Category Archives: Dessert

Aunt Millie’s Lemon Loaf

14 Saturday Jul 2012

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Sometimes recipes slip into the forgotten, so I should really thank my Aunt Martha for reminding me of my Aunt Millie Malone Brown’s lemon cake. When Aunt Martha reminded me of how much we loved this cake, I couldn’t just go and ask my Aunt Millie because she has Alzheimer’s Disease. So I got to digging around and found her recipe tucked into a notecard box in my Dad’s belongings. What follows are some of my cousins and aunts telling stories about this beloved aunt and sister, and then her recipe for the lemon cake we all love.

When I say beloved I should probably type it BELOVED. My Aunt Millie never had children of her own, and she had this way of making all of us feel as if we were the most important person in the world.  There is no way to expound on that. I think a lot of us have someone like that in our lives. If you do, cherish them. If you don’t, here’s a lot of my Aunt Millie to go around.

Gayle Riley Slusher:  As a sister – she is the best.
I remember when she and BH lived in Waco. I loved to go and stay with them. Sidewalk skating. I learned how to skate. She and BH loved to go frog gigging. They would come fix them for frying – I had never seen that. I learned if the lid was not on – they would jump out. HOW THEY LAUGHED. I Remember Coco the long-haired dog they had for years. Lots of great memories of both Millie and BH.

Martha Johnson Malone:  Millie had a way of making each niece and nephew feel like they were the most special one. She sincerely loved being the Aunt everyone adored! As her sister-in-law, I was always excited to know she would be at Grandma’s for Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter. She would make the holidays fun! Of course she loved playing cards and the big table that Papa Callahan built would be full of adults playing spades and bourre (Boo-ray) late into the night.

Millie had a gift for gab…and still does…she can talk to anyone (now she makes up the conversation as she goes along. LOL). She loved more than anything to buy groceries. It was nothing for her to come home and get Grandma and go spend several hundred dollars in groceries. Grandma would be in heaven as they both loved to shop and cook and bake for the family. I think her happiest time was spent in the kitchen.

Bart Malone:  Memories of Millie and BH. Where do I start? From Millie giving me my first dog when I was 3 that was with me until I turned 19. My dog’s name was Cheena, and she was a Pekingese. Or Mom and Dad putting me on an airplane at age 10 and sending me to St. Louis to spend 2 weeks with Millie and BH, that’s a whole another story. But the best memories are the ones Martha talked about and that’s the holidays. The baking she and grandma did. Don’t forget the homemade peanut brittle she made. Luv ya Millie.

Anne Malone Abbott:  I remember watching her oil paint in the front room out at the old house. I loved watching her. I used to paint but I was never as good as she was. We have one of her paintings.

Callie Malone Bertaud:  My favorite memory would be listening to her sing “way down yonder in the Johnson grass” and making all the nieces and nephews laugh (Note: the song has the assumption that the next line will include the word ‘ass’ to rhyme with grass. Sometimes Millie would say the word. Sometimes she would stop short of saying it. But to us it was funny to hear an adult say a “BAD WORD.”) Of course her and my dad would duet and sing it—lovely.  She liked to wink a lot, like after she would tell a story. And of course she has never been without a lap dog. I think every one of them was named Buster Brown. I thought she was the coolest aunt ever using all those dirty words and wearing a size 12 shoe.

Aine Malone:  When we would have breakfast at Grandmother’s house,  Millie would make us slices of Texas toast with huge slabs of cheddar cheese melted on them. We thought that was the best thing ever. She loved to buy things. Once I was staying with her and grandma and she got a wild hair to go buy peaches. Grandma said “Millie we have 2 freezers full of peaches from last year we never canned.” Millie said “Now Pauline (my grandma) get in the car. We need fresh peaches and peaches in the freezer aren’t fresh.” So off we went to buy peaches.

She’s a great story-teller. She used to tell us stories about my Dad and all our aunts and uncles when they were kids. I think every kid wants to hear stories of their parents when they were little. She would always tell us about her getting my Dad stuck in the hay loft of the barn and how she pulled away the rope for him to get down. She would laugh and describe how he would beg her to let him down and she would tease him until he started to cry and then she would get scared that they would all get a whipping so she would let him get down.

