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100 Crisp Refrigerator Cookies
4 CUPS PASTRY OR CAKE FLOUR I TEASPOON SODA I TEASPOON SALT I CUP SHORTENING, SLIGHTLY SOFTENED 2 CUPS DARK BROWN SUGAR 2 EGGS, SLIGHTLY BEATEN I TABLESPOON VANILLA EXTRACT Sift flour, soda and salt together. Cream shortening, add sugar gradually and cream together, add eggs and vanilla and beat. Add flour mixture gradually, using hands to mix, since there is no liquid to make beating easy. Line a deep narrow tin or bread pan with waxed paper, and pack in the dough. Chill, slice down very thin as needed, and bake 8 minutes at 350°.
If dough is made up in the home kitchen, the final baking may be done at camp or in the trailer or galley, and there will be fresh cookies as needed over a week's outing. For variety, chopped nuts may be mixed with part of the dough, chopped figs or dates with another part, and raisins with another, the different mixtures being kept separate by slips of waxed paper.
A standard brown-sugar icebox dough, shaped here in a loaf pan so slices come out square rather than round. The point of the recipe is portability: mix at home, bake in batches on the trip.
- Flour choicePastry and cake flour are not interchangeable in equal cups — cake flour is finer and lower in protein, and the dough will be softer. If you use all-purpose, expect a slightly firmer, less crumbly slice; scoop and level rather than packing the cup.
- ShorteningHere a solid fat, most likely vegetable shortening, though period recipes also used lard; either holds its shape while chilled and limits spread. Butter will work but gives a wider, thinner, more brittle cookie; a half-and-half mix keeps the flavor without much loss of definition.
- The tablespoon of vanillaMore than a modern cookie recipe of this size would usually call for, perhaps two or three times as much. Whether that is intentional or a printing slip cannot be told from the page; two teaspoons will taste more familiar.
- Mixing by handThe instruction to use your hands is the hinge. The dough is stiff and dry, and a mixer will either stall or overwork it; press and fold until no dry flour shows, then stop.
- Lining the panWaxed paper is fine, but plastic wrap or parchment releases more cleanly. A 9x5 loaf pan gives large slices; splitting the dough into two smaller logs, rolled in the wrap, gives cookies of a more manageable size.
- Chilling and slicingThe dough needs at least four hours, and overnight is better — it must be cold and firm to cut cleanly. Slice about an eighth of an inch; thicker slices will be chewy rather than crisp at eight minutes.
- Oven and doneness350F is right, and eight minutes is short by design. Pull them when the edges have just darkened and the centers still look soft; they crisp as they cool on the sheet.
- Keeping the dough on a tripA week of slice-and-bake assumes a well-iced cooler or a working refrigerator. Raw dough with egg in it should stay below 40F throughout; wrapped logs also freeze well for a month and can be sliced straight from frozen with a minute or two added to the bake.
- YieldAbout six to seven dozen thin cookies from the full batch, depending on loaf dimensions and slice thickness.