What cookies can tell us about 250 years of American history

Here's the thing about cookies: No matter where you live, you probably love them.

Whether they're a quick snack after dinner, a sweet treat tucked into a lunchbox or a labor of love made by relatives or members of Facebook's Wedding Cookie Table Community, cookies simply make us happy.

The small "test cakes" that originated in Persia in the 7th century were eventually brought by Dutch settlers to America in the 1600s (they called them "koekje"). They have been bringing joy ever since.

Cookies are a harbinger of culture and technological advances, as well as a marker of the state of economy, politics and changes in consumer tastes and eating habits.

For instance, who knew that condensed milk dated from the Civil War? Or that cookie has sometimes been spelled cookey and cooky?

Or that Eggo wasn't originally a waffle? It was a popular powder - Egg-O - used to supplement or replace eggs in cakes, puddings and custards in the early 20th century. And perhaps most interesting for today's bakers, that the cup and teaspoon measures used today didn't become standardized until 1896, thanks to Fanny Farmer.

The source of all of these tasty bits of trivia is Linda Tennant Saus of Moon, who has been a member of the Wedding Cookie Table Community on Facebook for five years,

The retired software engineer discovered these pieces of cookie history (and countless others) while helping to organize the group's upcoming Cookie Table University at Hilton Garden Inn, Pittsburgh/Southpointe on April 19 with WCTC founder Laura Magone and fellow member Robin Gail Wooten of Spurger, Texas.

Since its first "college" in 2018, the group has organized the annual event around a theme. With the country's 250th birthday on the horizon, the three women decided it might be fun to compile an equal number of cookie recipes to share and display on two professionally styled, 40-foot cookie tables where attendees, after much oohing and aahing, will choose a dozen cookies to take home.

Then the organizers challenged themselves. They decided that each recipe must be connected in some way to an important historical figure, event or era-specific ingredient that helped tell the country's history - ideally, one for each year since 1776.

"We thought, ‘What's the hardest thing we could think of?'" Magone joked as she baked one of the cookie recipes in her mother's "steelworker" kitchen in Monongahela.

Actually, the idea came from wedding decorator and planner Mona D'Ambrosia of Mona's Unique Boutique in Johnstown.

"But as soon as she said it, I went to my [Monongahela Area] Historical Society team, and they loved it," Magone says.

For such a large project (there will be 1,500 or so attendees over two sessions), organizers would need lots of volunteer bakers. Yet they felt it was possible given the community's size - 406,000 members in the U.S and internationally.

"We just had to remain positive about it," says Wooten, a retired nurse. "We knew our girls and men would step up."

First, they had to come up with a working list of memorable people and events over the last 250 years that could be tied to a cookie in some way.

They began by researching what early settlers ate, and what Native Americans taught them about local ingredients like popcorn and maple syrup. They also read up on technique; baking way back then was often done on hearthstones instead of in ovens, "so there were a lot of hardship," Magone says.

One early source that proved the group was on to something was "The First American Cookbook" by Amelia Simmons, a facsimile of the first American-written cookbook published in the U.S. in 1796. (While there wasn't a chapter on cookies, it included two recipes for Christmas cookies.)

The website archive.org, a digital library of Internet sites and other cultural artifacts, also proved invaluable for generating ideas, says Saus, who was tasked with getting all the chosen recipes in order for an eventual cookbook.

"You can find old cookbooks through them, and that helps you think about the people and events in history and the cookie you can relate to them," she says.

Other references included "Fannie Farmer's 1896 Cookbook"; "What Mrs. Fisher Knows About Old Southern Cooking," which is considered the first African-American cookbook published (in 1881); Mary Randolph's "The Virginia House-wife" from 1824; 1984's "The Italian Bakery" by Lee Mangione Cirillo; and "Betty Crocker's Cooky Book" (1963).

Many had to be adapted either because the original recipes included ingredients that are no longer available, like lard or pearlash (we now use baking soda and powder as leavening agents), or they measured flour and sugar in teacups or spoonfuls instead of teaspoons, tablespoons, cups or ounces.

"There might not be directions on how to mix," Saus says, "and if there were any oven suggestions, it was ‘cool' or ‘moderate.' You were just expected to know about it."

