Celebration foods are integral traditions for spring’s big holidays, Easter and Passover. There are the time-honored main dishes to look forward to, but let’s be honest, it’s the baking that makes the holidays pop. Baking Easy and Elegant by Dr. Oetker (1982) has a couple of vintage spring cookie recipes that will add both deliciousness and pizazz to the holiday tables.
Dr. Oetker is not a person, it’s a German food company. He was a person back in 1891, when August Oetker founded the company. One of August’s great-grandsons still leads the company. It’s hard to call a multi national juggernaut a family business, but if it’s run by family, it is kind of a family business.
There are those that frown at cookbooks and cookbooklets produced by food companies. That borders on food snootiness, but there is a difference between the luxe cookbooks with recipes created by one author or one restaurant and those that come out of corporate kitchens. I have room on my shelf for both. Sometimes you just want a recipe that isn’t flashy but you’re pretty sure it’s reliable because it’s been tested, tested, tested and tested. Which is one of the reasons these vintage spring cookie recipes from a corporate cookbook were so appealing. (We know fancy cookbooks test too, but occasionally you get burned with a recipe that tastes exactly like what the heck.)
First up, Dainty Toadstools. Is it wrong to call a cookie “stinkin’ adorable?” With the cream cheese and cake flour, you know these have to be rich and delicious.
Spring holidays require coconut of some kind. I don’t make the rules, but I am willing to abide by them. So how about some Coconut Macaroons…
