Old-Fashioned Cookies and Drop Cakes: Chocolate, Lemon, Mixed Spice & More

By Edith Wells

Old-fashioned cookies come in a variety of flavors: chocolate, lemon, cinnamon, rose and mixed spice to name a few. This antique cookie recipe collection contains 400 plus old-time cookie recipes. Throughout the cook book, you’ll also find old-fashioned ads and advice from the original cookbooks. Whip up a batch of old-fashioned cookies or drop cakes and take a tasty trip back in time.

1847 Spiced Midgets with Pistachio Frosting
1881 Sugar Plum Children’s Cookies
1886 Vanilla Rice Flour Plunkets
1889 Naples Lemon Biscuits
1891 Fried Cinnamon Cookies
1893 Cocoanut Yum-Yums
1900 Love Knots
1904 Jelly Moonshiners
1905 Noah’s Ark Cookies
1907 Orange & Fig Chocolate Dominoes
1908 Chinese Preserved Ginger Cookies
1912 Rose & Marshmallow Squares with Almonds
1913 Shrewsbury Cookies
1915 Raspberry Jam Filled Cookies
1916 Pecan & Citron Cookies
1920 Reliable or Seven Minute Icing
1921 Fried Orange & Mace Knots
1922 Lemon & Cardamom Alphabet Cookies
1923 Spiced Coffee & Dried Fruit Cookies

“What are cookies?...Cookies are small, flat, hard, sweetened cakes.” - The Way We Did At Cooking School (1896)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Edith Wells
• Release date: Dec 22, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005220044

Edith Wells

Edith Wells collects and cooks antique recipes. Visit the website for more old-fashioned recipes. The vlog features old-fashioned dessert recipes made paleo, spiced up antique vegetarian recipes, and old-time bean pot recipes. On the blog, you'll find old-fashioned menus for an old-fashioned dinner night, crazy old-time recipes, and antique recipes recreated. Books include: Old-Fashioned Salads, Old-Fashioned Fruit Salads, Old-Fashioned Dinner Menus, and Old-Fashioned Afternoon Tea.

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1921 Allspice Crumb Cookies

Baker's Friend

Up-To-Date Receipts

J. L. Mackenzie

SPICE COOKIES

2 lbs. sugar

2 lbs. lard

4 lbs. crumbs

4 oz. soda

1 qt. water

1/4 oz. allspice

Salt

8 lbs. flour

"In the mixing of cookies it is fair to assume that most cookie mixtures are mixed as follows: Mix or cream together sugar and shortening, add the eggs, then the milk, seasoning and flavors, stirring all together, then sift in flour, baking powder or soda and cream of tartar."

Baker's Friend (1921)

1921 Allspice Currant Cookies

Baker's Friend

Up-To-Date Receipts

J. L. Mackenzie

BEST COOKIES

2 lbs. sugar

1 lb. lard

5 eggs

1 oz. soda

3 1/2 lbs. flour

1/2 pt. molasses

1 lb. currants

1/2 pt. water

Salt

The Boston Cooking-School Cook Book (1918)

Cardamom

"O, weary mothers mixing dough.

Don't you wish that food would grow?

Your lips would smile I know to see

A cookie bush or a pancake tree."

The People's Home Recipe Book (1920)

1893 Lemon, Rose & Cardamom Cookies

Aunt Babette's Cook Book

CARDAMOM COOKIES

1/2 lb butter

1/2 lb pulverized sugar

1 lemon peel grated

1 tbs brandy

Yolks of 6 hard boiled eggs, grated

1 tsp cardamom seed, pounded fine

1 tbs rosewater

Pulverized ammonia*

Rub to a cream half a pound of best butter and add half a pound of pulverized sugar, the grated peel of a lemon, a tablespoonful of brandy, and the grated yelks of six hardboiled eggs, a teaspoonful of cardamom seed pounded fine, a tablespoonful of rosewater, and as much pulverized ammonia* as you can put on the end of a knife. Work this into a soft dough, with just enough flour to roll out. Don't get your dough too stiff, flour your board thickly and roll out thin. Spread with the beaten whites of the eggs and pounded almonds. Bake in a quick oven for about ten minutes. Break each egg carefully, putting the whites in a deep bowl and setting on ice until wanted, and put each yelk into a half shell (do this as you break each egg, leaving the yelk in the same egg shell) and set in boiling water and boil until hard, then take them out and set in a cool place, and do not attempt to grate them until perfectly cold. It would be much easier to boil the whole egg, but then you would waste the whites.

