Austrian Crescent Cookies

In 1960, my oldest daughter was in the first grade at old St. Rose school in the East End of Cincinnati.  The three or four block area where we lived was like a small town with little shops, the water works, the gas works, St. Rose church and school and great ethnic diversity.  There were a lot of German, Hungarian and Austrian folks in the neighborhood – hard working with meticulously clean houses and in every one of those homes, there were tins and tins of baked cookies stashed away for the holidays.

At our December PTA meeting, held in a very chilly basement of the church, the ladies brought in tins of cookies for a treat – each tin different according to the woman’s background.  Each lady passed her open tin among the other guests and took great pride in her baking and decorating.

There were so many delicious varieties – Spritz, butter cookies, gingerbread -  but the Austrian Crescent cookie was my favorite.

Those little morsels were buttery, full of ground walnuts, and coated with powdered sugar – heaven.

In later years, they became my oldest son’s favorite as well, so I make sure I have some every year for him to take home and enjoy.

AUSTRIAN CRESCENTS

• 1/2 cup butter (not margarine)
• 6 Tblsp. granulated sugar
• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup ground walnuts
• Dash of salt
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• Powdered/confectioners’ sugar for coating

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Cream butter and sugar.  Mix in flour, walnuts, salt and vanilla.  Roll into balls about 1″ in diameter and then form the balls into crescents (about 1/4″ thick).  Place on an ungreased cookie sheet, allowing 1″ of space between each cookie.

Bake at 325 degrees F for 8-10 minutes.  My son likes them crispy brown, so I bake his a few minutes longer.  Cool slightly on a rack and placing the rack over a baking pan, use a sieve/strainer to sprinkle powdered sugar over the cookies while they are still warm.

Yield:  2-1/2 to 3 dozen cookies, depending on size.

I like to serve the cookies on plates purchased on a trip to Austria in December of 1990.  I don’t know that these cookies are as good as those made almost 50 years ago by a lovely Austrian housewife, but they come close.

The Great-Grandkids Bake Christmas Cookies

My two great-grandchildren have never come to my house before to make Christmas cookies, but this year their mother thought they were old enough at 2 and 4 years to have the fun she used to have with all the flour and butter and cookie cutters.  Here’s their mother baking cookies when she was nine years old.

I supervised as great-granddaughter measured flour and sugar, and even broke an egg.

The two-year-old wanted to do anything his sister was doing and got right into the spirit.

Great-granddaughter soon caught on to the art of rolling cookie dough….

….and great-grandson let his mother help him, his only comment being, “Bite, bite” for bits of the cookie dough which we didn’t want him to have.

They each brushed milk and sprinkled colored sugar on a sheet full of wonderful cookies.

We used the same recipe from all those years ago – it’s a good one.

Grandma’s Sugar Crisps

Cookie Cutter Countdown Hanging

On a recent trip to Holmes County (Ohio) Amish Country, I found a panel for a Christmas wall hanging that I couldn’t resist because it reminded me of all the depression-green items I have in my kitchen.  The panel includes a Christmas countdown calendar, 24 cookie cutouts and complete instructions.  It was very easy to make with the fabric folding up and being quilted to form the pockets.  The rest of the quilting was some very simple outline stitching.  The 24 cookie cutouts are fused onto a felt backing and then trimmed.

All that needs to be added are backing, batting and binding.  I also added a label that included a scanned image of the scottie (my favorite of the 24 different cookie cutters).

The idea is to insert a cookie into each of the 24 pockets on the calendar….

…then beginning December 1, one cookie is removed each day and placed in the big green bowl at the top of the wall hanging.

The last cookie is moved on Christmas Eve – and it’s time for Santa Claus!

The piece measures 18-1/2×26-1/2″.  A rod sleeve can be sewn onto the back, but I prefer to use drapery hooks to display the wall hanging.

I googled Cookie Cutter Christmas and Wilmington Prints, and came up with several sources for buying the panel, including eBay.

Now, I’m waiting for the grandchildren and great-grandchildren to come to my house to bake Christmas cookies – and to see the new Cookie Cutter Calendar.

Quilted Scottie Table Cover

One of my Christmas gifts from my oldest daughter last year was a hand-appliqued red table cover.  She has been winning awards for all types of needlework – crocheting, tatting, embroidery, bobbin lace, etc. – since she was 12 years old, but she had never tried needle turn applique.  She let me admire the table cover then took it back to hand quilt it, which was also a new art for her.

This Christmas, I received the table cover back, completely bound and finished.  It’s gorgeous.

Every inch of the cover is filled with beautiful hand-stitching.

This piece has been transformed from a really nice hand-appliqued item to an heirloom and my daughter has two more areas of expertise to add to her list.

A Little Christmas Baseball Story

I can’t remember when I didn’t love baseball.  I was encouraged in my devotion by my father who took me to Crosley Field to see the Cincinnati Reds, explained the fine points of the game during radio broadcasts, and by the time I was 10, appointed me as his pitching practice catcher.  I had a great ball glove with well-oiled pocket, but what I wanted for Christmas was an official, grey flannel, pin-striped baseball uniform.

