When I was small, we were taught to address my Grandmother Mather’s women friends as “Aunt First-Name.” We knew her friends well because we saw them often. All were widows; they had been friends since before World War II.
Aunt Katherine lived in the dimly lit stone cottage around the cove to the east. The cottage’s flagstone floors kept it cool even on the hottest days of summer, but the cottage always smelled of lake water and wet towels. Aunt Katherine seemed somewhat severe to the young me, someone to be treated with great respect and caution. Her granddaughter, Pincy, was my first best friend; she died of leukemia at age 7, but no one ever really explained that to me. I just knew that Pincy no longer came to visit her grandmother; my questions about why went unanswered. I didn’t learn about her death until I was in college, when my grandmother mentioned it to me.
Aunt Dorothy was a redoubtable battleship of a woman. Short and rotund, her iron-gray hair always tightly crimped into a perm, she was quick to correct an errant child, and often not too kind about it. She lived two doors west of my grandmother, but we understood that we were not welcome to visit unless specifically invited. If invited, we were not to sit unless she offered, and we were most definitely not to touch anything. Her shotgun-style cottage was always tidy, but I disliked its musty smell and plastic-covered furniture.
Aunt Gertrude was my favorite. She was a tiny, wrinkled elf of a woman whose cottage was up the road west of my gram’s. She wore round steel-framed glasses, and loved to have us visit her, even unannounced. I learned pretty early on that if I popped ‘round her back door, ravenous after swimming, she’d usually invite me in. And that meant I’d get two cookies — “one for each hand,” Gertrude would say. My favorite of her homemade cookies was a cross between gingerbread and molasses cookie, which she made as big as saucers, dressing each with a single raisin in its center.
Gertrude understood that, like a hummingbird, a busy child’s tiny tummy needs frequent refueling. Somehow these days, many adults seem to forget that. Maybe we all should take a leaf from Gertrude’s book.
The Aunt Gertrude Cookie
Makes about 2 dozen cookies
These big cookies bring together the best of both gingerbread and molasses cookies. Aunt Gertrude always placed a raisin in the center of each cookie before baking, but you don’t have to do so. Two or three of these with a tall glass of milk make an excellent after-school snack for students; one or two cookies with a cup of coffee or tea provide a mid-afternoon pick-me-up for adults.
Ingredients
1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter at room temperature (do not substitute margarine)
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 cup blackstrap molasses or sorghum syrup
4¾ cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 to 1½ teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon dry mustard powder, optional
½ teaspoon ground cloves
½ teaspoon coarse salt
¾ cup strong brewed coffee, at room temperature
Raisins, optional but traditional
Preparation
Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or grease them lightly.
Beat the butter in a stand mixer at slow speed for about 5 minutes, or until it is light and fluffy. With the mixer running, gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light, about 5 minutes longer. Beat in the egg. Beat in the molasses, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice. The mixture will be thick but light.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, mustard powder, cloves and salt. Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat for 30 seconds. Add the coffee and beat for about 30 seconds. Add the remaining flour mixture and beat for 30 seconds longer. These short beating times are simply to combine the ingredients; don’t overbeat, or you’ll develop the gluten in the flour and the cookies will be tough.
Drop the dough by heaping tablespoons about 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets. Press a raisin into the center of each cookie, if you’re using raisins.
Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, for 15 to 18 minutes, or until golden and a little dry around the edges. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then remove to wire racks to finish cooling. The cookies will keep well in a covered container at room temperature for up to two weeks, though they’re unlikely to last that long.
