Sourmilk cookies 1903

How beautiful is that handwriting?

And how pretty is that cake stand?? (thank you shannon, I love it!)

So the first recipe I did from my cookbooks, was the sour milk cookies (remember how I said they used EVERYTHING??) they even used their sour milk that had gone bad.

Although I did not have sour milk and after some research, I guess old milk is safe to cook with? I still wont do it.

Instead I replaced it it homemade buttermilk by adding a little vinegar to a 1/2 cup and filling the rest of the cup with milk and letting it sit till it was thick. kinda gross, but I hate buying buttermilk.

Sour Milk Cookies: (as written)

1 cup Sugar

2/3 cup butter or lard

1/2 cup sour milk

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

salt and nutmeg

and enough flour to make it stiff (this is where I had to play around with the recipe)

This is what I did:

Creamed the Sugar and Butter.  Add egg and milk and stir to combine. Add baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt and nutmeg.

I started with only 2 cups flour and baked at 350 for 7 minutes. They were very very soft and airy but they spread a bit too much. So the final amount was 2 1/2 cups flour and mix very well till stiff.

These were great, James loved them and Nolan wont stop eating them.  They taste so  much like a sugar cookie but richer and very soft and almost cake like.

The last batch I did, I added a bit of orange zest to add a bit more flavor, and it turned out well, I could see these with a powdered sugar iccing on top also. Yum!