Cookie of the day today was jubilee wafers! A decision courtesy of my dear ol' daddy, who has a recent penchant for wafer cookies... Unfortunately I got started way too late at night to make cookies for dessert tonight--fortunately, these are refrigerator cookies! As a result, the cookies will be baked tomorrow morning right after my morning dog walk... and that means two cookies on Monday! Can that be a thing? Two cookie Mondays? Or would Tuesdays be better? Hmm... we'll find out next week!
Cookie of the Day:
Jubilee Wafers About Seventy 2-inch Wafers
Soften and mix in the top of a double boiler-- over, not in, boiling water:
⅔ cup honey
1 cup sugar
¼ cup butter
Sift together and add:
2½ cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp each mace and cardamom
½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
Combine with all the above ingredients:
⅓ cup whiskey or brandy (I don’t know what I used, my mother
just handed me a bottle)
Add:
1 cup grated blanched almonds
2 tablespoons each chopped citron, candied orange and lemon
peel
For these last two ingredients, I took blanched almond slivers and used my little food processor to chop them up! That was the easy one. I was stressing about the citron and candied orange when my mother told me it was fruitcake fruit! also to not use as much. So I used 3 tablespoons fruitcake fruit and again popped it in the food processor to make sure it was small enough for the cookies-- because who wants those huge chunks in wafers? Also just an FYI: I have about a cup of grated lemon rind on hand. Right now its left over from my lemon meringues for Thanksgiving, but its so time consuming that I like to have some on hand so I don't have to add that work into my prep time every time I want to make something with lemon rind!
My three add-ins waiting like ducks in a row... how peaceful is that idea? Of course I sifted the ingredients into the flour (saving time is essential when working over heat).
Adding the honey to my other liquids off heat gave me a chance to really focus on scraping out the honey from the glass without having to worry about the sugar burning!
Improvised double-boiler... Bonus Points please!!! PS the heat is on high and the water is boiling.
Everything is melted and smooth before adding the dry, sifted ingredients...
Mixed over the heat, this is what it looks like fully mixed! Mixing over the heat is essential, because this stuff is super sticky and without the heat it would harden, and one would not be able to mix anything into the dough, or even the dough itself... essentially it would be ruined.
Adding the alcohol-- it totally sizzled in the pan! I stirred it in completely, and it took some extra stirring to bring everything to the same consistency.
Adding the almonds, fruitcake fruit and grated lemon rind was a little more difficult than I first anticipated...
Well, you can't see it here, but I stirred and folded and mixed the dough for almost 10 minutes to fully integrate the chunky ingredients fully and evenly.
Now, you can put these on trays like drop cookies and bake them straight off the double boiler, or you can do what I did and forget to pre-heat your oven in time. The best part is it doesn't matter because these are actually refrigerator cookies! These separate nicely into three on wax paper and then roll into 2" diameter...
And put in the fridge for 4-12 hours!
I know my rolls aren't too pretty, but tomorrow morning I'll slice them thinly and perfect wafers will be ready for taste test when my dad wants dessert! Seriously, every night after dinner; you know when my dad is finished eating because you'll hear "What's for dessert?!"
