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hillsboroks
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#1 Posted : Monday, December 20, 2021 7:10:34 PM(UTC)
My husband's parents used to make a rolled and cut out cookie every Christmas that called for the large Muscat raisins. He has memories of them using scissors dipped in flour to cut up the raisins into smaller pieces and adding them to the spiced dough. The dough was then rolled out and cut into various shapes with cookie cutters and sprinkled with colored sugar before baking. He has had me searching for this recipe through all of my cookbooks and the ones I inherited from my mother but I haven't found a thing. I have also tried every search I could think of in the EYB library. His parents are gone and someone tossed all the recipe clippings, recipe cards and cookbooks when cleaning out the house so there is no hope of getting a copy of the original recipe but we thought maybe someone in the EYB community may still have a copy of the recipe to share.
debkellie
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#2 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 12:04:46 AM(UTC)

slice and bake dough recipe .. maybe similar?


There are certainly plenty of recipes out there in internet world... but most are drop style cookies not rolled & cut..


Good luck in your search ;-)

hillsboroks
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#3 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 12:54:56 AM(UTC)
Thanks Debkellie. I checked the link but these aren't the cookies. Like you I found almost all cookies involving raisins also had oatmeal and were all drop cookies. I found a few without oatmeal but they usually had a cooked raisin filling. I checked the Sunmaid Raisin Co. website but again they had mainly oatmeal raisin drop cookies. My husband's parents made these cookies every Christmas during the 1950s through the 1970s. I'm tempted to just look for a good spice cookie recipe for rolled and cut out cookies and add cut up raisins to it and see if that satisfies my husband's yearning for the cookies of his childhood.
debkellie
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#4 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 2:43:22 AM(UTC)

I found an interesting Swedish recipe that could be similar .. or adapted .. one recipe also had a egg white brush over with coloured sugars sprinkled on .. but I can't find that again in my history!! I figured the Sun Maid raisin explosion from the mid-30s may have been of use .. but no!

Christine
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#5 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 8:51:50 AM(UTC)

hillsboroks;25931 wrote:
His parents are gone and someone tossed all the recipe clippings, recipe cards and cookbooks when cleaning out the house so there is no hope of getting a copy of the original recipe but we thought maybe someone in the EYB community may still have a copy of the recipe to share.


Does he have any idea which of those was more likely -- clipping, recipe card, or cookbook? Any additional hints about the recipe's source might help!

pitterpat4
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#6 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 8:55:15 AM(UTC)
hillsboroks
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#7 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 9:28:43 AM(UTC)
Those cinnamon raisin cookies that Pitterpat4 found look exactly like the ones we are searching for. I also switched up my EYB search and looked just for "Spice cookies" and found another possible close match in the 1996 Cook's Illustrated Annual Cookbook. In the November- December section they have a recipe for Multipurpose Butter Cookie Dough with lots of variations including one called Raisin - Spice Cookies that also sounds almost exactly like the cookie recipe we have been searching for. I may try whipping up a batch of each recipe to see which one my husband thinks is closest to his childhood favorite. As a note as to whether the original recipe came from a book, card or clipping we have no idea. Thank you to everyone who helped me along the way on this search for an old lost recipe.
pitterpat4
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#8 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 10:14:04 AM(UTC)

I hope you find the right one. Let us know how they turn out.

ashallen
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#9 Posted : Tuesday, December 21, 2021 9:53:34 PM(UTC)

If you decide to keep searching, The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1965 edition) has a couple of recipes that might be of interest. One is for "Sugar Cookies" which, like the Cook's Illustrated recipe mentioned above, is followed by several variations including "Raisin Cookies" and "Spiced Sugar Cookies" (though no single variation has raisins and spices together).  If your husband's cookie contained molasses, there's also a "Molasses Cookies (Spice Cookies)" recipe which has variations that include raisins and/or are rolled and cut out in shapes. Good luck with your search!

hillsboroks
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#11 Posted : Sunday, December 26, 2021 5:15:43 PM(UTC)
I tried the Raisin Spice version of Cook's Illustrated Multipurpose Butter Cookie Dough (Nov-Dec 1996 Annual) and I think my search for the lost muscat raisin cookie has ended. This dough is extremely easy to work with. It rolls out thinly with no extra effort, cuts easily with a cookie cutter, and bakes up nice and crisp. The Raisin Spice version has a lovely spice flavor and the chopped raisins look just like the ones in the cookies my husband remembers. His only flavor concern was that he thought there should be more raisins in the cookies. I can fix that. Next time I will just bump up the amount of raisins and see what he thinks. As a side note the authors made a point of pointing out in the story about their perfect cookie dough search that they discovered that bleached flour makes better cookies. They found that bleached flour made lighter cookies with a better butter flavor. They went on to explain all the scientific reasons for this but for my purposes I am going to try using bleached flour in the future for these kinds of cookies. Also this recipe has 13 flavor variations based on the original recipe so this is the most amazing cookie recipe I've ever come across. Thank you everyone for all the help and suggestions in my search.
ashallen
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#12 Posted : Monday, December 27, 2021 11:04:14 AM(UTC)

Thank you so much for the update, hillsboroks! It's great to hear you were able to track down a lost recipe.

pitterpat4
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#13 Posted : Tuesday, December 28, 2021 7:53:31 AM(UTC)

Glad you found the recipe. Thanks for the update.

Rinshin
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#14 Posted : Tuesday, December 28, 2021 4:38:28 PM(UTC)

Yes,glad you were able to track your recipe.  It is an accomplishment when you can find or create recipes such as this. 


I need to go through 76-80 BA and Gourmet magazines for my elusive recipe before the year end. 

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