1 1/2 each sticks butter or margarine
3/4 cup sugar
1 each egg
1/2 tsp vanilla or almond
1 extract (to taste)
2 cup all purpose flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 milk for brushing on top of
1 sugar for decorating
Directions
Use an electric mixer and beat butter or margarine until soft. Add
3/4 cup sugar and beat until fluffy. Add egg and vanilla or almond
flavoring and beat again. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt together
and add to butter-sugar-egg mixture a little bit at a time. Divide
the dough into 2 parts, wrap in plastic wrap and put in the
refrigerator for 30 minutes to get hard enough to play with like
modeling clay. Then make small balls of dough and roll into ropes.
Shape the ropes into numbers or letters on an ungreased cookie sheet,
leaving a little space between them. Brush with a little milk,
sprinkle on a bit of sugar and bake at 375 degrees F for about 10
minutes. Cool on a rack.
Servings: 8 servings
Alphabet Cookies Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cookie
The History of Recipes
Recipes as an idea can be traced back into antiquity, certainly as far back into recorded history as the ancient Egyptians, and maybe further still. In practice though, mostly, these early records were just very basic pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for preparing food.
In an interesting twist, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to experts are some stone tablets in ancient Sumerian which show the making of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel exhilarated. During the time of the Romans a man called Apicius compiled a collection of documents detailing recipes prepared by the Romans. In his scrolls, Apicius tells us how the meals of wealthy Romans were split into hors d`oeuvres, main meal and dessert, known in latin as `Gustatio, Primae Mensae and Secundae Mensae`. Aspicius recounts how the cooks of Roman times used a good variety of herbs, including a few that are still present in modern kitchens like thyme, rue and dill. Later on, in the 15th century, the Crusaders brought back a variety of spices and herbs from middle-east cuisine, including rosemary and coriander. The introduction of these new tastes caused an eruption in recipe manuscripts, the majority of which still exist in academic collections. Over the next few hundred years, the powerful families of Europe competed to lay on the most exotic banquets, and because of this the best cooks and their recipe collections became highly prized. Notwithstanding that, it wasn`t until the 19th century that fine cookery and cookery books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Isabella Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Farmer in the US, dedicated their lives to collecting, verifying, and recording recipes to allow everyone to enjoy them. When we get to the 20th century, cooking books were highly popular mostly due to higher levels of literacy, people having more spare time and disposable income. |
We hope you enjoy this Alphabet Cookies recipe.