Wooten, who joined the group years ago to help ease the pain of losing her son, Mickey, is in charge of not only making sure the recipes are sound and include a historical backstory, but also matching them to volunteer bakers based on skill level by looking at what they've baked and posted on Facebook.

Wooten says bakers often think they're less talented than they really are. So once she made sure the recipe was a sound starting point, she encouraged them to "make it yours" by being creative while following basic guidelines.

"Put the recipe in your own words," the instruction letter read. "You know our audience. They love the ‘folksiness' of our Community and cookbook. Add what you think is important matters. Make the recipe your own. Our members count on getting helpful pointers and tips and instructions that are easy to understand."

Bakers, who also must provide a picture of the cookies for the cookbook, have "really stepped up," Saus says.

Some recipes, especially more modern ones, are fairly clear. Others, not so much.

The first baker to sign up, Illinois native Mary Hodges, is making the original 1913 recipe for Girl Scout cookies along with the loaded oatmeal cookies singer/songwriter John Legend has been baking since his teens.

Cookie University attendees can also expect to find original Toll House cookies, George Washington cherry-studded "hatchet" cookies, the sesame biscotti favored by Frank Sinatra and Joe DeMaggio, Taylor Swift's famed chai cookies and sweets made with Tang, which was used on early NASA space flights (and you can still purchase at Walmart).

One of the tougher recipes, made to honor Martin Luther King Jr., is a cookie version of a favorite gelatinized cousin of ambrosia known as a "quilly." A rainbow-colored cookie will approximate ones Fred Rogers made with Chef Brocket in a 1968 episode of "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood."

Magone is making a cookie she grew up mixing and baking alongside her mom, who died last year at age 100. The budget-friendly "poor man's cookie" from the Great Depression era is being updated with whole milk Greek yogurt instead of shortening.

"Anytime school had a bake sale, we made them," she says.

Wooten, who first heard about the group while traveling to Pittsburgh for her son's treatment - he was severely injured in the military in 2008 and flown to UPMC - isn't just herding the volunteer bakers via a live spreadsheet. She also is making a blueberry pudding cookie based on Franklin D. Roosevelt's favorite dessert, which was served in the White House during his presidency. She'll use fresh blueberries from her farm in Texas.

"It's great because you get to learn history and read about the person," Wooten says.

In choosing recipes, Magone says she steered clear of any that was clearly not bipartisan. Or so she thought: A call for a cookie that featured Ruth Bader Ginsburg's iconic lace collars drew some nasty comments on Facebook. (She found a baker nevertheless.)

Bakers are tasked with making 10 dozen of each assigned cookie. Magone says some attendees line up really early to fill their boxes, and the tables will have to be constantly refilled so all 30,000 or so treats get their time in the limelight. Leftovers will be donated to local food banks, retirement homes and the Grove City Library. There also will be a raffle whose winner will get to sample all 250 cookies.

Mary Hodges, who is making 12 recipes and then driving 1,440 cookies from her home in West Lafayette, Ind., for next Sunday's event, says all that time in the kitchen allows her to give back to a community that gives others so much. In addition to sharing recipes and baking advice, the group often does cookie fundraisers for community organizations and people in need.

"I'm far away from Pittsburgh, so I can't be there for a lot of things," Hodges says. "This is my hobby. I'm having a ball doing it."

Wooten says this year's Cookie University is drawing bakers from as far away as Iowa and California. (There still are a few tickets left for the afternoon session.) Some, in fact, are giving up family vacations to attend - either because they want to learn something new, have a wedding coming up or just want to meet in person the like-minded folks they've met online. Others are picking up cookies along the way for delivery.

"It's a group that wants you and needs you and shares with you," she says.

A few, Wooten adds with a laugh, don't care about baking at all and just want to eat cookies.

What they all have in common, despite being from different walks of life, is the desire to be part of a community that celebrates one of life's greatest pleasures.

Both easily transportable and a blank canvas for expression - cookies, she says, "just make people smile."

Poor Man Cookies

This Depression-era cookie, a family favorite from Laura Magone, was designed for affordability, using just 1 egg and shortening instead of butter. If you don't want to use shortening, substitute ½ cup of oil or ½ cup of whole milk Greek yogurt.

