Family Recipe Friday - Oh Cookie Recipe, How I've Been Looking for You!

And for quite some time too!  Years ago when I was a teenager (and I'm not saying how long ago that was) my sisters and I used to make these cookies.  They had two of the things we loved most in them...chocolate and peanut butter.  They came from a small, free recipe book that Hershey put out in 1979.

The dough was always tough to make though.  There aren't a lot of liquid ingredients and if we used our hand-held mixer for this recipe it would smell like it was burning.  I'm not sure whether that was the fault of an old mixer or the cookie dough, but after smelling it we immediately stopped using the mixer!  It was hand stirring only for us and one time we actually broke a wooden spoon while mixing the batter!

My father had this recipe book in his kitchen and many years ago I asked for it.  I wanted to find the recipe that made those yummy cookies and make them for my kids. He gave it to me and I eagerly looked through the pages in search of it.

I'm a visual person.  I can remember where something was on a page, although I might not remember everything it said.  I remembered that the recipe was on a left page of the cookbook, but search as I might, I couldn't find it.  I couldn't remember it's name and nothing seemed familiar.  Then the other day as I was cleaning my kitchen I picked up the book again and turned right to it.  It must have been staring me in the face and laughing at me, it just didn't register.

My oldest son made the cookies while I made salsa on Super Bowl Sunday.  Since the Packers weren't playing there wasn't a big party like last year, but salsa and cookies (not together...ick) were required for the game.

Every oven is different so take the baking time with a grain of salt.  You want the cookies to start to turn golden on the bottoms so that they don't stay soft after they cool.  Yeah...that's pretty hard to do with a chocolate cookie, but after making the whole batch (and eating many of the warm, yummy cookies) I realized that they were undercooked when they cooled.  They should be crunchy, not soft.

Also, the recipe says to drop by teaspoonfuls...use your best judgement there.  Yes, that's the only way you'll probably get 5 dozen cookies, but they will be too small for my liking!  I hope you enjoy my little piece of nostalgia!

Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies

1 c. butter
1-1/2 c sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 c flour
2/3 c. cocoa
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 (12 oz) pkg Peanut Butter chips

Cream butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla in large mixing bowl.  Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt; blend in.  Stir in peanut butter chips.  Drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 8 to 10 minutes.  Cool 1 minute before removing to wire rack. About 5 dozen cookies.

Advent Calendar of Christmas Memories - Cookies!!!!

I know this post is later in the day than I had originally wanted, but sadly my Internet provider stopped providing last night so blogging was halted and to bed I went.  When I finally got on today I was able to do a quick Wedding Wednesday blog before heading over to a Webinar, picking up the kids, making dinner, etc.

There is NO WAY I could have let this blog go!  So Christmas cookies...oh there were so many on the table when I was a kid.  My mom would make sugar cookies and of course we kids would decorate them with way too much sugar.  Kind of like my kids do now!  It's not Christmas if you don't go into sugar shock from eating one cookie.

There were also Chocolate Chip Cookies (Tollhouse, of course!), Cocoa Refrigerator Cookies (they had walnuts in them and it was the ONLY time you'd catch me eating something with nuts!), and Chocolate Cookies with Peanut Butter Chips (I wish I could find this recipe now!  It was in a Hershey's mini cookie book, which I was given by my father, but the recipe does not jump out at me.  We add the chips ourselves so it's not quite as easy as finding one with PB chips!), and my mom would make Spritz Cookies with her cookie press.

I'm sure there were more that I'm forgetting.  I get like that sometimes.  I remember my favorites, and that's OK.  I think the best part was not one specific cookie, but the sheer number of cookies to eat.  My sisters and I would sneak cookies when my dad was in the kitchen having a cigarette or a cup of coffee.  Even if he put the tin "up high" on the mantel.  We'd get at them.  And eventually he'd notice...when he'd open the tin for a cookie and see that nothing (or very little) was left.  We'd get a mild scolding and then more would be made to replace them.

What cookies did I like to sneak most of all?  The cocoa cookies with nuts, if you could believe it!  I don't really know what it was about them.  They weren't rich or anything really special, but that mixture of cocoa and walnuts was so yummy to me (still is).  They aren't even made with butter or margarine, but shortening...so there's even less flavor to them! :)

I still make those cookies every Christmas.  I'm the only one that really eats them.  My boys won't touch them.  My hubby does have one or two with a cuppa in the morning, but he doesn't like things that are "too chocolaty".  So I have them all to myself pretty much.  I don't mind that at all.

I still like making my mom's sugar cookies, but haven't for the past two years because I just haven't had time (so if you're reading this, mom, and are making those cookies, you can send them to Green Bay for Christmas! :))  I make cranberry shortbread cookies, pecan lady fingers (got this tradition from my mother-in-law), and these yummy cookies with cream cheese that came with my cookie press.  It looks like my cookie tradition is a nice mix of mine and my husband's.  I like that.

The recipe I'll share with this blog is my favorite Cocoa Refrigerator Cookies (don't worry, I'll get around to the others on a Supper Sunday or a Family Recipe Friday!

Cocoa Refrigerator Cookies

1/2 c. cocoa
3 c. flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. shortening
2 tsp vanilla
1 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 tbsp milk
1/2 c. walnuts, chopped (optional)

Sift together and set aside the flour, baking powder, salt and cocoa.  Cream until well blended the shortening and vanilla.  Add gradually, creaming until fluffy, the sugar.  Add the eggs and beat.  Add the dry ingredients in halves, mixing thoroughly after each addition.  Stir in the nuts.

Divide the dough in half.  Place each half on a sheet of waxed paper and form into a log about 2-inches wide and roll in the waxed paper.  Refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (F).  Slice the logs into cookies about 1/8-inch thick and place on parchment-lined cookie sheets.  Bake for 5 to 9 minutes (depending on how done you like your cookies...I like them crispy).  Cool for 2 minutes on the cookie sheet before moving them to a cookie rack to cool completely.

I'm a bit behind on my cookie making, but will have to grab a picture of them when they get baked!  I'm certainly having a craving now!