Tastes Like Vintage: Mimi’s Sugar Cookies 1

Mimi as a little girl (right)

Christmas is a time of sharing, of opening our hearts and our homes to friends, loved ones and those in need. That spirit and a 150-year-old sugar recipe has been woven throughout the holidays for three generations of my family and five generations of the family that shared it with us. The recipe is deceptively simple and makes incredibly delicious sugar cookies perfect for sharing (if you can keep your family from eating them all.) The best part, however, is the process….the making of the cookies.

For our family this special time of bonding began in the early 1960s. My mother, newly married and away from her own family for Christmas for the first time, was terribly lonely. The neighbor from across the street invited her over to make cookies from a recipe her grandmother had brought with her when she came to America from France in the early 1800s. Three hours and dozens of cookies later, my mother had a dear new friend, a copy of the recipe and the desire to someday share it with her own kids.

Today, making cookies with grandma is an integral part of Christmas for our children, much the same way it was when we were young.They are given away liberally, and always with the recipe, since we know people will ask. As a genealogy junkie, I also decided to follow the recipe back to its roots, one Marguerite Eugenie Hamel, the Mimi in Mimi’s Sugar Cookies. Never published, the original recipe is written in her mother’s handwriting in French from the early 1800s. May you enjoy them and create a legacy of your own.

Mimi’s Sugar Cookies (as shared by Rita Loken)

1 cup butter

Mimi as an adult

1 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cream of tartar

Cream the butter and shortening. Add sugars, eggs and vanilla, mixing thoroughly. In another bowl, mix the dry ingredients and begin to add them slowly to the sugar mix. (This is much easier with a stand or hand mixer!) When dough is mixed, cover the bowl with a towel and put it somewhere cool to rest (refrigerator for us modern gals!)

Turn the oven on to 350 degrees.

To form the cookies, dough was traditionally rolled into small balls and then flattened with a glass (usually with a fancy design on the bottom) dipped in sugar. For our Christmas cookies we use a vintage Mirro cookie press to create poinsettias, stars, Christmas trees. The grandkids then add green and red sugar crystals to the top and the cookie sheets go into the oven for 8 to 10 minutes. Move cookies onto a cooling rack as soon as they can be moved to prevent overbaking. Cookies will be light and crispy with a melt-in-your mouth texture and a little tang from the cream of tartar. Perfect with coffee or milk.