Cup Cookies
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You’ll find this recipe in:
“Aunt Babette’s” Cook Book
By “Aunt Babette” (Bertha F. Kramer)
1889, Cincinnati & Chicago
Historic Recipe:
CUP COOKIES.
Rub to a cream three-quarters of a cup of butter and one cup of sugar; add four eggs, one at a time, and the grated peel of a lemon. Then dissolve a lump of ammonia, about the size of a bean, in a quarter of a pound of lukewarm milk; add this and just enough sifted flour to enable you to roll out on the baking-board. Roll quite thin. Beat up an egg and brush over the cookies, sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and pounded almonds. These are very nice. Be careful not to add too much flour. Omit the almonds if you are not fond of them.
My Recipe:
The cookies:
¾ cup softened butter – 170 g
1 cup sugar – 225 g
4 eggs
grated peel of a lemon
1 tsp baker’s ammonia (ammonium bicarbonate)
½ cup lukewarm milk – 120 mL
3 ½ cups flour - 700 g
The toppings:
1 egg, beaten
¼ cup sugar – 55 g
1 tsp cinnamon
20 ground almonds - ¼ cup or 30 g when chopped
1. Cream together the butter and sugar and grate the zest of one lemon. Mix in the 4 eggs, one at a time, and the lemon zest. Warm the milk, then add the baker’s ammonia to the lukewarm milk. Add to the mixing bowl, then stir in the flour.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grind the almonds in a mortar and pestle, or use a nut grinder or blender to chop the nuts. Mix the almonds in a bowl with the ¼ cup sugar and cinnamon. Beat one egg in a separate small bowl.
3. Roll the dough out thinly on a well-floured board. The dough will “bounce back” so roll it thinner than you desire. Cut out the cookies and lay out on baking sheets. Brush the top of each cookie with egg, then sprinkle with the almond, sugar & cinnamon topping.
4. Bake for about 15 minutes. Ammonium bicarbonate or baker’s ammonia will make the oven smell horrible like ammonia while the baking process is incomplete. I’m not exaggerating, your oven will smell like cat urine! But once you open the oven around the 15 minute mark and you smell the sweet aroma of cookies baking, that’s how you’ll know that your cookies are finished.
This recipe made 84 round cookies, 6 cm (2 1/4”) in diameter. The flavour is quite mild, so if you’re looking for a tastier cookie, try using 2 grated lemons and 2 tsp cinnamon.
Cup Cookies are a mild lemon sugar cookie with an almond, sugar & cinnamon topping sprinkled on top. This recipe is from Aunt Babette’s Cook Book from 1889, and its leavening agent is Ammonium Bicarbonate or Baker’s Ammonia.
I’ve chosen this recipe because for the last 2 years, my Ammonia Cakes recipe has been my most popular blog post by far. That shows me that there’s an appetite for information about and recipes using Baker’s Ammonia, but I’m torn, because Ammonia Cakes is not a delicious recipe at all! I had to make a second recipe, Icing for Cake to save the Ammonia Cakes so they were edible and they didn’t end up in the compost.
Cup Cookies are a much more delicious ammonium bicarbonate cookie. Stick with this recipe for the deliciousness, but head over to Ammonia Cakes for a bit of history about Baker’s Ammonia.
Baking with Ammonium Carbonate is really not the comforting, scrumptious and aromatic experience that we’re used with most baking. Your baking will actually smell horrible and repulsive most of the time when they’re in the oven! It’s not until your cookies are fully baked that you’ll smell the delicious aromas of homemade cookies. To find out why, head over to my blog post about Ammonia Cakes.
