Boston Cookies (1921)

Walnuts and raisins and currants, oh my!

So, I did a little research to figure out how Boston Cookies were named, and I never could find a reason. You can find varietals of the recipe going back to 1881, and the recipes appear in numerous old cookbooks including Fannie Farmer’s 1896 Boston Cooking School Cook Book, but there’s never an explanation. Likely a Boston chef or home cook modified the recipe from the already then-popular Hermits, and the recipe spread as just ‘a cookie recipe from Boston’ which then made them Boston Cookies.

They were apparently a big hit, as I found this recipe in the 1921 edition of the Atlanta Woman’s Club Cookbook, a version contributed by Mrs. W. W. Berley of South Carolina. As the members of the AWC were likely a hoity-toity bunch back then, I’m making the assumption that Mrs. Berley’s cook most likely provided the recipe.

Like many cookie recipes from the early 1900’s, this one features dried fruit and nuts, namely raisins, currants and for the nuts I chose walnuts. Way back when, we didn’t have a massive shipping network around the world to provide fresh fruit and vegetables at all times of year, and so dried and canned fruits were often the only option, and they definitely added flavor (and fiber) to cookies. Talk to your grandmother – I bet she has childhood memories of raisins and the many desserts and snacks that incorporated them. I personally am ambivalent to them; I’ll eat golden raisins once in a long while, and usually avoid baked raisins altogether. However, doing a blog featuring old cookie recipes, I knew I’d have to make cookies with them eventually.

Boston Cookies

From the Atlanta Woman’s Club Cookbook (1921)

Ingredients:

1 cup butter or substitute

1 ½ cups sugar

3 eggs

1 t-spoon soda (NOTE: Yes, that’s how it is in the recipe)

1 ½ tbls. hot water

3 ¼ cups (sifted) flour

1 t-spoon salt

1 t-spoon cinnamon

1 cup chopped nuts

½ cup currants

½ cup raisins (chopped)

Cream butter and sugar. Add well beaten eggs, then soda dissolved in hot water and half the flour with salt and cinnamon, then add nut meats, fruit and remaining flour.

Drop by spoonfuls on buttered sheets about an inch apart. Bake in moderate oven.

Challenges and Changes

First off, this recipe is mostly very easy. Just mix together all the ingredients in order. No chilling, shaping, whatever required. Great!

However – let’s tackle that ‘bake in moderate oven’ part. No temperature or time given. I had to experiment. I first tried 350 degrees (it sounded ‘moderate’ to me) for 8 minutes. They were extremely light although firm.

So then, I tried a sequence of temperatures and times until I found what I liked. You can see from the photo that while the tops remained mostly light, the bottom of the 400 degree/10 minute cookie is a tad darker. I went with that, and it’s what I recommend if you choose to bake these cookies.

In addition, I did chop the raisins, which was interesting. It also caused me a mental conundrum – why both chopped raisins and currants? Dried currants taste just like raisins, so why not just chopped raisins or just currants? And, while I bought a bag of ‘chopped walnuts,’ I chopped them further so the walnut bits were smaller and didn’t take up whole sections of cookie. I do like a well-distributed cookie to addition ratio.

The Ratings

Cookie Appearance: 8

Cookie Texture: 9

Cookie Mouthfeel: 8

Cookie Flavor: 8

Overall Cookie Rating: 8

When I was making these cookies I wasn’t sure how successful they’d be. You can’t be too sure with a cookie full of raisins and nuts. But everyone really liked them – even those who said (like I did) that they didn’t usually like raisins, but these were different and good. One rater commented that it reminded them of a scone, and it really does come off like a sort of ‘drop scone.’ A couple of raters said that they could see it going well with a cup of tea; I can easily visualize those ladies of the Atlanta Woman’s Club having afternoon teas with delicate trays of Boston Cookies.

Next week: Honey Ginger Cookies (1943)