The Missing Ingredient in Grandma Burton’s Cookies
Dear Bay Weekly:
My husband and I were thrilled with Bill Burton’s cookie column in the December 13-19 Bay Weekly [Vol. IX, No. 50]. We both cook and bake, and we are also ginger and molasses addicts. So we decided to try your cookies. I thought it would be great to take some in to my office party, with copies of your recipe and provide a comment sheet to those who tried them.
Unfortunately, we had problems making them, which I am hoping you can solve. The first problem was the instruction to “cream shortening and sugar.” The ingredients did not include sugar.
We checked some of our ginger cookie recipes and made a guess about how much sugar should be in the recipe. I’m afraid our guess was not a good one.
Other recipes we have for rolled dough also seem to have more flour in relation to the other ingredients so perhaps the recipe in the newspaper had the incorrect amount listed. The dough, as we made it, is much too soft to roll even after chilling for more than 24 hours. So, we tried to make drop cookies. They all melted into each other, creating a very thin, sticky-chewy crust. Tasty, but definitely not the wonderful cookie you were raving about.
To sum this up, I’d really like to be able to make the cookie correctly so I’m asking:
- for a copy of the original recipe, with any advice you might have in making them, and
- your permission to pass the recipe along if people request it after trying them.
- In return, I promise:
- to send comments I get from people who try the cookies, including our own, and
- to enjoy them as much, I’m sure, as Bill Burton has.
My sincere thanks.
— Patricia Bare, Annapolis
Editor’s note: Your wishes are granted. See Bill Burton’s column this week.
What’s Christmas without Ribbon Candy?
Dear Bay Weekly:
During a recent visit to your beautiful area I picked up a copy of your newspaper in which a writer had responded to a reader’s inquiry about ribbon candy.
Let me suggest an additional source: Hammond’s Candies in Denver, Colorado, makes the highest quality version of this style candy that I’ve encountered: both beautiful and tasty. They also offer several other styles of Christmas candies, as well as candies for other holidays. The ribbon candy comes in peppermint, clove and cinnamon flavors.
Because all of their candies are made by hand, the quantities are extremely limited, I suggest ordering in October for Christmas needs: 888/226-3999 • www.hammondscandies.com.
I hope this second source is of assistance to your reader.
Sincerely,
— Charles Ballew, Kansas City, Mo.
