Happy National Cookie Day!
What’s your favorite cookie? National Cookie Day was first established December 6th, 1987. December 6th is also St. Nicholas Day, a celebration in many European cultures. St. Nicholas, the inspiration for Santa Claus, is associated with giving gifts and sweets to children. Cookies, as a traditional holiday treat, tie well to this theme of giving and celebration.
During World War II, ingredient rationing led to the creation of inventive cookie recipes in the United States. While specific “top” cookies varied, here are three popular types from that era:
- Oatmeal Molasses Cookies: These cookies utilized readily available oats and molasses, which served as a substitute for scarce white and brown sugars.
- Peanut Butter Cookies: Peanut butter was a non-rationed protein source, making it a popular ingredient in baking.
- Wartime Chocolate Chip Cookies: Traditional chocolate chip cookies were adapted using available ingredients. For instance, some recipes replaced sugar with honey and maple syrup, and butter with shortening, to accommodate rationing constraints.
These recipes used ration-friendly substitutes like corn syrup, honey, or molasses instead of sugar. Recipes also sometimes used lard or margarine instead of butter.
Popular variations included spice cookies, molasses cookies, and other creative combinations to stretch ingredients. These cookies reflected the ingenuity of home bakers who worked around ingredient limitations while providing comfort and joy during challenging times.
The Joseph Burnett Company was one of the food companies offering home cooks directions using war restrictions, and in “Cookies for Rookies” was this tasty peanut butter cookie recipe called “AWOL – a welcome addition to guardhouse rations”.
This recipe is light on sugar (compared to the 2+ cups of sugar you’d find in some modern recipes) but the white corn syrup adds the sweetness back in. (We have an aversion to corn syrup, it was popular during the war as a replacement for sugar.)
Peanut Butter Cookie Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups flour
- ½ cup shortening
- ½ cup peanut butter
- ⅓ cup sugar
- ⅓ cup white corn syrup
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 and set out several In a mixing bowl, combine shortening, peanut butter, shortening, sugar, white corn syrup, egg and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl combine dry ingredients, sifting to make sure there are no lumps in your flour. The combine all ingredients and place in fridge to chill (about 2 hours). Then create small balls out of the dough and place on cookie sheet a few inches apart. Bake for about 13 minutes, checking to make sure cookies cook all the way through (your oven time may vary). Allow to cool and serve (or send to your favorite soldier)!
https://historycurator.com/peanut-butter-cookies-classic-wwii-recipe/