I still can’t accept the fact that Gourmet Magazine will be gone after the November 2009 edition. It has been an inspiration to my baking and cooking for over 20 years. I am sure many of you know about the 1941-2008 cookie recipe collection that was published online by the Gourmet staff last year, but if not, I thought I would share the link and my favorite recipe from 1951.
The link to this fantastic collection is here. It contains about 65 recipes organized by decade. There is a note on each recipe that “Although we’ve retested the recipes, in the interest of authenticity we’ve left them unchanged: The instructions below are still exactly as they were originally printed.” This makes them a bit confusing at times, but still worthy of re-introducing them into today’s culture and into your own baking collection.
My personal find is a recipe from 1951 called “Navettes Sucrees” or Sugar Shuttles. The “shuttle” refers to shuttles on a loom or sewing machine, not space shuttles. I made these cookies last Christmas and really liked the dense rich texture and unusual crunchy sugar coating. The cookies have a hand-rolled cigar shape and a shaggy sugar coating from being dipped in egg-white and sugar.
Here is the recipe, as originally printed.
Sift 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup sugar and 1/4 teaspoon salt into a bowl. Add 1/4 cup soft butter, 2 egg yolks, and 1 teaspoon vanilla and knead until the dough is well blended. Chill it in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
Divide the dough into portions the size of a small walnut. Roll each piece of dough with the palm of the hand on a lightly floured board to give it the shape of a small sewing-machine shuttle. Dip each in egg white and roll in granulated sugar. Bake on a lightly buttered baking sheet in a moderate oven (350° F.) for about 8 minutes, or until the little cookies are lightly browned.