing the edges.
Oh date filled cookies…😋😋 and raisin filled ones..😋😋
mmm. . . both are good. I even did post with a recipe for raisin-filled cookies several years ago. https://ahundredyearsago.com/2014/01/14/old-fashioned-raisin-filled-cookies-recipe/
These sound good and I may have all the ingredients. I may try these as I have not yet been inspired to start my Christmas cookie baking yet!
This is a nice old-fashioned cookie recipe. If you like dates, I think that you’d like this recipe.
Your recipe made me remember a favorite Christmas treat of a date filled with an almond rolled in coconut. Wonder where I learned that one.
mmm. . . the treat you describe sounds divine.
I remember making it as a small girl, so perhaps I learned it in Camp Fire Girls.
My grandma always made these, only she used raisins and didn’t call them trilbies. I did love them though. Thanks for the good remembering. I think I’ll try them….
This recipe would work well with raisins. My family also always made raisin-filled cookies.- though it was somewhat different from this recipe. Years ago when I was posting my grandmother’s diary, I shared that recipe: https://ahundredyearsago.com/2014/01/14/old-fashioned-raisin-filled-cookies-recipe/