Can you tell that moms have been on my mind lately? With the passing of my mom, and now that I'm a mother myself, I've just been thinking so much about what motherhood and parenthood in general means. Especially around the holidays! My mom made Christmas feel totally magical every year, and I hope to pass down many of her Christmas traditions to my own baby.
Every family has their own holiday traditions, and one of the first holiday memories I have of spending Christmas with my now-husband's family is of eating his Grandmom's Christmas cookies.
(Click here to skip right to the recipe for classic Christmas spritz cookies)
The ones I remember best are peppermint chocolate chip cookies. His sweet Grandmom Joan Underkuffler was a great baker (her banana cake and pecan pie were also amazing). I'm trying to recreate her peppermint chocolate chip cookie recipe currently, and haven't gotten it quite right.
We have a few different clues. The first time I had them, I asked her how they managed to stay snow-white after baking, and she told me that the recipe used shortening instead of butter. My husband Nate told me that he remembered her saying the secret to the peppermint flavor was using mint chocolate chips, which were hard for her to find, and my mother-in-law Lu told me that they were based on a sugar cookie recipe. So far I've tried making three different versions and none have come out quite right (though all have been tasty), so this might be my Christmas baking white whale for the next few years!
However, there is one recipe of hers I can recreate. Joan passed away in 2018, and last year for Christmas, my father-in-law Frank gifted me with her vintage "Cooky" Press, which is used to make classic Christmas spritz cookies. There's a recipe booklet that came with the cookie press, and she added some notes to the recipes with her adjustments. It was so lovely to open the booklet this year as I was getting ready to bake and to see her handwritten notes – it was like a little hello from Grandmom. Hopefully by using her recipes I can gain some of her cookie baking excellence!
Joan was so, so kind to me. I was very shy when Nate and I started dating, and was especially nervous around "grownups," but Joan always made me feel welcome. She would go out of her way to talk to me at family gatherings, and invited me to family dinners at her house when I was home from college during the summers with Nate and his brother for her legendary meatballs and mashed potatoes.
She lived in a beautiful log cabin-style house that had a woodstove right in the center of the living room. She had a piano, and VHS copies of some of my favorite movies, including the BBC Jane Austen starring Colin Firth. Her house was so cozy, and every time I was there I knew that good food and good conversation were on their way.
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| How sweet is this picture of Nate and Grandmom (or Daddy-Mom, as he called her) at our wedding? |
She also raised my father-in-law Frank, who is one of the most witty and clever people I know. Their close relationship was beautiful to see, and I hope that someday I can share such a close bond with my own son.
Another random note is that Joan's sister Rosie was married to a man named George Morrill, who is related to my best friend from childhood, Emily. I never imagined that my best friend from Massachusetts would be related to my future husband up in Maine!
But we're here for the cookies, aren't we?
Much to my delight, Grandmom's vintage aluminum "Cooky" press works like a charm. Basically, you stuff your cookie dough into an aluminum tube that's fitted with a decorative plate, and the dough is then pushed through the plate, coming out in little shapes. I used the Christmas tree plate and the wreath plate for maximum holiday joy. I also followed Grandmom's note, adding a little extra flour to the dough, and the cookies came out perfectly. Thanks, Joan!
Grandmom's Christmas Spritz Cookies
Ingredients
1 cup shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg or 3 egg yolks (or 1 egg replacer - I used Bob's Red Mill)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Dash of salt
1 teaspoon almond extract
Instructions
1. Pre-heat the oven to 400.
2. Cream shortening, adding sugar gradually.
3. Add egg unbeaten, sifted dry ingredients, and extract.
4. Fill the cooky press. Form cookies on an ungreased aluminum cooky sheet. You can turn any extra dough scraps into plain, round cookies. Bake 10-12 minutes. Yields about 5 dozen.
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