pioneer recipe: washboard cookies

Danny has been asking me all week for cookies. He must have been craving them something awful. I almost never buy cookies since usually what I bake tastes better than anything you buy at the store (except maybe the chocolate chip cookies at Costco...those are excellent). With Pioneer Day approaching (and it's today! Hooray!), I figured I'd search for a pioneer cookie recipe and bake those. He loves to help me. I don't love for him to help me. I let him anyway because I'm such an awesome mom.

I found some pioneer recipes and chose the washboard cookies. I considered the hardtack because it sounds more pioneer-ish. The name just isn't very appetizing and I wasn't so sure Danny would accept it as a cookie. Plus, I actually had all the ingredients for the washboard cookies in my house, even the coconut. I have no idea why I had 2 full bags of the stuff since coconut's a take-it-or-leave-it kind of thing for me. I usually choose leave it.

The coconut taste isn't very strong in these cookies. Just a hint. And the little bits hanging out of the cookies got nice and toasty and were really quite yummy.


Washboard Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
1 cup shortening
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup boiling water
1 cup shredded coconut
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

Cream together sugars and shortening and beat in eggs. Dissolve soda in boiling water and add to above mixture. Blend in coconut and vanilla. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and blend into mixture. Drop by spoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet and flatten with fork. Bake at 375° for 15 minutes.

Don't bake yours for 15 minutes. It's too long. I burned the bottoms of some by making that mistake. Go for 12-13 instead.

I forgot to flatten a batch and they turned out cakier than the others that got flattened. I liked them a little better puffy.

I'm not a member of the DUP yet, but with the skills to bake a mean washboard cookie, I think I certainly should be.

If you're in Utah (or even if you're not) and you're looking for a good pioneer recipe to make to celebrate this day, try these cookies. They're good, even if there's not a speck of chocolate in them.