Little Fatty’s Soft Valentines Cookies

Little Fatty’s Soft Valentines Cookies. Valentine’s Day so I’m making Hearts and Kisses.
This is recipe came from Boston Cook Book 1896
I’m following the original recipe using a wood fired stove/oven and vintage small wares to create the recipe just like they did back then.
I mortar an pestle creamed 1 cup butter then 1/2 cup rasped raw sugar and then in a bowl added one fresh hens egg. I dissolved the 1 teaspoon cream of tartar and 1/2 teaspoon baking soda in 1/2 cup of organic unpasteurised milk. I started with one cup of stone ground whole grain flour and added it alternately with the milk. It took two cups of flour to make the mixture a stiff dough.
I greased some copper cookie sheets and dropped the dough onto the sheet using a teaspoon. I sprinkled some raw maple sugar on top of each cookie and baked them at approx. 350 for 7 minutes. They weren’t quite done so I added another 3 minutes. Ten minutes total seemed to bake them perfectly. They were lightly browned on the edges, had puffed up, and spread a bit.
They are perfectly pleasant and would suit a nice cup of tea or hot chocolate. There isn’t any particular flavour so they are plain and could benefit from a touch of vanilla otherwise they are wonderfully light and airy.
Fatty’s Valentines Kiss Cookies
One egg, one cupful sugar, half cupful butter, half cupful milk, teaspoonful cream tartar, half of soda, flour enough to make a stiff dough, drop on tins and sprinkle over with white sugar. Bake in a quick hot oven. Done. While rolling out the dough I realised it has been so long ago that I made this type of cookie – the cut-out kind, now that I tasted one, I wonder why? I simply followed my trusty old Knotty Pine cookie recipe here. I had to revert this recipe once to metric, submitted for nutrient information I needed.  Make it a personal cookie by changing up the toppings to a thick pure jam, apple butter or a marmalade glaze made by mixing in some cream cheese is deluxe?
These little fatty’s taste like a good old fashioned hand made sugar cookie that you should taste melt-in-your-mouth rich buttery vanilla flavor for which sugar cookies are known and loved. Pass the milk please!

 

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1½ cups sugar
2 tsp cream of tartar
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
3¼ cups flour

Instructions
Beat the butter on medium speed for 30 seconds.
Add the sugar, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt and mix until combined.
Mix in the eggs and vanilla.
Gradually add the flour and mix until blended.
Divide the dough in half, cover each half with plastic wrap and refrigerate them for at least 3 hours.
Working with a small amount of dough at a time {and leaving the remaining dough wrapped in the refrigerator} roll out the dough on a lightly-floured surface to ¼-inch thickness.
Cut the dough into the heart shapes of your choice.
Place the cookies on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 4-7 minutes or until the edges are just starting to firm up. They will continue to set as they cool so do not over bake them or let them brown if you want soft, chewy cookies.
Cool the cookies for one minute and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Frost and decorate them as desired using a mixture of butter, icing sugar and red cherry or rose water.