1 cup raisins

1 egg

1 cup sugar

½ cup shortening

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon nutmeg

½ teaspoon ground cloves

½ teaspoon salt

Put 1 cup of raisins in a pan with enough water to cover. Heat on the stove until it begins to boil. Simmer for 15 minutes, turn off heat, then let the raisins sit for another 15 minutes. They will absorb most of the water in the pan. Let cool.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a rimmed cookie sheet or jelly roll pan.

Cream egg, sugar, shortening (or substitute) and vanilla in a large bowl. After the mixture is creamed, add 1 cup of cold water.

Sift dry ingredients together three times, then add to the creamed mixture until combined.

Pour cooked, cooled raisins along with any remaining liquid into the combined mixture. Mix all well.

Spread batter into a greased pan, and bake in a 350-degree oven for 25-30 minutes.

Glaze while still hot with 1 cup of powdered sugar mixed with milk to spreading consistency.

Cut in squares when cold.

Makes 3 dozen cookies.

- Laura Magone, Monongahela

Biscotti Regina

Biscotti Regina (or reginelle) are small, crunchy Sicilian sesame seed cookies, particularly popular in Palermo and often served during Christmas. Known as "queen's biscuits," they feature a distinct nutty, sweet-savory flavor and are typically coated in toasted sesame seeds and flavored with lemon, orange zest or anise.

Frank Sinatra, who started attracting bobby soxers to his concerts in the '40s with songs like "Night and Day," famously loved these cookies, specifically ordering them "a little on the burnt side" from Veniero's Pastry in New York City. He was a regular and often had the crunchy, lemon-scented cookies shipped to his Palm Springs home.

Biscotti Regina were originally made with strutto, or lard, which is often replaced with butter. You also can subsitute lemon zest for orange zest and baking powder for baker's ammonia (ammonium carbonate). For extra nutty flavor, lightly toast the sesame seeds in a dry pan until fragrant.

2 cups all-purpose flour

½ cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon ammonium carbonate or baking powder

⅛ teaspoon salt

⅓ cup unsalted butter, cut into cubes

1 large egg

Zest of 1 orange

4 tablespoons milk

½ cup sesame seeds

In a large bowl, stir together all-purpose flour, sugar, ammonium carbonate (or baking powder) and salt.

Add cold cubed butter and use your fingers or a pastry cutter to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles a coarse meal.

Make a well in the center and add egg, orange zest and milk. Stir together to form dough. If the mixture is dry, add 1 extra tablespoon of milk, as needed, to form a slightly tacky dough.

Shape into a ball, flatten into a disc and wrap with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Prepare a small bowl filled with water; place sesame seeds in a second bowl.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces. Work with one piece of dough at a time, keeping the rest wrapped. Roll into a long rope about the width of your thumb. Cut into 2-inch lengths.

Moisten each cut piece of dough lightly with water with your fingers and roll in sesame seeds to coat all sides.

Place 1 inch apart on prepared baking sheets as they will expand during baking. Continue with remaining dough.

Bake for 22 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool before serving. Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or in freezer for up to 3 months.

Makes 40 cookies.

- Melissa Carnack, Missy La La's Biscotti

Canteen Cookie Bars

PG tested

This recipe is from a 50-page promotional pamphlet put out in 1942 by Spry, a brand of vegetable shortening that was available in the U.S. from 1936 until the 1970s. It was commonly used in baking and cooking, similar to Crisco. It came with instructions on how to pack the cookies in boxes (or empty Spry cans) to mail to soldiers serving in World War II.

I used Crisco and chopped salted cashews. It makes a crispy, chewy cookie.

For cookie layer

½ cup vegetable shortening, plus more for pan

1½ teaspoons salt

½ cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 cup sifted flour

For topping

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs, beaten

2 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

1½ cups shredded coconut

1 cup nuts, coarsely cut

Preheat oven to 325 degrees, Grease an 8-by-12-inch pan with shortening.

Combine shortening and salt. Add ½ cup brown sugar and cream well.

Add 1 cup flour and blend.

Spread in prepared pan and bake in slow oven for 20 minutes.

While base is baking, prepare topping. Add 1 cup brown sugar and vanilla to eggs, beating until thick and foamy.

Add 2 tablespoons flour, baking powder, coconut and nuts, and blend. Spread over baked mixture, then return to oven and bake 25 minutes.

Cool and cut in small bars.

Makes 3 dozen cookie bars.

- Spry Vegetable Shortening booklet, 1942

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