Veterans Remembered in Home Front Cookie Recipe

Nov. 8, 2011 - PRLog -- Red Rock Press joins the rest of the country in remembering our veterans and wishing a safe return to the soldiers still in Iraq and Afghanistan. In past wars, as in wars of today, troops can grow homesick, longing for the familiar after months in a harsh climate and hostile land. Care packages sent from families and friends stateside can help that isolation with a taste remembered from home, and snacks of all kinds find there way across treacherous terrain to make it to soldiers abroad.

According to New York author Marvin Korman, during and after World War II, one morsel in particular reminded those boys from Bronx fighting overseas what waited for them at home: the butter cookie. In his book “In My Father’s Bakery: A Bronx Memoir,” Mr. Korman remembers how popular the butter cookie was around World War II: “It was the gift you brought someone when you paid a visit, much the way a bottle of wine is used today… During World War II, the butter cookie was the cake of choice that families sent to their loved ones overseas. They might have arrived somewhat stale, but they tasted of home.”

For Veterans Day, we’re featuring the recipe for the Home Front Butter Cookie from Mr. Korman’s father’s bakery so you can enjoy them yourself or send them to a loved one. You can learn more about the Home Front Butter Cookie and “In My Father’s Bakery” by Marvin Korman by visiting http://redrockpress.com/jewishinterest.html#bakery.

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The Home Front Butter Cookie

Ingredients:
2 sticks softened butter (8 ounces)
¾ cup confectioner’s sugar
2 eggs
¼ teaspoon of salt
1¼ teaspoons vanilla extract
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons milk
Toppings; maraschino cherries (cut in half) or sour cherries soaked in kirsch, or the jam of your choice. Melted chocolate is a nice topping too.

Special Equipment:
Medium-size piping bag
#826 piping tip (or similar star-shaped tip)
Parchment paper
2 cookie sheets

Preparation;
1.   Blend all ingredients except the flour and the milk.
2.   Add the flour and, using your fingers, blend everything together.
3.   Add the milk an, with a hand-help mixer, blend everything until the mixture is smooth, soft and pliable.
4.   Pre-heat the oven to 350°.
5.   Cover a shallow baking pan or cookie sheet with parchment paper.
6.   Insert piping tip and fill piping bag two thirds of the way full. Hold the bag straight, tip down, barely touching the parchment paper, and squeeze out star-shaped cookies. Cookies should be about 1¼ to 1½ inches in diameter.
7.   Damped your pinkie with cold water and make an indentation in the center of each cookie. Fill these centers with the cherries or jam. If using jam, make a cone-shaped tube out of your parchment paper, fill with as much jam as you think you will require, cut a snip off the bottom, and squeeze gently. If you plan on chocolate as a center, add a dollop of melted chocolate after the baking.
8.   Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes (or longer) until the bottoms of your cookies are golden brown. You will probably have to repeat the piping and baking process twice to use up the cookie mixture. Yields 50 to 60 cookies.