Back to Holmwood

I have an oddly complicated relationship with this recipe – starting with the fact that I have a relationship with a cookie! But oh what a cookie.

Right off the bat, I’m not a baker. Recipes for baked goods always look like Grade Four math problems to me – you know the ones – “Two trains leave the station travelling in opposite directions ten minutes apart on a rainy Friday afternoon. How old is the engineer?”  Way too much measuring and precision for me! But I can make these cookies –  even though they’re never as good as Mom’s were – and every tasty bite is full of happy memories of home.

This is a legacy recipe, passed through Mom’s grandmother’s family. I suspect that most families have a similar version in their own files.  The combination of such simple ingredients produces a cookie that could elevate my spirits like nothing else when I was a kid. Coming through the back door after school to be greeted with the aroma of cinnamon and vanilla wafting through the house was simply the best thing ever.  Even after I moved away from home, Mom would often send “care packages” that included a box of these little gems.

If you don’t have a recipe like this one in your file – you do now!

As the card is a little hard to read, I’ve re-written the recipe below:

Boiled Raisin Cookies

To one cup of  water in a saucepan add 1 1/2 cups golden raisins. Boil gently for 5 minutes and allow to cool, saving the liquid.

Beat together:

1 cup shortening

2 cups of sugar (added one at a time, mixing well between additions)

3 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

In a separate bowl, sift together:

4 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Add the sifted ingredients, plus the raisins and their liquid to the creamed mixture and blend completely.

Drop by teaspoon onto a greased baking sheet.  Bake at 400F for 12-15 minutes.

Makes approximately 6 dozen cookies.