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Grandma
Maguire's French Cookies
Fun time, better with age, and tastes of home!
by Katelyn Thomas
All materials copyrighted
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Straight To French Cookie Recipe
Every Christmas, my mother would pull out the eggs and butter and find herself surrounded by children eager to help her decorate her
great-grandmother Maguire’s special cookies. Every year, when the cookies were finished, my mother said she would never make them again.
It was too hard and time consuming to make the Maguire cookies when we could just whip up sugar cookies instead. Yet, when the next year
came around, she would once again pull out the yellowed recipe.
There was something magical about rolling out the dough, cutting out the cookies, glazing them with colored egg whites, and finishing
them off with sprinkles and chocolate chips. If there were any cookies left a week after they were cooked, there was the added bonus of
an even richer tasting cookie than the ones that were fresh out of the oven.
Great-grandma Maguire and Grandma Troutman hid their cookies to let them age, but my mother and her mother before her let the kids scoop
cookies right from the cooling racks. My mother remembered how hard it was for her to wait for her Grandma Troutman’s cookies to age and
her mother remembered feeling the same impatience when her grandmother made her wait an entire week to finally bite into one of the
delicious morsels.
I made Grandma Maguire’s cookies when I was eighteen and said I would never make them again. However, last Christmas, my three year old
niece, Alexis, was visiting and I pulled out the recipe.
“What are you doing?” she asked.
I smiled down at her. “You mean what are we doing. I’m going to need some decorating help.”
In no time at all, the entire kitchen was coated in flour and there was a broken egg on the floor. Now, I knew why my mother never let
her children assist her during the first part of the cookie-making project when we were young. However, I did have two hours to clean
everything up before we started rolling, cutting and decorating our cookies.
Yes, it was a messy and tiring project. Yes, I said I wasn’t doing this again next Christmas. After all, I put all of that work into the
cookies and they disappeared in a matter of days. Despite this, I have the feeling that a few days before next Christmas, I will be
pulling out that cherished recipe once again, because the minute I pulled out the rolling pin and the cookie cutters I was surrounded by
eager helpers. Everyone wanted to use a special cookie cutter or a favorite decoration. For the first time in several years, we really
slowed down and enjoyed our holiday.
However, the real fun didn’t begin until my sister Pam brought up a past cookie tragedy.
“Remember the time we went into the living room to decorate the tree while the cookies were cooling?” she asked.
"And mom heard a noise from the kitchen." I shook my head and laughed.
“What was the noise?” Alexis asked.
“Well, we went in to the kitchen to see what was going on and there was the dog right in the middle of the table chowing down. No cookies
for us that year,” Pam said.
“What about the year the stove caught fire and our pretty cookies were all covered in the fire extinguisher foam?” Mom asked as she added
another chocolate chip to the star cookie she was decorating.
“Forget the cookies,” said my brother Dan. “What about you girls standing in the front yard in your robes and fuzzy slippers when the
fire engine pulled up? Now that was funny.”
“I still keep a coat and shoes in the garage in case something like that ever happens again,” I admitted.
"Remember the year I put 2 cups of salt in the cookies instead of 2 cups of sugar?” asked Pam.
“Yuck,” said Alexis.
“We didn't even know she did it until the cookies were all done, since Mom didn't want us tasting the dough because we could get
Salmonella," I told my niece. “Guess who bit into the first cookie. I was thirsty all day.”
"It's not like I did it on purpose. I couldn't read yet," Pam said.
As we continued to talk about other holidays, we built new memories of fun and laughter. Once more, Grandma Maguire’s cookie recipe
created its holiday magic.
Grandma Maguire's French Cookies Recipe:
2 cups sugar
1 cup butter (You cannot substitute margarine in this recipe)
6 egg yolks (keep whites back for frosting cookies)
2 Tablespoons sour milk (or add a few drops of lemon juice to milk)
1 Teaspoon baking soda
½ Teaspoon vanilla
3 to 4 cups of flour
1. Preheat over to 375 degrees.
2. Soften butter.
3. Cream butter and sugar together.
4. Add egg yolks, sour milk, and vanilla.
5. Sift dry ingredients together and add a cup at a time until the dough will make a ball that stays together but is not too sticky. I usually end up using three and ½ cups of the flour.
6. Set extra flour aside to flour the surface of your waxed paper when you roll out the cookies later.
7. After mixing your dough, divide it in quarters and wrap each quarter in waxed paper.
8. Refrigerate for two hours.
9. Once your dough is chilled, work with one quarter at a time to keep it from becoming too sticky.
10. Use a few tablespoons of flour on your waxed paper to keep your dough from sticking and roll your dough out to a ¼” thickness.
11. Cut out your cookies. As you re-roll the dough, it will become harder to work with. When it gets too difficult to use, put it back in the fridge to chill and take out another package of dough to work with.
12. When your cookies are cut and on the baking sheets, brush egg whites lightly over the surface of each cookie.
13. You can divide the whites up and add a drop of food coloring to make a colored frosting if you’d like.
14. Decorate the cookies with sprinkles and chocolate chips.
Bake your cookies for about eight minutes, until they turn faintly golden. Remove them from the cookie sheets to cool. They can be eaten immediately, but are best if they are allowed to age for approximately a week.
About The Author:
Katelyn Thomas is a freelance writer living and working in Cecil County, Maryland.
* This article is available for your publication, for a F-E-E.
This article may NOT be reprinted without monetary compensation and written permission from the author.
For reprint rights or comments/questions about this article, please contact the author.
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