Welcome back to another Reader Request post, where you can send me your recipe questions and requests in the comments, through email or on our Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, and I will answer them to the best of my ability.
Or, at least, to the best of my vintage cookbook collection’s ability.
This week we have a recipe request from Rachel, who writes:
Hi Ruth!
Excited to see you’re doing reader requests! My grandma used to make delicious cookies called Spry cookies. I am assuming it was a recipe that was either printed on the package or in a leaflet put out by the Spry shortening company given the name. They were large sugar cookies, the sort where you roll the dough into balls and flatten it with the bottom of a glass, and they had a wonderful crisp-crumbly melt in your mouth texture. I also remember them being more light brown/beige rather than the usual very pale color of sugar cookies. I’m not sure if that was because she baked them longer or if they contained some brown sugar. She used to make them and stack them up in a tall cylindrical cookie jar and they were there waiting for us every time we went to her house. If you could find that recipe I would love to make them again.
Thanks!
Rachel
Hi, Rachel! Glad you are enjoying the reader requests! I wasn’t able to find any cookie recipe resembling the one you asked for on my vintage Spry packaging, but the book “Aunt Jenny’s Favorite Recipes” from the 1940’s yielded these recipes:
Let us know if any of these are the right one. And good luck!
We recently posted a Vintage Cocktail Friday that used a recipe from Corby’s Party Book, and in the comments Susan asked about the games listed on the back cover of the book.
The games actually looked pretty fun. Here are the pages for all six games. Enjoy them at your next cocktail party, and feel free to let us know how it went!
If you have any questions or if you are looking for a certain recipe, please feel free to leave a comment, send me an email at ruth@midcenturymenu.com or contact me through our Facebook page, Twitter or Instagram and I will see what I can do for you!
If your recipe isn’t the one, u wonder if this could be it. They are crisp and almost melt in your mouth. From my Great Aunt who made the since at least the 1960’s, maybe longer.
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup powdered sugar
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
Blend oil and shortening together. Add sugar, egg and vanilla. Beat until creamy. Sift flour with other dry ingredients, add to creamed mixture. Chill. Form into 1-inch balls. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten with greased glass dipped in granulated sugar. Bake at 350 degrees 10-12 minutes.
This might be the recipe your reader is looking for. They are delicious.
http://www.southernplate.com/2016/01/stifflemires-melt-in-your-mouth-sugar-cookies.html
I have a 1940s Spry cookbook/pamphlet that has a recipe called “Aunt Jane’s Sugar Cookies”. Not sure if it’s the one your reader is looking for.
It calls for:
1 cup Spry
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp. soda
2 cups sugar
1 egg, well beaten
5 cups sifted flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1 cup milk
Combine Spry, salt, vanilla, soda. Add sugar gradually and cream well. Add beaten egg and mix thoroughly. Sift flour with baking powder. Add to creamed mixture, alternately with milk, mixing well. Drop from tip of teaspoon on baking sheets greased with Spry pan-coat. Let stand a few minutes, then flatten cookies by stamping with a glass covered with a damp cloth. Bake in moderately hot oven (375ºF) 12-15 minutes. Makes 8 dozen cookies.
Interesting that in the illustrations, only men are at this party! Mixed parties always seem more fun…makes one wonder about what team Corby plays on….not judging…just sayin’
Oh, the” Aunt Jenny’s Favorite Recipes” booklet! I found one in an antique store last year for a couple bucks–what a hoot to read!
The party games! The illustrations! So much fun.
I have a cookbook called “the new spry issue” spry got rites to print good Houskeeping recipes using spry shortening. It has been falling apart badly.i think it was from early 1930s do u have any info on it