Cookie Day 2023 and my two antique Recipes!

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Cookie Day was yesterday(Sunday), and flour was flying, laughter was ringing, and carols were humming in the background. We were only six this year...but maybe more fun than having 13 or so...LOL. And we made proportionally less cookies, which helped.

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If I look tired, it wasn't 

because I did all these cookies alone.

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Our stash of cutters got a work out -----

these are the newer Christmas ones...My husband is THE cookie cutter hoarder! 

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 I set up everything in the middle of our huge kitchen table. Sprinkles are put on the Lazy-Susan. 

This is the last year I will buy pre-packaged cookie icing. I will invest in more tips and bags and mix the icing myself with powder sugar. cream of tartar, and vanilla. Sure works better than the prepackaged icing, tastes better too.

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We went basic with the gingerbread this year and just white homemade icing, which sets up quickly.

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Cooling racks are a must when you are making tons of cookies. The guys rolled out, and the gals decorated.

I've used this recipe for 50 years or so.

I was so happy to find Brer Rabbit molasses this year, that has such a super taste. 

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These are my hubby's THICK Cookies---it's his grandmother's recipe so very OLD. We had the fifth generation making her cookies, yesterday! The recipe is probably older than that, too.

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Really cute decorating the girls did, we all cut back on icing---lol, I know you can't tell. 

Alvina's OLD RECIPE for Form Cookies.

I use unbleached flour and have substituted Crisco for half the lard...but the consistency changes. Upside these are delicious, hold well, and  are perfect for decorating or just sprinkling sugar on. 

You can leave out the egg white and the icing is fine and dries nicely with just water 

added with the cream of tartar.

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What's left to do this week---Klejner, Finksbro, Vaniller Kranse, Pound Cake, Pumpkin bread baked into gingerbread house forms-for gifts,  Peppernuts...and chocolate crinkles and coconut wreaths...I better get cracking, no elves to help with these! 

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Finally---gettin' it Together!

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....bit by bit, getting it together. The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of family and friends.

We aren't celebrating the Christmas holidays here---but, probably will have family over the next weekend or New Years Day for a traditional Smorgasbord.

Our Kitchen is the HEART of our home---so I will begin there, between cookie baking and special treats our kitchen is a working kitchen. Really hard to get pictures when so much is going on-ALL-the time.

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The center of the kitchen is the island, where I always have some vintage on display. The Grand's apron is still here from cookie day---so it's on her chair. 

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But so is this fun towel---which describes the last two weeks...LOL. I'm blessed with an incurable romantic for a husband---so we having been overdosing on 'Christmas movies'.

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The old wooden tin cookie press/decorator--is the focal surrounded by vintage candy forms.

My kitchen always has touches of red, but not like Christmas!

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My favorite apron---with a magical Santa and a sleigh full of toys and goodies.

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My mixer is out all the time---too heavy for an old lady to bend down with .

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We've made pumpkin bread, poundcake, pepper nuts, sugar cookies and gingerbread, so far. I'm planning on popcorn balls, coated pretzels, Klejner(Danish fried cookies) and Rosettes--yet to do. I'm to bring Christmas desert on Christmas Eve...so also whatever we decide to bring for that. 

Now that my kids are in their mid-forties...we take turns on the holidays! 

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Our most important corner (besides the dishwasher) is the coffee machine. I haven't put out my Christmas mugs this year...when we have family---my girl's want to use cups and saucers...and the guys mugs. So it's easy enough to add cups. The blue bowl holds pepper nuts.

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Tea and cocoa, marshmallows and everything else you need for a 'hot beverage'. 

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The snowman jar holds marshmallows. Grab a mug and join me.

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I have spices and orange peels simmering on the burner. 

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I was out cutting some greens from the yard...a bundle of greens from a tree lot would be $20 here in the suburbs...? 

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Besides spices and baking, we love the scent of fresh greens. I will put some in containers and sprinkle them through the house, with simple red bows.

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I really picked quite a bit. 

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On the kitchen sink counter---I have the fish poacher filled with fun vintage toys and tins. The ginger bread couple are resting in a brass/copper frying pan by a local artist that works with vintage items.

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The window bookcase in the eating area...is filled with tins, plants, baking molds. The tree is my fresh ivy tree, that is really getting thick. I skipped the lights this year, and used a straw ornament chain and a bow on top. The old pot it's in is covered by a plastic gift bag of cottages.

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The vintage, probably antique red throw is a triple, maybe quadruple weave, and reversible. I've heard some call this Turkey red. Our antique coffee grinder and old scale work well.

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I love old tin boxes/shapes/containers. And I use them somewhere every year.

 I found the vintage Nestle box buried in some of my mom's things. 

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The detail in the linen is amazing, and it has a lovely 'hand' to it...soft and pliable.

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In the corner of the kitchen is our hutch. I've added extra red to my traditionally blue and white. 

