Old Fashioned Oatmeal Cinnamon Cookies

Hello All,

Winter Storm Remus

Hope you are all enjoying the reprieve from snow we are experiencing. Steady temperatures in the 50s next week? I was almost convinced it might never come again.  But alas, we have made it through to March and spring is on the horizon.

Unfortunately, due to Winter Storm Remus this past Wednesday evening, the second installment of our Lecture Series was canceled. However, we will be rescheduling the lecture for March 19th at the Welcome Center.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Today I thought I would share a 1940s cookie recipe I came across a few weeks ago…

A Brief History on the Oatmeal Cookie:

Rationing Cookbook

The oatmeal cookie is actually a derivative of an oatcake, made by the Scots and British as early as 1,000 B.C. when oat harvesting first took over as a main source of food for the area. It is unknown when raisins or nuts were added to this particular treat, but it is known that raisins and nuts were used in many recipes during the Middle Ages. The first ‘traditional’ Oatmeal Raisin recipe first appeared in the 1896 publication of Fannie Merritt Farmer’s cookbook. She considered the cookie a health food and within ten years, the recipe could be seen on every container of Quaker Oats.

Sisters baking, 1940s, Life Magazine

By the 1940s, Oatmeal Raisin cookies were a household name. On the home front, rationing made cookie baking, and life in general, difficult, but mothers, wives, and sisters knew their loved ones abroad needed some indulgence from home, so whenever possible, care-packages with these cookies, and other treats were sent overseas for a little taste of home for the soldiers and sailors.

Today there are probably a hundred, if not more, versions of this one famous cookie. However you, or your family, makes Oatmeal cookies I am sure the smell and tastes can always bring you back home.

Old Fashioned Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Old Fashioned Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies

Ingredients:

1-cup sugar

½-cup butter

1/3-cup molasses

2 eggs

2 cups oats

1 2/3 -ups flour

1-teaspoon baking soda

1-teaspoon cinnamon

¼-teaspoon salt

1-cup raisins

 

Preparation:

Cookie Dough

Cookies almost always turn out better when the ingredients are at room temperature. (Do not ask me why, I was a history major, not a culinary student.) However, I have tested this theory many times and it has always proven worthy. So with that being said, it is best to let the butter and eggs become room temperature before diving in. Also, many times raisins are extremely dehydrated by the time you are prepared to cook/bake with them, which makes the cookies dry. Soaking the raisins in hot water for at least 30 minutes rehydrates them enough, which puts moisture into the cookie and the cookie stays fresher longer. It is also better to mix your dry ingredients together so you do not experience dry pockets in the dough. So you would blend the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt together and set aside.

The next step is to pre-heat the oven. This particular recipe calls for the oven to be set at 375°F; however, if you have a gas convection oven, I recommend turning the temperature down to 350°F.

Fresh cookies, straight from the oven!

Next, cream the sugar, butter, and molasses together. Once creamed, add the eggs one at a time.  Then add the dry ingredients.

Once everything is well blended, mix in the raisins.

Place a rounded teaspoon-sized cookie, two inches apart, on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 9 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

This recipe yields about 4-dozen cookies. 

This recipe proved to be a winner and has been added to our own family recipes book. I would highly recommend this version, or anything similar, of Oatmeal Raisin Cookies. The molasses makes the cookies deliciously chewy and moist, while the plump raisins add a delectable quality and richness.

Hope you all take the time to enjoy some homemade cookies!

Take Care,

Elizabeth

Ration-Era Recipes: Potato Pancakes

Snowday Fun

Yesterday morning my family was delighted to wake up to about 4 inches of snow on the ground.  We quickly bundled up and trekked outside to enjoy (hopefully) our last snowfall of the season.  I love contrasting playtime in cold, wintery weather with a warm, comforting meal.  So after we played awhile in the snow, we trudged back into the house to warm up.  I'll admit, the snow provided me with the perfect excuse to catch up on blogging while experimenting with my favorite comfort food: the potato.  

I returned again to the Victory Cookbook and found a recipe for potato pancakes that sounded promising.  Be advised:  If you lack patience, this is not the recipe for you since the peeled potatoes must sit, submerged in cold water, for 12 hours.  But I wasn't about to let time prevent me from testing this recipe, so I got up early (pre-snow adventure) to pare and soak the potatoes so we could enjoy potato pancakes by dinner time.  This recipe is clearly ration-point friendly as all of the ingredients used would have been abundantly available during wartime and none of the ingredients required ration points.  Hooray! 

So, here's the process:

After letting the potatoes soak, I grated them with a standard box grater.  Because I am terrified of any encounters between my fingers and the grater, I made sure to leave a substantial potato barrier - as you can see from the photo.  Grating the potatoes took nearly an eternity.  And after said potatoes were grated, I squeezed out as much liquid as possible from the potato shavings.  That part was a little gross but painless.