My favorite memory is one summer I went with Millie and Grandma and Mike  Sims(my cousin) to see Uncle Malcolm. From New Mexico we went to the Grand Canyon and Vegas. Millie kept teasing Grandma about whether she was going to gamble because many people she knew considered gambling to be ‘sinnin.’Grandma kept calling people back home like my great Aunt Willie Mae and maybe ladies in her church. Grandma would say to them on the phone “oh Millie and Malcolm are taking me to Vegas. I know but I am just going to stay in the hotel room. I am NOT going to gamble.” So we get to Vegas and have a great time but Grandma does not gamble. She stays in the room except to eat. On the day we check out, Mike and I are helping wheel her out of the casino in a wheelchair when we finally talk her into “trying” a slot machine. Mike tells her “come on Grandma. Just a dollar. We will never tell.” So our Grandmother Malone drops a dollar that Mike gives her in the machine and out falls a few hundred dollars. Grandma was picking that money up so fast. Well we get back to Uncle Malcolm’s house in New Mexico and of course Grandma has to call Aunt Willie Mae and all her church ladies and tells them ” well we went to Vegas and I won some money but don’t you worry I am going to TITHE my 10%.” Millie would not let grandma forget that. The whole rest of the trip she would say and laugh “Now Pauline as soon as we get to Longview I am going to take you to Gum Springs Church so you can tithe your 10% otherwise Willie Mae may be onto you.”

And finally from an interview taken at a family reunion in 1990, my Aunt Millie talks about her idea of a project. A project that to my knowledge was never finished. We might just have to get on finishing it for her. And y’all need to do the same. My Aunt Millie would love it if she knew she gave y’all a good idea.

Millie Brown (from 1990): I am trying to work on a project for our immediate family.  We get together every Thanksgiving—my brothers and sisters all come home at that particular time. So I am going to start a cookbook that we all can add to—a chapter every year. We are going to have our family tree in the front of the book. It will be very fun and interesting. One of the things I want to do is have them recount some of–or at least one—of their favorite memories of childhood that can be included in the cookbook.

MILLIE BROWN’S LEMON LOAF

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup flour

1 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup almonds

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

1 lemon grated rind- save lemon and squeeze and save juice for glaze

1.  Sift and mix dry ingredients

2.  Cut in shortening until it has a coarse texture like cornmeal.

3.  Mix in nuts.

4.  Beat eggs. Add to the mixture with the milk.

5.  Add the grated lemon rind

6. Bake at 375 degrees for one hour.

7.  After loaf has cooled make the glaze by mixing the saved lemon juice with 1/4 cup of additional sugar. Drizzle glaze over cooled loaf. (Note: use granulated sugar NOT POWDERED SUGAR for the glaze)

Banana Pudding…the secret recipe that ain’t a secret no more

05 Saturday May 2012

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I grew up going to a family reunion every 4th of July on Lake Cherokee in East Texas. My great-uncle and aunt R.K. and Willie Mae Callahan were the hosts. One of my favorite things to eat was her Banana Pudding. There was nothing better than coming from swimming, and eating a huge bowl of it. And yet every time I made banana pudding, it never tasted like my Aunt Willie Mae’s. Now I know why, and I am going to let you in on the secret as divulged to me by one of my Malone cousins.

First let me tell you about R.K. and Willie Mae Callahan from my perspective. They were everyone’s favorites. She was a great cook and loved to tell stories. Aunt Willie Mae was adamantly opposed to card-playing. One of my fondest memories was her finally agreeing to play a game of “Old Maid” with my sister and I, as long as we “promised not to tell the preacher.” My Uncle R.K. always had this mischievous glint to his eye. Every kid loved him. He always gave us gum, and winked at us when we got in trouble. Now what sort of adult winks at you when your parent sends you to cut a switch from the nearest mulberry bush? The kind of adult you adore because, like Uncle R.K., they still have a big dose of kid in them.

My cousin Maudine Malone Smith, recently contacted me with her stories of Uncle R.K. and Aunt Willie Mae. And to my surprise she gave me the banana pudding recipe I could never get quite right. And while it is not the 4th of July, warm weather is here. And that means get-togethers, swimming holes, playing washers, and potlucks. And y’all can bring along the now “public knowledge” banana pudding recipe and make everyone happy just like my Aunt Willie Mae used to.

Willie Mae Malone Callahan’s Easy Banana Pudding

Recipes and Stories

by Maudine Malone Smith

Aine: How did you get this recipe?

