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
Academics have found proof that recipes existed back into antiquity, certainly as far into history as pharonic Egypt, and possibly even further than that. In practice though, in the main part, these early cookbooks were just primitive hieroglyphic or cunieform recipes for food preparation.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to academics are a few 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 drank it feel `wonderful`. Later on, in Roman times 25BC a man called Apicius assembled some documents describing recipes cooked by wealthy roman citizens. He describes how the meals of wealthy Romans were split into hors d`oeuvre, main meal and desserts, something that is very familiar to us today. Additionally, he informs us how the ancient cooks were skilled in the use of many spices and herbs, including some familiar names such as basil, mint and asafoetida. Closer to modern times, there are a couple of interesting recipe books which were published in the 14th Century ; a cookery book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another entitled `Curye on Inglish`. The titles are a little misleading though, these are unconnected to the indian curry that appears on menues today, but instead descriptions of the types of meals prepared by the cooks of the rich and powerful of those days. In the fifteenth century, the Crusaders brought back many foods and herbs from Arab cuisine, such as rosemary and coriander. The introduction of these new tastes prompted an eruption in recipe books, some of which are kept safe in academic collections. By the arrival of the 1900s, recipe publications were in high demand, mostly as a result of higher levels of literacy, people having more spare time and having more disposable income. |
We hope you enjoy this 1988 1st Place_ Fay Kuhn's Thumbprints recipe.
