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Nut Molasses Bars
1/4 cup boiling water 1/2 cup shortening 1/2 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup molasses 3 2/3 cups flour 1 teaspoon soda 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1/8 teaspoon cloves 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup cocoanut 1/2 cup English walnuts Pour boiling water over shortening; add sugar and molasses, sift together flour, soda, spices and salt. Add liquid gradually to dry ingredients. Chill. Roll 1/8 inch thick. Cut in strips 3 1/2 by 1 inch. Sprinkle with cocoanut and English walnuts, cut in small pieces. Bake about 12 minutes in a moderate oven. Makes five dozen strips.
A stiff rolled molasses dough, eggless and quick, cut into fingers and topped before baking rather than after. A few of its terms and proportions need translating.
- Moderate ovenRoughly 350F (period "moderate" ran about 350-375F). At 1/8 inch thick the strips take about 12 minutes as directed; pull them when the edges firm and the centres still give slightly, as they crisp as they cool.
- CocoanutThis is shredded or flaked coconut; both dried unsweetened and sweetened moist coconut were available. Sweetened flake browns faster, so watch the last three minutes.
- ShorteningSolid vegetable shortening or lard was meant. Boiling water is poured over it to melt it, so measure it cold and firm, then let the mixture cool a little before it meets the flour.
- Flour by feel3 2/3 cups against only about 1 1/4 cups of combined liquid, fat and syrup gives a very dry, crumbly mass. Add the liquid gradually as directed and stop when it just comes together; a further tablespoon or two of water is fair if it will not hold.
- Chilling is not optionalThe dough must be thoroughly cold, at least an hour, before it will roll to 1/8 inch without tearing. Work with a quarter of it at a time and keep the rest refrigerated.
- Making the nuts stickScatter the coconut and chopped walnuts over the rolled sheet and press them in with the rolling pin or the flat of your hand before cutting the strips. Loose topping simply falls off in the oven.
- CuttingCut the whole sheet into 3 1/2 by 1 inch strips with a knife or pastry wheel, then lift them onto the sheet; they spread very little. Five dozen is realistic if you reroll the scraps.
- Soda and molassesThere is no egg and no baking powder here. The single teaspoon of soda works against the acid in the molasses and brown sugar.
Thin rolled molasses fingers of this kind belong to a long American line of hard, keeping cookies that relied on syrup and spice rather than eggs and butter for flavour and shelf life. The proportions here, half a cup each of shortening, brown sugar and molasses against nearly four cups of flour, are frugal. Cookbooks of the period routinely spelled it "cocoanut," a form that survived on labels and in print well into the twentieth century before the modern spelling won out.