Maudine:  I had always made the recipe on the Vanilla Wafer box where you had to cook the custard and it really took some time. One time I got there a day early for the reunion, Aunt Willie Mae said “here you make the banana pudding.” I was getting out a pot to cook the custard, and she said “oh no make it the easy way.” I was a little skeptical that it would turn out as good but it was better, more creamier and so easy to make! I am sure we usually made a double recipe.

I asked Aunt Willie Mae why her recipe did not call for instant BANANA flavored pudding and she said it would not taste as good.

Aine: Any other tips for the recipe?

Maudine:  One thing for certain, you will need a big bowl. A pedestal bowl is pretty also. I usually layer the vanilla wafers in the bottom and around the side on the first layer, and that looks pretty also. I usually take it to potlucks, luncheons, and always make it for the Bluff Creek Homecoming ( in Livingston, Texas) and I have people come looking for it.

Aine: Can you tell me what else you remember about Uncle R.K. and Aunt Willie Mae? My aunt, Gayle Riley, and my great-aunt, Katholine, who was R.K.’s niece told me a story about them. They said that Uncle R.K. said that when he died all he wanted was a “pine box and a plug of chewing tobacco in his pocket.” Aunt Willie Mae upon hearing that said “well you had better make sure you outlive me because if I have anything to say about it there will be no plug of tobacco to be found.”

Maudine:  What a couple they were! Young and old loved them. I remember when a new baby was brought to the reunion, Pappy (Uncle R.K.) would sing “You get a line and I get a pole and we’ll go down to the crawdad hole. Baby O Baby Mine.” He always had that plug of chewing tobacco and you are right. Aunt Willie Mae did not like it. Pappy was just a little spoiled being the baby in the family. He always had to eat his dessert first, and all the kids loved that notion and so did a few of the older ones. He loved fig preserves, and since I had a fig tree he decided I needed to bring him a case every year to the reunion. I guess that was my admission price! He would immediately open a jar, and eat a whole pint right then and there. And no, he did not offer to share them with anyone. When he would say something a little off-color or inappropriate, Aunt Willie Mae would say, “Now R.K.” He would usually tone it down a little.

Whenever I went to the 4th of July reunion, I knew I had to watch out for snakes. Uncle R.K. knew I was terrified of snakes since my older brother, Joe Malone, always seemed to have a king snake ready to taunt me when we were kids at Soda, Texas. He always said if he had a snake in his hand, I could run faster than any girl in Polk County. When we got to the reunion I would always tell Uncle R.K.: “ok go ahead and throw a snake at me.” Uncle R.K would act so innocent. Then when I least expected it , there would be the snake–flying across the room, in my bed or even in the bathroom. I would start squealing and you would hear Aunt Willie Mae say :” NOW R.K!” There were several of our female relative he would do that to, especially the ones who would scream the loudest.

One thing I remember most about Aunt Willie Mae was how she would love to go to gospel singings. She seldom missed one in the area, and she travelled all over to hear her favorite group. Wasn’t it the Florida Boys at one time? Most important to her was family, and she believed in keeping up with all those Malones. They would come from all over to visit her. Those two dear souls still bring a smile to my face!

Easy Banana Pudding

2 cups cold milk

1 large package of VANILLA instant pudding

1 can Eagle Brand milk

8 oz container of Cool Whip

1 tsp vanilla

1 box of vanilla wafers

About 6-8 bananas, sliced horizontally

1. Mix milk and pudding until creamy.

2. Add Eagle Brand milk and vanilla. Mix well.

3. Start assembling–Put a layer of vanilla wafers, then a layer of bananas and top with pudding mixture.

4. Keep layering until bowl is almost full.

5. Put Cool Whip on top as final layer.

6. I then crush a few of the Vanilla wafers and sprinkle on top.

7. Refrigerate for several hours or overnight. Dig in and enjoy!

(Note: If you are making this for a group of people I would double the recipe.)

An interesting side note to this story is in the photo at the top of this blog there is a little girl atop a horse. Her name is Ruth Kuykendall. She is my great-grandmother. When my great-grandfather was courting her, his own mother was pregnant, and my great-grandfather asked his mother to let him name his baby brother. His mother allowed it, and my great-grandfather named his baby brother R.K. after the girl, Ruth Kuykendall, he was courting.  That baby brother is our Uncle R.K.