*Use baking powder instead.

1893 Lemon, Brandy, & Rose

Cardamom Cookies with Almonds

Aunt Babette's Cook Book

CARDAMOM COOKIES

6 hard boiled eggs

1/2 lb sugar

Peel of 1 lemon, grated

1/2 wineglass brandy

1/2 lb butter

Flour

2 cents cardamom seed

Rosewater

1 egg, beaten

Sprinkle of pounded almonds

Sprinkle of sugar

Boil six eggs hard. When cold shell and grate the yelks (reserve the whites for salads or to garnish vegetables), add half a pound of sugar, the grated peel of a lemon and half a wineglassful of brandy. Stir in half a pound of butter which has been worked to a cream (unless your butter is sweet you had better wash it through several waters before rubbing it). Sift in as much flour as you think will allow you to roll out the dough; take as little as possible, a little over half a pound, and flour the board very thick. Put in about two cents' worth of cardamom seed and very little rosewater. Cut out with a fancy cake cutter and brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle pounded almonds and sugar on top. If you add half a teaspoonful of pulverized ammonia* it will make the cookies very light. It should be sifted with the flour.

*Use baking powder instead.

"What are cookies?...Cookies are small, flat, hard, sweetened cakes."

The Way We Did At Cooking School (1896)

1919 Cardamom Cookies

Original Recipes of Good Things to Eat

Cardamom Cookies

1/2 cup butter

4 eggs

2 cups sugar

2/3 cup milk

1 tbs melted oil or lard

2 tsp baking powder

3 to 4 cups flour

1 tsp cardamom crushed fine

Drop from spoon about size of marble or rolled out on bread board. Mrs. F. Moenck.

1922 Lemon & Cardamom Alphabet Cookies

Good Housekeeping's Book of Menus, Recipes, and Household Discoveries

Good housekeeping Magazine International Magazine Company

ALPHABET COOKIES

1 cupful butter or margarine

Grated rind 1 lemon

1 cupful sugar

1 tablespoonful crushed cardamom

2 eggs

4 cupfuls pastry flour

1 teaspoonful vanilla

Cream together the butter and sugar; add the eggs well beaten and the rest of the ingredients. Knead the mixture in the bowl with the hands until thoroughly mixed, then cut off a small portion, and, with the palms of the hands, roll it into a long cylindrical strip about one-half inch thick. Form the dough into any letters desired and bake on a greased baking sheet at 450 F. for about ten minutes. Seattle, Wash.

The California Practical Cook Book (1882)

Chocolate

1887 Iced Chocolate Cookies

The Buckeye Cook Book

Estelle W. Wilcox

Chocolate Cookies

3/4 cake chocolate

2 cups white sugar

1 cup butter

1/2 cup cold water

2 eggs

1 tsp soda

Flour to roll

Icing

To finish nicely, ice the tops.

1889 Frosted Chocolate Cookies

Journal Cook Book

Albany Journal Company

Chocolate Cookies

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 cup grated chocolate

1 cup butter

1 scant tsp soda

2 eggs

Flour

Frosting

Powdered sugar

Boiling water

Mix quite stiff. When baked drop teaspoon of frosting on each cookie. Frosting: Mix powdered sugar with a small quantity of boiling water.

