Fannie Farmer

Have you heard of Fannie Farmer before? She's another famous Unitarian Universalist. She is the one who made cooking easier for thousands of people. She wrote a cookbook, and was the first person to use exact measurements for the recipes. We take that for granted now, but in the 1800's, people would say things like, "...butter the size of an egg" or "...about a handful of flour." Well your handful and my pawful are two totally different amounts! So Fannie wrote recipes with measurements that everyone could use. I found this recipe below from her Boston Cooking-School Cookbook, which was published in 1896! That's over a hundred years ago! But boy these cookies look good....

Fairy Gingerbread

¹/₂ cup butter
¹/₂ cup milk
1 cup light brown sugar
1⁷/₈ cups bread flour
2 teaspoons ginger

Cream the butter, add sugar gradually, and milk very slowly. Mix and sift flour and ginger, and combine mixtures. Spread very thinly with a broad, long-bladed knife on a buttered, inverted dripping-pan. Bake in a moderate oven. Cut in squares before removing from pan. Watch carefully and turn pan frequently during baking, that all may be evenly cooked. If mixture around edge of pan is cooked before that in the centre, pan should be removed from oven, cooked part cut off, and remainder returned to oven to finish cooking.

Peace, Love, Happiness and COOKIES,

Remy xo