How Not to Drive aka The Cookie Cure for Motion Sickness

21 Saturday Apr 2012

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As I pack to leave for a road trip to East Texas, this week’s recipe came to me. Whenever we took road trips with my parents, my mother, Merle Mitchell, always sat in the passenger seat up front. It’s common knowledge in my family that my mother was a terrible driver. The stories are too many to recount so I’ll just pass along a few.

My first memory of her driving problems is as a kid. She drove my sister and I to the Sears catalog store in Woodville, Texas. It was near the courthouse square. In parking, she hit the parking meter. I mean she flattened it completely severing the metal pole and meter from the concrete curb. We got out of the car and she said “Oh my. Grab your sister and follow me.” She proceeded to pick up the pole with the meter attached and marched us all across the street and into the courthouse. The first open office door we went in and there was a lady behind the desk. My mom set the pole and meter across the desk and said “M’am I have hit the parking meter and I don’t know what to do.” The lady behind the desk was speechless. She just stared at this pole laying across her desk with pieces of concrete stuck to the bottom. She said “M’am I am not sure what to do either so you just leave it here.” So my mom marched us out of the courthouse, and off to the Sears catalog store we went to pick up an order.

The second story we love to tell has to do with my mom’s penchant for getting speeding tickets. Her most famous speeding ticket was on a Sunday night after church. My mom was a huge sports fan and loved the Dallas Cowboys. So the Cowboys were playing, and she was speeding home after Sunday night church service to watch them on TV. We were listening to the game on the radio. The Cowboys had just scored when suddenly flashing red lights and sirens were behind us. My mom had been caught speeding…again. So the cop comes to the window as my mom is rolling it down and asks “m’am why are you driving so fast with three children in the car on a Sunday night?” My mom with a blank face and all seriousness replies “well officer, I love the Cowboys and they just scored and I got so excited that my foot must have pressed the gas too hard.” No speeding ticket was issued that evening as the cop was a Cowboy fan as well.

Finally, when I was practicing with my learner’s permit, my mom offered to teach me and a friend. We had been practicing parallel parking, and we just could not get it down. So my mom hops in the car and declares “Well I don’t know if I can help. You know I failed my driving test 7 times before I finally passed.” My friend and I immediately started looking for a new teacher.

So given my mom’s lack of driving skills, it just makes sense that she hardly drove if we had anything to say about it. And if she did, parking meters and cops were on red alert for miles. The down side to her being a passenger though was that she would easily get motion sickness. As she got older, the motion sickness got more intense. As long as I can remember she would have a bag of ginger cookies, as ginger helps with motion sickness.

If you have ever tried store-bought ginger cookies, they are like eating rocks. The family recipe we had produced almost the same results. So once, when my mom came and stayed with me in Oregon, I got this wild hair to find or come up with a ginger cookie recipe. What follows is that recipe: the chewiest giant molasses ginger cookies we could concoct. A lot of burnt and too crispy batches were thrown out before perfection was obtained. Scorched fingers, sweat, and tears went into making this the cookie. And from that point on, whenever we went on a road trip with my mom, a bag of these cookies went with us.

This cookie is perfect for road trip snacking. Just watch out for those parking meters and cops who are Redskin fans.

AINE’S GIANT CHEWY GINGER COOKIES

Makes 36-40 cookies

4 1/2 c. flour

4 tsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

2 eggs

2 c. sugar—-3/4 c. sugar separate

1/2 c. molasses

1 1/2 c. shortening (NOTE:Make with shortening. DO NOT USE BUTTER OR MARGARINE. I use the Crisco shortening sticks for convenience)

1. in a bowl mix the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and cloves. Set aside.

2. In a large bowl, beat with a mixer shortening until soft.

3. Add 2 c. sugar to shortening and beat until fluffy.

4. Add eggs and molasses. Beat well.

5. Add 1/2 of flour mixture. Beat well.

6. Add remaining flour mix. Beat well. At this point the dough will appear crumbly.

7. I then use my hand to hand knead the dough  until it forms a large soft ball as pictured below.

8. Put the other 3/4 c. sugar in a bowl. Make 2 inch round balls of dough and roll them in sugar until coated.

9. Space balls of dough on an ungreased cookie sheet or a cookie sheet with parchment paper.

10. Bake at 350 degrees for 12-14 minutes. Cookies will be ready when they start to crack on top.

11. Let them cool on cookie sheet and then enjoy.

Milky Way Cake and “Keeping Company” Icing

07 Saturday Apr 2012

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Mama and BakerPreface:   As a freshman in high school, my parents uprooted us to Waxahachie, Texas. It was a shock for me having gone from small schools to this large high school. One of the first people to befriend me was Kristi James. We were in band and journalism together. We bonded instantly as we had the same sense of humor. We spent a lot of time replaying “Moonlightng” episodes instead of studying, and dissecting what was wrong with the kids who were “popular.” In journalism class and subsequently for the school nwspaper, Kristi was the star writer. She is one of those people who has a gift for telling stories. She can get to the root of who people are pretty quickly. We lost each other when I moved again my junior year but then she found me through the internet a few years back. It was as if no time had passed.