Sure enough, on that wartime Christmas Eve in 1942, under the tree was the gorgeous soft uniform with elastic-banded knickers.  I couldn’t wait to put on the uniform although I had to look a little strange wearing it with finger curls hanging halfway down my back.

I wore the uniform all evening, watching my little sister with her toys, admiring the tree and eating my favorite Christmas candy – Mother’s fudge and the old-fashioned chocolate drops with cream centers and dark chocolate coating.

Toward the end of the evening, I plunged into a big leather chair and threw my legs luxuriously over the arm, not realizing that I had sat down on a big gooey chocolate drop.  There was a dark brown stain on the seat of those grey flannel knickers that never did wash out completely.

But it didn’t matter – the thrill of the gift and the pride in the wearing had already taken place on a long-ago memorable Christmas Eve.

Christmas Carolers

Last Saturday evening at about 8:30 PM, my oldest daughter and I were watching Christmas Vacation on television when I heard my doorbell ring.  It’s very unusual for anyone to come to my door after dark, so I went cautiously to open it and before me stood my youngest daughter with her two children, singing at the top of their lungs.  First they sang a song for their aunt which consistently irritates her, I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,  and then gave a very solemn rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing.   Granddaughter kept her eyes on her self-made carol book.   She knows the hippo  song all too well but has to follow her brother’s lead on the carol.

I gave each of the kids a small bag of candy and they headed back home where they planned to ring their own doorbell and give their Dad a surprise caroling party. 

1950s Spritz Cookies

For quite a few years, I’ve created personal memory-type Christmas cards for close family and friends.  In 1995, I sketched and scanned this Spritz cookie scene.  Since I didn’t have a printer with colored ink at the time, I hand water-colored each card.  This was the inside message:

In December of 1953, I took the trolley bus downtown and bought a beautiful copper and aluminum cookie press.  I could hardly wait until the next morning to try it out and kept getting up in the middle of the night to read the little recipe pamphlet that described all of the different shapes possible with this marvel.  I’ve baked hundreds of cookies of all kinds since that December, but every year I get out the old cookie press and look again with wonder at the dainty Christmas tree and wreath cookies, sparkling with green and red sugar.

Have a Christmas full of wonder.

Once again last week, I pulled out the press and the plates for the tree and wreath, making Spritz cookies from the 1950s for St. Nicholas on December 6.

Here is the recipe:

1950s SPRITZ COOKIES

• 1 cup margarine (I like Imperial)*
• 1 large egg (should measure 1/4 cup when broken)
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 2/3 cup granulated sugar
• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose fl0ur
• 1/2 tsp. salt

*Back when I first started making these cookies, I couldn’t afford butter but in later, more affluent times, I’ve found that I prefer the consistency of the Spritz made with margarine.  Certainly, butter can be used if you prefer.

Cream margarine, egg, vanilla and sugar until smooth.  Add flour and salt.  Mix until blended.  Wrap in plastic and refrigerate at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Put one of the plates and half of the dough in the cookie press.  Press cookies onto an ungreased cookie sheet.

Sprinkle with colored sugar and bake for 10-12 minutes until light brown.  Remove to rack to cool.

Repeat with other half of dough, changing to the star plate which I use to make long strips which can be cut and formed into wreaths.  On these cookies, I have traditionally added bits of red and green candied cherries.

I’ll make another batch of these cookies for Christmas and this year, I’ve been asked to make enough of the wreath cookies  to serve  14 of my granddaughter’s pre-school classmates at their Christmas party.   Since my granddaughter likes them so much, I hope her friends will, too.

A Tree Skirt from a Square Dance Skirt

Thirty years ago (in 1978), I was very much involved in square and round dancing.  For my Christmas gift that year, I asked my oldest daughter to work her magic with needle and thread on a skirt I could wear to all the Christmas dances.  She helped me choose a heavy cotton fabric in Christmas green and I made a 12-panel full-circle skirt.  She decorated each of the panels with a different design in embroidery and fabric paint.

My favorite designs were the little folk girl and the angel, although each image was unique and charming.

I wore the skirt for many years at dances and various Christmas parties.  Each time, I would have to stand still while other women made a circle around me, picking up the panels and admiring my daughter’s handiwork.  After my husband became too ill to dance and after the waistband became a little too snug, I hated to think of storing the skirt away and never seeing it again at Christmas time.  That’s when I decided to just cut it apart up the back and use it as a tree skirt.  It’s wonderful and makes an appearance every year encircling my Christmas tree.

I’m so glad to be able to sit and look at the skirt each year, remembering all of the happy dances and parties from so many years ago.

CHRISTMAS GREETING

 

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!

Christmas Handiwork

 

Thanks to two talented daughters, I have a lot of Christmas handiwork to enjoy.  Over the past couple of years the oldest daughter has made primitive Santas….

…an embroidered picture and a handpainted apron….

 

…a kitchen wreath with vintage cookie cutters and decorations.

The youngest daughter made some craft decorations when she was a teenager …..

…and later, an embroidered picture ….

…and just this year, an afghan that looks like rows of Christmas tinsel and snowflakes.

It’s so nice to look around the house and see all these beautiful things that the girls have spent so many hours making.