Lemon Snaps

My coworkers have been asking for chocolate so I made lemon. Ha ha! Yes, I am like that. This is from the Christmas cookie pamphlet.

Luckily I had a lemon I needed to use.

 So excited for lemons!

This was a very thin, liquidy dough. It has to be refriderated and rolled out in small batches. Very small batches.

I had a set of adorable little cookie cutters, acorns, leaves, pumpkins, and apples.

This was only one-third of the batch.

This appears to be a quick easy cookie recipe but it is not! The dough was very difficult to work with. I only cut about two-thirds of the dough before it got too annoying to do. Part of it was my fault since I was working with small cookie cutters but once the dough started to warm up the tiniest bit it became unworkable. They had a light texture and lemon flavor. They were not bad but I was hoping for something more.

My Rating: Not worth the effort.

Friends and Family Rating: "Delicious. Nice and light." "Can I steal the bag?"

Caramel Cinnamon Muffins

I am not a fan of pumpkin pie so the entire grocery aisle for pumpkin flavored everything annoys me. There are so many other wonderful fall flavors! As I wrote before, concord grapes signal the start of fall for me but there is also cinnamon apple, cranberries, maple syrup, and pecans! This recipe sounded great for a cool autumn day. It is from a 1952 pamphlet by the Culinary Arts Institute, 250 Breads, Biscuits, and Rolls.

This pamphlet is filled with helpful hints and how-to's complete with pictures!

Looks super easy with no fancy ingredients.

I used butter flavored shortening because that is what I had.

 I am so excited! Brown sugar and butter!!

 The batter seemed a little dry while mixing. I hope it is supposed to.

 They turned out beautiful!

 The bottoms were covered in delicious crunchy caramel!

These were very interesting for as simple as the ingredients were. I found the muffin tops a bit bland but when you get a bite of the caramel with it, amazing! The cinnamon flavor was very light. I would probably add more next time. I think these may be even better as mini-muffins so you can get the cinnamon and the caramel all in one bite.

My Rating: Not too bad. I want to try it again with tweaks.

Friends and Family Rating: "So Good!" "I love the cinnamon!"

Concord Grape Pie

Although this is not technically from a vintage cookbook it is an old recipe, 1930's. It is from Better Homes and Gardens All-time Favorites published in 1999 but this a collection of old recipes so I think that counts. However, I am cheating...this is one of my all time favorite pies. I make it every year. Concord grapes are only available in early fall so you have to grab them when you can. They are small with seeds and tons of flavor! If the first thing that comes to mind when someone says 'grapes' is Welches grape juice or grape jelly then you will love this!

This pie requires more time and effort but it is so worth it!

It can be a bit difficult to find concord grapes. I couldn't find them in my local grocery store and had to go to the fancy one down the road. There is also a type of grape called Thomcord that is a hybrid of concord and Thomas grapes. They are a bit bigger and seedless but they do not have the same strong flavor. Suck it up and spend a little more time in the kitchen. It is worth it.

First you have to seperate the grape guts from the skins. Concords are slip skin grapes so it is very easy just time consuming.

 Ta Da! Save the skins for later. They add the beautiful bright purple color while baking.

After boiling the grape guts for a while you then get to seperate all the seeds out. Fun! Take your time. Eventually all you will have left in the strainer will be seeds.

 Adding the skins doesn't make it look much better...yet!

 Yeah! The pie is starting to get some color.

 The crumble topping will be dry. Don't worry.

 See! A beautiful purple pie! And your kitchen smells heavenly. You're welcome.

A nice small slice for picture purposes.

 So yummy!!!!!

I made this recipe on a whim years ago because although I had heard of concord grapes I had never heard of them actually being used in a recipe. Now I make it every year. Concord grape season is very limited so it also signals the start of Autumn for me.

My Rating: All time favorite! Making every year!!

Friends and Family Rating: "Delicious!" "Needs peanut butter on top."

Butter Balls

Sometimes I like making fancy foods, going on the hunt for unusual (and sometimes expensive) ingredients but other times I just want to look in my cabinets and throw together what ever I have. I found this recipe from the 1940's Christmas Cookies pamphlet and it was too easy to pass up.

 All the ingredients are stuff most people have on hand. It didn't call fro as much butter and one would expect from the name. But Super Easy! And easy to mix.

The dough came together thick enough to make rolling it into little balls easy. No chilling required. The inside of the cookies are filled with brown sugar and the outside covered with white sugar. Not a good cookie for anyone watching their sugar intake!

 Old recipes do not come with nice little notes like how far to space them or if they will spread so I look a chance. It didn't feel like these would spread much but if they then I would have a few large cookies instead.

Woo Hoo! Very little spread! Smells sooooooo good....

 These turned out so cute and perfect munching size!

I try my hardest to let my cookies cool before eating. It doesn't always work. These were amazing straight out of the oven! A nice, crispy outside surrounding a warm, soft center. After they cooled they were hard crunchy although not in a bad way. The texture reminded me of hard ginger cookies. Even though 'butter' is in the name they tasted more like a sugar cookie. Very good! These are the kind of cookies you bake and throw in a cookie jar just before the kids come bursting home.

My Rating: Keeper! Simple and delicious

Friends and Family Rating: "Your best yet!" "Yummy" "Can I have a copy of this recipe?"