1893 Chocolate Puffs

Aunt Babette's Cook Book

CHOCOLATE PUFFS

2 egg whites

2 teacups powdered sugar

2 tbs cornstarch

2 ounces chocolate, grated

Beat to a stiff froth the whites of two eggs, stirring into them very gradually two teacups of powdered sugar and two tablespoonfuls of cornstarch, into which you have grated two ounces of chocolate. Bake on buttered tins fifteen minutes in a warm oven and drop with a dessert spoon one inch apart.

1899 Chocolate Cookies

The 3-6-5 Cook Book

Mary Shelley Pechin

CHOCOLATE COOKIES

2 1/2 cups powdered sugar

3/4 cup flour

1 bar Leakers' chocolate, melted

4 eggs

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

Bake in long pan in a slow oven and when done, cut into squares. When spreading the batter, it will facilitate matters to wet the knife frequently in hot water to prevent the dough adhering to it. The cookies are better the second day.

"Almond paste can be rubbed into the butter and sugar in making cookies; it is rather rich and heavy for a cake."

The Home Science Cook Book (1912)

1906 Cinnamon Chocolate Cookies

20th Century Cook Book

Maude C. Cooke

Chocolate Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

Salt

Cinnamon

2 ounces melted chocolate

1 well-beaten egg

1/2 tsp soda dissolved in 2 tbs milk

2 1/2 cups flour

Beat to a cream half a cupful of butter. Gradually beat into this 1 cupful of sugar, add a little salt, a little cinnamon and 2 ounces of melted chocolate. Now add 1 well-beaten egg and a half teaspoonful of soda dissolved in 2 tablespoonfuls of milk, add 2 1/2 cups of flour, roll thin and bake in a quick oven.

1907 Cocoa Cocoanut Cookies

Lowney's Cook Book

Maria Willett Howard

Cocoa Cocoanut Cookies

3 eggs

1/4 cup Lowney's Chocolate Powder

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup heavy cream

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup shredded cocoanut

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

Mix ingredients in order given. Chill, roll 1/4 inch thick, and shape with cooky cutter. Bake in moderate oven.

1907 Spiced Chocolate Cookies

with Almonds and Citron

One Thousand Favorite Recipes

The Ladies Auxiliary

Browned Almond Cookies

2 lbs brown sugar

6 eggs

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

3 sticks grated chocolate

1 lb almonds, cut fine

15 cents citron, cut fine

Flour

4 tsp baking powder

Almonds

2 eggs, beaten with sugar

Beat together two pounds brown sugar and 6 eggs. Add 1 teaspoon allspice, 1 teaspoon cloves, 2 teaspoons cinnamon, 3 sticks chocolate grated, 1 pound almonds cut fine, 15 cents citron cut fine, flour to thicken so you can roll it, using 4 teaspoons baking powder. Blanch some almonds and put half a one on top of each cake. When baked, have whites of 2 eggs beaten with little sugar and spread on top after they are taken from oven. Cut into diamond shape. Mrs. M. Buchman, Oakland.

1907 Orange & Fig Chocolate Dominoes

Lowney's Cook Book

Maria Willett Howard

Chocolate Dominoes

1 cup chopped walnut meats

2 squares Lowney's Premium Chocolate, melted

1/2 cup chopped figs

1/2 cup almond paste

1/4 teaspoon salt

Grated rind of orange

Orange juice

Sugar

Mix the ingredients with enough orange juice to make the mixture of the consistency to spread. Knead on a sugared board. Cut in shape of dominoes, coat with melted chocolate, and decorate with pieces of almonds.

1907 Chocolate Angelettes

Lowney's Cook Book

Maria Willett Howard

Chocolate Angelettes

4 egg whites

4 tablespoons Lowney's Always Ready Chocolate Powder

1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup flour

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla

Confectioners' sugar

Beat whites; add cream of tartar and sugar, and continue beating. Cut and fold in salt, chocolate, flour. Flavor and drop by spoonfuls onto a buttered sheet; sprinkle with sugar and bake in a moderate oven.

"Cooky doughs are more like pastry with the addition of sugar, spice, and egg, and the same care should be given to keeping the dough cold in order to roll and cut it without adhering to the board."