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Here's another vintage crafted gingerbread pot---doesn't he just make you want to eat cookies and have a cup of tea.

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We have so much Christmas decor in totes...we only brought up about a third of it this year. 

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The top of the hutch has greens, lights and my gingerbread ribbon. 

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One side has a Julen Harten...Christmas Heart which is traditional in the Scandinavian countries, especially Denmark.

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On the other side is my old wall plaque, a woman with a broom....

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She says, "If everyone would sweep in front of their own stoop....the whole world would be clean!"

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I have to laugh this is as clean as it will get over the next two weeks. 

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Of course there are things hidden in the corners....

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Right now---the table is empty---except this bowl of fresh greens. I think a great decoration maybe a few popcorn balls and maybe a gingerbread cookie or two...we will see. I have more molds---? 

It definitely needs some red!

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From our Red holiday kitchen to yours!

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Bestemor's Pund Kage or Gramma's Poundcake..

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Yesterday, I spent the better part of the day decorating in the kitchen, taking pictures and then baking.

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Christmas or Jul is just not Christmas until I bake Bestemor's (Grandmother's) Poundcake or Pund Kage. Here is the Christmas tree in the kitchen, I will share completely, later. The little wool yarn Nisse or elf is making sure my cake will rise or not. This is the last of the family original ones from probably the 1920's.

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Our everyday coffee station with added cocoa and marshmallows. Cinnamon sticks are great for sticking in with coffee grounds, or stirring tea. But what is that wonderful smell of butter and vanilla?

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Mmmmmm, just out of the oven. Bestemor's Pund Kage.

The new white kitchen is the heart of our home and this is the first major baking I have done other than some pumpkin pies. Such a pleasure to have everything easy to find, reach, and the extra counters are amazing. The butcher block is so forgiving.

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Here's Gramma---baking on a vintage music box. This display is temporary as we are having Family Cookie Day on Saturday and the entire counter will be filled with rolling pins and cookie cutters.

Family History:

I have two boxes of recipes and a book from my grandmother and perhaps two or more grandmother's from the handwriting before her. Most are entirely in Danish and sometimes a script nearly impossible to read, some written on the thinnest parchment paper in pencil. Many are from the 1800's. Problems though, quantities are described as butter the size of an egg, handfuls, spoon (no size, just spoon)---or in liters or grams. Plus ingredients no longer available, like saltpeter, used for sausage making and preserving.

Fun stuff-when you are trying to archive and duplicate family recipes. I had often helped my grandmother with Christmas baking as a child, so the how-to was not the problem, but the quantities were and continue to be.

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After much research, trial and error, I have managed to get very close to what her poundcake tasted like over the years. My University had a Home Economics major---so the library was chuck full of cookbooks and international recipes/equivalents etc. So between my grandmother's scribbles in Danish-English,  and researching, we got it worked out.

Also products change over 100 years...flour is different, as are the eggs, buttermilk is no longer raw either and all this effected the results.

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Today's Bestemor's Pund Kage- Grandmother's Poundcake

Cream in mixer/large bowl until fluffy:
1 cup of butter ( I use salted) (don't bother and try and substitute)
2 cups of white cane sugar (I have tried turbinado...it doesn't work)

Add one at time, 4 large eggs, beat in each until totally combined (not extra large or jumbo)

(At this point I remember hand mixing all this! In my grandmother's HUGE yellow ware bowl.)

Add 2 tsp. grated lemon rind (positively need this)
1 Tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

Sift together well into another bowl

3 cups of unbleached flour, I use Ceresota or King Arthur
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder

Have ready 1 cup of fresh buttermilk

Slowly add the flour mixture one cup at a time and beat with 1/3 of the buttermilk

Repeat and repeat. Mix on low until completely combined, or fold in by hand, like Bestemor.

Pour into 2 greased and floured  large loaf pans, I use Bestemor's vintage glass ones.
or 3 smaller aluminum pans.

Bake 325 degrees for 1 hour and 15 min.

When the cake is lightly brown and a bamboo skewer comes out clean from the center they are done.

Sometimes it takes longer if you are like me and triple the recipe!

A must serve with fresh Kaffe (Coffee) with Kreme (Cream), or in the afternoon a sip of sweet red wine.

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Hubby volunteered to cut the cake. We cut the lightest one---just in case it was gooey in the middle. But, it was perfect texture and flavor.

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And just as quick, he tested it...

I basically cook everything healthy, except this one recipe in all its delicious goodness.
Pound Cake is named for what it puts on your hips, period. But so nummy!

While I took photos, this is what happened, a second piece....whoa, Merrycholesterol pills.

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Glædelig Jul! Merry Christmas, it's finally Christmas here now!

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That's Bestemor's1920's glass pan on the right. I have 5 of them. 

Thanks always for visiting. 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question.

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions or posts. Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission. Thank you for your cooperation, Sandi Magle

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