 You can see the freshly squeezed potato pulp in the photo above.  Next, I added eggs to the potatoes.  (Caveat: I cheated and used egg substitute, but they didn't seem to harm the pancakes in the least.  I'm sure regular eggs, beaten into a frenzy would work just as well.)

 Then, very gingerly I mixed the eggs into the potatoes.  Finally flour, baking powder, salt, and pepper were added and mixed thoroughly with the potatoes.

For the final step, I lightly sprayed a non-stick skillet with a non-stick spray and dropped the potato mixture by spoon into the pan.  Once the pancakes had browned on one side, I flipped them so they could brown on the other. You'll know the pancakes are browned on a side when they no longer stick to the pan.  The finished product was hashbrown-y and delicious.  My two-year-old especially couldn't get enough of the stuff.

The cookbook recommended that the pancakes be served with a side of applesauce, but personally, I think I'd prefer it served with sour cream or ketchup.  For those of you that are interested in testing the recipe for yourselves, here it is!

Enjoy!
Megan

Nothing Says "I'm Sorry" like a Coffee Cake

Okay.  So I know I disappeared from the blogosphere for a few months, and I am truly sorry for absence.  I took a few months away from the museum world to student teach, and silly me, I thought student teaching while maintaining a blog would be a breeze.  It was not.  So sadly, the blog was neglected... but now I'm [hypothetically] more educated and have returned with great enthusiasm!  

I'm thrilled to be back at the National D-Day Memorial, and the Memorial has a lot of great opportunities planned this year for you and others to really experience World War II history in meaningful ways.  We have new educational initiatives in place, fresh events, and revamped "oldies but goodies", and I can't wait to share them with you.  But for my first post back I thought I would say "I'm sorry!  Please forgive me!" with a tasty ration-era recipe.

In my absence from the Memorial proper, a great artifact was donated to the Foundation - a cookbook, circa 1943 titled the Victory Cookbook: Wartime Edition.  It is a large volume full or interesting and resourceful recipes.  I'll be turning to this resource often on the blog, but for this week's offering I thought I'd start with something sweet and simple: a "Quick Coffee Cake".  After all, nothing says "I'm Sorry" like a nice, warm, deliciously simple coffee cake. Right?

The recipe, as it promised was easy and quick to pull together and within 40 minutes from start to finish (including baking time) my family was enjoying a thick, moist, and, most importantly, delicious coffee cake.  I have to admit that I was very skeptical of the crumb topping.  I've never made one from actual stale bread crumbs before, but the topping turned out to be delightful.  It was as sweet, buttery, and crumbly as one could hope for on a coffee cake.   This could easily become a "go-to" recipe and was approved by both my husband and finicky toddler.  

So enjoy your coffee cake, and welcome back!  I hope you will continue to enjoy our "Sentimental Journey".

-Megan

Warm coffee cake just out of the oven.  Yum!

Spry Gingerbread

Since this is my first post in December, I thought it would be appropriate to feature a Christmas-themed ration recipe.  I returned to the Spry cookbook and found a suitable recipe for gingerbread.  In keeping with the spirit of rationing, the recipe called for only a half cup of sugar and relied on molasses as the primary sweetening agent.  (Molasses, along with corn syrup and honey, were often used as substitutes for preciously rationed sugar.)

A ration book with stamps

This reminds me, I haven't given y'all a proper lesson on World War II rationing!  In a nutshell, rationing was a system implemented by the government.  It existed to give all Americans equal access to goods that were in short supply due to the war by limiting the number of certain items people could buy.  Items like food, gasoline, shoes, and clothing were rationed in the U.S. during the war since these things were now needed to feed, dress, and equip our servicemen and women.  Meat, sugar, butter, and canned goods were some of the most heavily rationed food goods, and substitutes for them suddenly became much more popular - think molasses, honey, SPAM, oleo margarine...  Cooks also began adapting their recipes to accommodate rationing limitations - hence, the gingerbread recipe found here.

Back to the recipe. Honestly, as I followed the recipe, I had no idea what to expect of either the taste or form of this supposed future gingerbread.  (I typically think of gingerbread as a cookie shaped like a cute little person, not something you get out of a baking dish.)  If you look at the pictures below, the gingerbread came out with a shape and texture similar to a brownie.  But don't be deceived.  Sadly, no chocolate was harmed in this experiment.  

Although the process was surprising, the results were delicious!

The finished, plated project - lightly dusted with powdered sugar.

My husband, the reluctant guinea pig, takes a tentative first bite...

It's a success!

Enjoy!
Megan

Recipe taken from: What Shall I Cook Today: 124 thrifty, healthful tested recipes.  Lever Brothers Company, Cambridge: Mass. p. 46.