Principles of Cookery (1907)

1908 Chocolate Walnut Cookies

One Thousand Favorite Recipes

The Ladies Auxiliary

Chocolate Cookies

3 egg whites, beaten to snow

3/4 cup powdered sugar

1 cup ground sweet chocolate

1 cup walnuts, chopped (not too small)

3 tbs flour

Drop in pan.

1908 Spiced Chocolate Sticks

One Thousand Favorite Recipes

The Ladies Auxiliary

Chocolate Sticks

3 sticks grated chocolate

1 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp syrup

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

Vanilla to taste

1 tbs butter

3 eggs

1 teacup chopped almonds

3 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

Mix chocolate, spices, syrup, sugar, vanilla, and butter. When mixed put in 3 eggs, 1 teacup chopped almonds, 3 cups flour, 2 teaspoons baking powder. Mix well; it will be soft. Butter pan, put in about the thickness of your finger, bake in moderate oven and when baked cut in sticks the size you want. Mrs. H. Pickard.

1908 Lemon & Almond Chocolate Sticks

One Thousand Favorite Recipes

The Ladies Auxiliary

Chocolate Sticks—No. 2.

1/2 cup powdered sugar

1/2 cup grated almonds

1 cake sweet chocolate

Juice from 1 lemon

1 egg

1 yolk

1 egg white

Powdered sugar

Mix and roll on floured board. Beat one egg white and thicken with powdered sugar; add to the above. Cut into strips and bake on oiled paper. Mrs. Jacob R. Hiller.

1908 Chocolate Fudge Cookies with Nuts

One Thousand Favorite Recipes

The Ladies Auxiliary

Chocolate Fudge Cookies

1/2 cup butter

1 cup sugar

2 egg yolks

2 egg whites

2 squares Baker’s chocolate, melted

1/4 cup flour

Chopped nuts

Sprinkle chopped nuts on top before baking. Bake in a square buttered pan and cut in squares or diamonds before removing from the pan.

1909 Chocolate Squares with Almonds

Council Cook Book

San Francisco Section of the Council of Jewish Women

Mrs. J. C. Levy, President

Chocolate Squares

4 eggs

1 1/2 cups sugar

5 tsp chocolate

1 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp yeast powder

Blanched almonds

Bake in a large, flat pan, spread batter, and put blanched almonds on top. When done, cut into squares. Bake in a moderate oven.

1909 Spiced Chocolate Squares, Iced

Council Cook Book

San Francisco Section of the Council of Jewish Women

Mrs. J. C. Levy, President

Honey Cakes

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

1 cup honey

1 cup blanched almonds, chopped finely

1 tsp allspice

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chocolate

Flour

2 tsp yeast powder

White icing

Almonds for top

Beat eggs and mix one cup of sugar, honey, blanched almonds chopped finely, allspice, cloves and cinnamon, chocolate, flour enough to make a thick batter, and yeast powder. Spread very thin on square, buttered pans, bake in a hot oven, and when done, spread with a white icing, cut into squares, and put a half blanched almond in the center of each square.

1909 Iced Cocoa Squares

Council Cook Book

San Francisco Section of the Council of Jewish Women

Mrs. J. C. Levy, President

Cocoa Squares

1 cup butter

1 1/2 cups granulated sugar

4 egg yolks

4 tsp cocoa

2 cups flour, sifted

1 cup milk

1 1/2 tsp yeast powder

Vanilla

4 egg whites, beaten

Icing

4 tsp cocoa

2 tbs boiling water

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup powdered sugar

Cream butter with granulated sugar, add well beaten yolks, cocoa, sifted flour, milk, yeast powder, and vanilla; lastly, the four beaten whites. Bake twenty minutes in a well greased, large, shallow pan. After removing cake from the oven, spread over it the following icing, while the cake is still warm: Four teaspoons cocoa, dissolved in two tablespoons boiling water, one teaspoon vanilla, and one cup powdered sugar, gradually added. Spread over the top