My Life as a Cookie Baker

Yes, it's true. My alter ego is Cookie Baker and has been for quite some time. When I was growing up, my mom was a great cook, but she wasn't a baker. If she made a dessert, it was usually something "gooey" like Dump Cake, or Strawberry Angel Delight, or Cherry Cha Cha. All, I readily admit, loved and eaten by me. Right down to the last lick.

But I had this dream of a house, a kitchen, and a cookie jar that was always full. I think I was about eighteen and working when I first started my cookie-making ways. My first cookbook was one entitled Desserts by The Garden Club, published in 1967. (I am amused right now because I pulled it off the shelf to be certain of the title, and when I opened it for further information, the committee members names are listed. They are all Mrs. (insert man's first and last name). No Chris Miller, no Susan Smith, just Mrs. Somebody. I had completely forgotten about those days when married women had no name of their own.)

Forgive me. I digress. Anyway, the only section of that entire cookbook that I've used is the cookie section, and I still use it. I baked cookies and took them to work. I even used them to send to a former co-worker and began a long distance romance that lasted two years. Cookies. Powerful potions!

A few years later, I met my Sweetie and confess to using my cookie baking skills to help reel him in. Turns out, his mom never made cookies (she made pies), and he dreamed of a home with a full cookie jar. Talk about made for each other!!

Our first house was a tiny 8' x 35' trailer equipped with a small gas stove and oven. I swear that the best cookies I ever made were in that gas oven. I think it had just the perfect temperature and humidity for them. We sold that trailer in 1973 and thus began my quest to recapture those perfectly baked cookies. I tinkered with recipes, added and subtracted ingredients, and still never quite got to those perfect cookies of the gas oven. My cookies were good, but I knew the difference.

Several years ago I was eating a cookie made for me by one of my student's mother. It was perfect!! The next time I saw the mom, I grilled her for her secret. Gas oven? No. Where did the recipe come from? Back of the bag. I tried it. Didn't work. Back to the mom. More questioning resulted in the secret: real butter. So back to my recipes. I began using half margarine and half real butter. Voila!!! My cookies were back!

And Kathy, to answer your question as to why I use margarine, butter, and shortening in the previous cookies recipe? Laziness. The original recipe called for 2/3 cup shortening, 2/3 cup margarine. I hated having to cut two cubes of margarine into 1/3 cup chunks to get the 2/3, and the same with the butter. So, 1/2 cup butter (one cube), and 1/2 cup margarine (one cube) and 1/3 cup shortening was the easiest way. Still added up to 4/3 cup of um, fat. :-)

I wish I had kept a total of the cookies I've made over the years, but I'm certain I could fill this whole house with them were they all to be gathered into one space and time. I have a glass canister I purchased for fifteen cents from a neighbor twenty some years ago and it's a rare day that there are no cookies in it.

Oh, and my daughter used to raise a little money for herself in high school by selling the cookies I'd put in her lunch. She knew there were more at home.