Sugar Cookie Recipe

The term [cookie] first appeared in print as long ago as 1703. The art of making cookies and crackers is that of turning simple ingredients into wonderful things...Like cakes and pastries, cookies and crackers are the descendants of the earliest food cooked by man-- -grain-water-paste baked on hot stones by Neolithic farmers 10,000 years ago. The development of cookies and crackers from these primitive beginnings is a history of refinements inspired by two different impulses--one plan and practical, the other luxurious and pleasure-loving.

Luxurious cakes and pastries in large and small versions were well known in the Persian empire of the Seventh Century A.D. With the Muslim invasion of Spain, then the Crusades and the developing spice trade, the cooking techniques and ingredients of Arabia spread into Northern Europe. There the word cookies, distinguishing small confections, appeared: The word comes from the Dutch Koeptje [koekje], meaning small cake. By the end of the 14th Century, one could buy little filled wafers on the streets of Paris...Renaissance cookbooks were rich in cookie recipes, and by the 17th Century, cookies were commonplace.

Ammonia cookies

According to the food history reference books, "Ammonia" cookies are not one specific cookie recipe but a whole host of edible treats using ammonium bicarbonate, an old-fashioned (probably now hard to get?) leavening agent. Ammonium carbonate is a byproduct of hartshorn; a substance extracted from deer antlers [harts horn]. Hartshorn is most commonly referenced in old cookbooks in jelly recipes. It was also known a source for ammonia, which could be used as a leavener.

Sugar cookies

Food historians trace the history of these cookies and cakes to Medieval Arab cuisine, which was rich in sugar. Small sugar cakes with nuts (most often almonds) and spices were known to these cooks and quickly adopted by the Europeans. This sweet culinary tradition was imported by the Moors to Spain, diffused and assimilated throughout Europe, then introduced to the New World by 16th century explorers.

In English cookbooks, sugar cookies were known by many names, most often: jumbal, jumble, jambal, jemelloe, gemmel. Jumbals were hard sugar biscuits. They were baked thick and hard to make them suitable for journeys and could be stored for about a year. They were also typically twisted into knots, presumably to make them a little easier to break and eat. The primary differences between English sugar cookies and their continental counterparts were the spices, use of nuts (lacking in English versions), and shapes.

American sugar cakes

American "sugar cakes" appears to be a version of the English jumble, without the fancy shape. The first American recipe we find with the name "sugar cake" comes from a book published in 1841.

"Sugar cakes--Take a half a pound of dried flour, a quarter of a pound of fresh butter, a quarter of a pound of sifted loaf sugar; then mix together the flour and the sugar; rub in the butter, and add the yolk of an egg beaten with a table-spoonful of cream; make it into a paste, roll, and cut it into small round cakes, which bake upon a floured tin.