It may seem logical that this first recipe would be kuchen based on the little memory about Gladys Wittmeyer on Jan. 8 … however kuchen is for Easter and we will wait until then to share that recipe.
Somehow I found no time to bake before Christmas so I with a day off for New Years I made cookies and a chocolate cake. The cake of course, was for JC’s birthday. The cookies were just because I had stuff in the freezer I wanted to use up. Our family’s motto of course, never waste anything.
This cookie recipe is one of my mother’s. We never had Toll House cookies growing up – she always used this recipe. (Oh, on a side note, the recipes will be posted under the recipe tab. This area is reserved for the memories.)
Not soft and frumpy like most Toll House cookies, this recipe is sweet and crisp and the cookies hold their shape. They are beautiful. I am going to safely gather that you can measure a teaspoon of baking soda or a cup of flour, crack an egg, beat some sugar and butter together with out a million photos to scroll through. And, in the event something is not clear in any of my recipes, please feel free to email me or make a comment below the post.
CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES – My first attempt
We were always looking for food. Our natural curiosity about where it came from led us to the kitchen, the garden and other people’s property as we foraged for naturally occurring northern plains fruit trees like chokecherry, apple or plum. Let’s save any talk of rhubarb for the spring.
I’m thinking it was cold out so it must have been wintertime in Fredonia. The house was sweaty with laundry on Mondays reserved for baking bread. It may not be totally accurate – my memory that Mom was gone and so I decided to bake some cookies.
Finding the chocolate chip-hiding place might have been the impetus for attempting to bake cookies. Maybe I want to surprise her. At any rate, as young as I was, I managed to find all the ingredients to bake her cookies.
They turned out lovely and looked exactly like they should. Brown and round, cracked and full of sweetness. Success.
We did not eat those cookies and it’s a large batch recipe. Mom made the mistake of telling us that it was not “flour” but “pancake mix” stirred into the shortening and sugar. Opps.
The taste was fine, the texture was fine, it was just knowing that there was pancake flour in there that turned us off. In the end she shared them with some other visitors to our home. They snarfed them up without a second thought to the flour error.
And, just so you know … the only difference in pancake flour and regular flour is the addition of other ingredients.
“Some commercial pancake mixes contain powdered eggs and powdered milk, while others only contain flour and rising agents and require the consumer to add wet ingredients.” Read more : http://www.ehow.com/facts_5805153_difference-purpose-flour-pancake-mix.html
You can make your own pancake mix with this recipe found behind the link in the paragraph above or use the copy and paste version here.
“Instead of purchasing pancake mix, try making some at home. Just add together 4 cups of flour, 1/3 cup of shortening, 1/3 cup of powdered milk, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of baking powder and a pinch of salt. Mix these together well and mash the lumps of shortening with a fork until the mixture looks like cornmeal. When you’re ready to cook, mix in one egg and enough water to suit your taste.”
Remember children, there are worse ingredients you can inadvertently put in your cookie recipe. You can find that recipe with some variations under the recipe tab. Bake baby bake.
INDYchildrendotme 
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