Kristi still writes stories. She calls them “everyday stories of everyday women.” She’s good. I keep telling her she needs to put all these stories together into a book. Maybe if she is encouraged by the response of this blog, she will. This is Kristi James. This is her mama’s cake recipe and her story. If you enjoy her story as much as I did, please let her know by commenting. It will be the proof I need to get her to start on that book. ~Aine

 Milky Way Cake and “Keeping Company” Icing

Kristi James

 This isn’t so much of a story about a recipe but an event that used to happen around any holiday or whenever this cake was made.

My mom is the “baker” of the family, which is ironic because my step dad’s nickname was Baker. I have absolutely no idea where his nickname came from. During the holidays, or whenever my step dad requested it, my mom would usually make a Milky Way cake.

Her favorite time to bake was usually late at night around everyone’s bedtime. That way she could take her time, and there was no noise or no one in her way. Well that was usually the case. When she was making this particular cake, my step dad would stay up with her to, you know, “keep her company.” This usually ended with him snoring on the couch.

After baking the cake and making the icing, she would ice the cake. As soon as she had the cake iced, she would “lightly” bang the spatula to get off the excess icing thus waking my step dad who would swear that he had not been sleeping–just “watching TV.” He would be a little surprised that she had finished icing the cake, but always wanted to know if there was a little icing left in the bowl.

After the first few times of him “keeping her company,” my mother realized his true motive. So from then on, whenever she made a Milky Way cake she would make some extra icing for my step dad to have a little special treat for his staying up and “keeping her company.”

Here is my mother’s Milky Way cake recipe and the icing recipe which maybe should be renamed the “Keeping Company” icing in honor of Baker, my step dad.

My step dad passed away almost 20 years ago, but to this day whenever my mom makes this cake she still makes a little extra icing.

Enjoy and a little warning: this cake is RICH so you definitely need some friends or family to “keep you company” as you enjoy!

MILKY WAY CAKE

8 (1 3/4 oz.) Milky Way bars

2 c. sugar

2 1/2 c. flour

1 1/4 c. buttermilk

1 c. pecans (optional per my mom)

3 sticks butter

4 eggs well beaten

1/4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla

1. Melt Milky Way bars with 1 stick butter over low heat. Remove from heat and let cool.

2. Cream remaining 2 sticks of butter with sugar.  Add the eggs and cooled chocolate mixture. Mix well.

3.  Mix flour and baking soda together in a separate bowl.

4. Alternate between adding the flour/baking soda mixture and the buttermilk to the batter blending well.

5. Add vanilla and nuts.

6. Grease and dust with powdered sugar 3 (9 inch) or one 13 x 9 cake pan.

7. Bake at 325 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

“KEEPING COMPANY” ICING

2 1/2 c. sugar

1 stick butter

1 6 oz package chocolate chips

1 c. evaporated milk

1 c. marshmellow cream

1 c. pecans (optional)

1. Combine milk and sugar. Cook on low heat until soft ball stage. (SOFT BALL STAGE: the best way to determine this is whith a candy thermometer. At 235-245 degrees sugar reaches a stage where it makes a soft ball when dropped into cold water. The best way to test this is get a bowl of very cold water. When the milk/sugar reaches 235-245 degrees drop a spoonful of the mixture into the bowl. If it is at the soft ball stage, the syrup mixture will form a soft ball in the cold water. As soon as you life the soft ball out of the cold water, it will flatten in your hand)

2. Remove from heat and add butter, marshmellow cream, and chocolate chips.

3. Stir until all have melted.

4. Add pecans.

5. Spread on cake. Let cool and serve.

My Mother’s Family in a Cookie: Teacakes

01 Sunday Apr 2012

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wedding day

My maternal grandmother, Elsie Dona Gassett Mitchell, was born on April 1, 1909 so it is fitting this blog begins on her birthday with a recipe that defines my grandmother, my mother, and my childhood. The Teacake. Simple. Slightly sweet. Southern.

