Christmas time is coming
The Holiday Season has its own special smells. Just thinking about them brings back memories from childhood. Mom would get out the recipes handed down from generations past and we would start cooking. You couldn’t just run by the local big box store and buy goodies like today. In my opinion, baking is becoming a lost art. This hustle of cramming as much in a day as you can has destroyed the closeness of family getting together in the kitchen. Some of my fondest memories are of Mom and Grandma teaching us how to bake.
We baked bread and desserts all year long but during November and December, we baked special things that we only got once a year. Certain receipts became family traditions like my Great-Grandmothers sour cream cut-out cookies. Or Grandpa’s fruit cake that had been soaking in bourbon, he would tease my mom to just give him the cloth the cake was wrapped in and he would be satisfied. He was not a drinker but he sure liked that cake at Christmas time. We also made gingerbread cookies from sorghum we grew and took to a neighbor who processed it into molasses for us. Mom made mincemeat pie and a big Yule log cake.
I try to replicate those tastes today but they just don’t turn out as well as they did on the farm. Back then we grew nearly all the ingredients ourselves. Nothing can taste as good as everything fresh from the farm. Even though it was a lot of work, it was very satisfying knowing you did it yourself. And those old receipts were treasures to be relished. I still have some of them and I like to get them out and look that the handwriting and the stains on the cards and remember those happy times. I like to bake things with my great-grandchildren when we can get together. To try and pass on what I learned about the love of family and being together.
Progress is wonderful but it has destroyed the multigenerational family unit, all living and working together. I am glad I have those memories to sustain me now that I am a great-grandmother. But I sure miss the smells of baking goodies for the family, mom’s kitchen when it was cold outside but warm by the cookstove, and we knew Christmas was coming. Here is a couple of those recipes that have become holiday traditions in my family.
****************************************************************************************
Sour Cream Cut Out Cookies
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
½ cup sour cream
3 ½ cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 pinch salt
Cream together butter and sugar, add egg, sour cream, and stir until well mixed. Mix baking soda, salt, and flour together in a separate bowl then add to the butter mixture a little at a time until dough becomes difficult to stir. Turn mixture onto a floured surface and knead until no longer sticky.
Chill for at least 2 hours or overnight.
Divide dough in half and roll out on the floured surface to ¼ inch thickness, cut in desired shapes, place 1 inch apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees F.
Cookies should be lightly brown at the edges. Remove cookies to wire rakes to cool. Ice with your favorite icing.
****************************************************************************************
Gingerbread men
¾ cup brown sugar
2/3 cup molasses
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
3 ½ cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1Tlb ground ginger
1 Tlb cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
All ingredients should be at room temperature. Beat butter for 1 minute add sugar and molasses. Beat until creamy, add egg and vanilla. Beat 2 minutes on high speed.
Divide dough in half wrap in plastic and chill for at least2 hours. Roll out on the floured surface. Cut in desired shapes, bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 9 to 11 minutes at 350 degrees.
Leave a Reply