1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 each egg, separated
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 cup finely chopped nuts
1/4 cup raspberry jam
Directions
Preparation time: 20 minutes Chilling time: 1 hour Baking time: 15
to 18 minutes
1. Beat together butter and sugar in a mixer bowl. Add vanilla and
egg yolk. Mix well.
2. Mix flour and salt, add to butter mixture and mix well. Cover;
refrigerate at least 1 hour.
3. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Beat egg
white lightly in a small bowl. Put nuts in another small bowl. Dip
each ball into egg white, then roll in nuts. Put balls 1 inch apart
on ungreased cookie sheet. Press thumb in the center of each to make
an indentation.
4. Bake until light golden, 15 to 18 minutes. Cool on wire racks.
Fill indentation with a small amount of raspberry jam.
Faye Kuhn, of Earlville, Illinois, recalled growing up in the tough
times of the '40s: "Despite the lack of finances, no holiday was ever
ignored in our household. Christmas, however, held the highest of
honors. . . We all boarded the train and off to the city we would go.
We would arrive home loaded with 'Evening in Paris' cologne, mittens,
socks, handkerchiefs and coloring books bought at Kresge's and
Woolworth's. Mom would then visit the local A & P for turkey,
cranberries, sweet potatoes, fresh ground coffee, nuts, apple-recipes.htm">apples,
oranges and one pound of butter to baste ol' Tom with. However, there
was one thing my mother didn't do in those days and that was to bake
Christmas cookies, for neither time nor money allowed such a luxury."
But when her mother retired, she started baking Christmas cookies,
Kuhn recalls. The family wanted her to make the thumbprints, yet no
one knew the name or the recipe. "Mother put on her coat, crossed our
back yard and knocked on our neighbor's door. She returned somewhat
later, victorious, with recipe card in hand." from the Chicago
Tribune annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 8, 1988
Servings: 24 servings
1988 1st Place: Fay Kuhn's Thumbprints Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Fruit; Nut
The History of Recipes
It is quite possible to trace the history of recipes back into distant history, certainly as far back into recorded history as early Egypt, and maybe further still. Interesting though that maybe, generally, these old recipes were just simple pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for preparing food.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered, according to academics are a few clay tablets in ancient Sumerian which recount the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who tried it feel `blissful`. During Roman times 25BC a Roman scholar, called Apicius, assembled some scrolls detailing recipes prepared by his fellow Romans. In his publication, he describes how the meals were separated into hors d`oeuvres, main course and dessert, something we still use today. This early Roman chef informs us how the chefs of Roman times were skilled in the use of a wide range of aromatic flavours, including some that we all recognise such as basil, fennel and asafoetida. In the fifteenth century, knights returning from the crusades brought us a variety of foods and herbs from the holy land, including coriander, parsley, and rosemary. These new spices and herbs created an increase in recipe publications, most of which still exist in private cookery archives. During the succeeding few centuries, the wealthy families of Europe competed to serve the most extravagent meals, and consequentially the best cooks and their recipes were at a premium. Even so, it wasn`t until the nineteenth century that haute cuisine and recipe books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, spent years to assembling, trying out, and writing down recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. Like it or not, the introduction of television brought us TV cooks and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing everybody to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on sites such as the one you are reading now. |
We hope you enjoy this 1988 1st Place_ Fay Kuhn's Thumbprints recipe.