My grandmother only completed nine school grades. The 9th grade was the last grade available to her to attend at the time.  Yet her penmanship, grammar, and spelling were perfect, and she was a voracious reader. As child I was fascinated by comics and jokes. She would cut funny stories and cartoons out of magazines and newspapers and save them for me to glue into spiral notebooks. One of our family’s most treasured things is the journal my grandmother kept. Starting from her birth, she recalls stories of her childhood, family history, struggles of daily life, the simplicities she cherished and her constant faith. I have read some of these stories so many times I have them memorized. One of my favorites is her describing her maternal grandfather:

“My grandfather McCleskey made his livelihood trapping and would make trips on foot from Montgomery County Texas to Illinois. Some of my happiest times as a child were the times he would be with us and according to the time of year I could help him plant a radish bed, pick wild berries, or tramp in the woods as he sang Irish folk songs.”

In my grandmother’s stories, she describes food of all sorts: the bread her mother made, her father’s boiled peanuts, collecting mayhaws to make jelly and her recipe for mincemeat using pears. But there is no mention of teacakes. Where did she learn to make them? My Aunt Ethel, the oldest child, says she assumes my grandmother learned from her mother. Perhaps we shall never know.  All we have are recipes cards, most of them bearing the label “GRANDMOTHER MITCHELL’S TEACAKES.”

Don’t let the name teacake fool you. The teacake is neither a cake nor is it served with tea in our family. And while the variations are numerous, the beauty of my grandmother’s teacakes lies in their simplicity which reflected the times she lived and the lack of money to buy extravagant ingredients such as powdered sugar.

Some of my earliest memories are of my grandmother standing at the sideboard in her kitchen rolling out teacakes with a flour covered rolling pin.  Once cooked, she kept them in a clear jar with a screw-on lid—-we kids were convinced that lid was to deter our sneaking a cookie.  Screw-on lids make a lot of noise in their removal. The adults in our family would sit in the afternoon, visiting and playing dominos, while they drank coffee and ate teacakes. We kids got our own teacakes usually with a glass of milk.  However, if we were lucky, grandmother would make a saucer of coffee (more cream and sugar than coffee) for us to dunk our teacakes in and pretend to be adults. The ritual of coffee and teacakes was repeated no matter the house you visited. All of our aunts made teacakes. One of the best parts of “visiting” family was the plate of teacakes sitting on a table waiting to be eaten.  To this day, when I bake teacakes, I imagine sitting down with my saucer of coffee wishing I was old enough to sit at the “adult” table and play dominos.

GRANDMOTHER MITCHELL’S TEACAKES

1/2 cup butter

½ tsp salt

1/2 cup shortening

2 Tbsp milk

1 1/2  cup sugar

2 Tbsp lemon extract

1 Tbsp baking powder

2 eggs

3 cups flour

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Beat together sugar, shortening and butter until smooth. Add eggs, milk and lemon extract. Beat until combined. Add baking powder, salt and flour. Beat until smooth.

2. Refrigerate dough until cold (or overnight).

3. Roll out dough thin (approx. 1/4th inch) onto lightly floured board.

4. Cut dough using knife. You can use a cookie cutter if you wish, but my grandmother just cut the dough into squares as pictured below. This will create odd shapes on the edges of the dough but will also give you the 2 choices of cookies: chewy soft teacakes from the inside squares and teacakes with crispy corners from the pieces cut along the edge of the dough.

5. Place onto a greased cookie sheet. I like to use parchment paper. Bake for 10 minutes. Notice the odd shapes in the photo below.

6. Allow to cool completely and then place in a container to store. And as my grandmother noted on her recipe card “ENJOY WITH COFFEE, MILK OR LEMONADE.”

TWO HELPFUL TIPS I HAVE LEARNED FROM OTHER HOME COOKS:

–Never over bake cookies. When you take cookies out of the oven they should appear slightly under baked. The cookies will continue to cook on the cookies sheet before they start to cool. If you leave cookies in the oven until they appear done, you will always have a hard, crunchy cookie.

–When storing cookies in a container, especially in a climate with humidity, place a half of piece of bread in the cookie jar. The bread will absorb the moisture and your cookies will stay softer longer.