Like having to learn that shortening is just any room temperature fat, I had to learn that "corn" is really means a small nugget of a grain or even salt (corned beef). To check myself I looked up "barleycorn" and found that it is also a unit of length measurement "The barleycorn is an English unit of length[1] equal to 1⁄3 of an inch (i.e. about 8.47 mm). It is still used as the basis of shoe sizes in English-speaking countries."
My grandmother made these cookies and I've been looking for the recipe forever! I can't wait to make these and unlock a ton of memories of sitting in her small kitchen and consuming my body weight. She called them Fruitcake Cookies, but Christmas Nuggets work just as well. Thank you so much for making this video!
A sweet elderly relative gifted similar to these every year at Christmas, only she called them jewel cookies (because of the candied fruit). I recall that they did have a slight amount of nutmeg in them.
One mouse-centric amusement company started airing winter holiday commercials earlier this September, and I decided I would not frequent anywhere that bombarded me w/ “holiday cheer” before Halloween. Fortunately, your sheepish look when you acknowledged that it was only mid-September qualifies for my amnesty program, so I can continue to be a faithful viewer. I’m sure you’re relieved. 🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣 (yes, I need to get out more…)
Christmas is not allowed in our house until after Thanksgiving! Halloween isn't allowed until October 1 (Shhh! We won't mention my hidden stash of Halloween candy!)
@@MelanieCravens Our Thanksgiving happens before Halloween, and up until a few years ago Christmas didn't start in stores until after Remembrance Day (Nov 11). But Globalism strikes and we started to get American Black Friday - which kicks things off early.
Yet another testimony for the Glen and Friends apron. It's soft but not in the abraded way of sandwashed denim, it's easy to adjust and I greatly appreciate being able to select the right length for me (I'm guessing I'm considerably shorter than Glen!). It only took a few days to reach the status of "how did I put up with that old rag I was using before?" because it has that just-right feel.
Thank you for explaining the difference between butter & shortening. I'm from Wisconsin we take butter very seriously here. My Great Gramma was a butter fundamentalist. She died at 102 in 1994 & till literally the very day she took a nap & died in her chair if she found any shortening or Crisco in your home she would scoop it into the garbage can with her fingers. Then she would shake the filthy fingers at you & go into a rant about commie propaganda detailing how our family lives on dairy & you will too or else! This rant often was a mangled mess of English, German & words that I'm positive our family made up over a century ago being we still speak loose German on the homestead. It's so serious for us here in Wisconsin we actually have state wide butter laws. Only recently have they begun a slow change to allow Kerrygold even into the state. If a recipe doesn't call for butter I was raised to properly translate the recipe to say butter because obviously the author was raised wrong & didn't have an Oma Marja-Ana to teach them how to live right.
Laughing hysterically because part of my family are in WI and are descended from a long line of Swiss dairy farmers. I don't recall anyone going that far, but I do recall many accusatory statements like 'You used oleo in these cookies, didn't you?" from the eldest generations.
My gran had this recipe written into the "cookie book" published in the 60's and she called them gum drop cookies. The nut and dried fruit varied depending upon what was at hand. My favorite was rasins, candies citrus peel, dried cherries, and almonds. Still a household favorite, and great dunked in tea.
I always use butter for baking. I grew up in the 60's and eating/using margarine. Once I got a certain age, I found that I much preferred the taste of real butter.
I absolutely LOVE this channel! Not only do I often learn something new, but regularly get regaled with interesting stories and find a new variation on a recipe I'd like to try! As an aside, I grew up on a farm and we made just about everything from scratch; from my grandmothers, I learned that "shortening" just meant Crisco. When they finally wrote their recipes down, they would specify "lard," "butter," or "shortening," to indicate what kind of fat to use. While it makes sense that shortening can mean any kind of fat, the resulting product will differ depending on what kind of fat to use and so I am very grateful that my grandmothers specified the exact type of fat so that I can still replicate their recipes and have them come out tasting like I remember from childhood! ❤
My maternal grandmother used to make something similar at Christmas. Can't for the life of me recall if we ever called them anything except "grandma's fruit cookies." Then again, might be best if I don't know since grandma also called 7-layer bars "idiot bars" because, according to her "any idiot can make them." Grandma was... a character.
Thank you for the definition of "shortening". For someone outside of North America and a none English speaking country. Using recipe from across the pond, I have always struggled with that word. Butter I can get, even lard. But something like Cristco is not available. This helps a lot.
Any fat that is solid at normal room temperature is a a "Shortening." Our friend Glen once explained that the fat surrounds the flour particles which prevents the gluten molecules from combining and thus shortens them making for a softer crumb.
Believe me, you're not missing anything by not having access to Crisco. It's neutral flavoured, which means that if things go a little wrong and your cookies (or whatever) end up a little oily or greasy, they're just icky, rather than icky-delicious as they are with good butter.
Yes I love rocks! Note at the end of the video he shows the recipe in the book and right next to it is 'Hermits' which imho its a morph between the two.
Glen, thanks SO much for this recipe! It's very like my favorite recipe from a paperback Mennonite cookbook that I had for years...and lost in my last move. All of my favorite Christmas recipes gone in one fell swoop. It was the size of a novel, but the best cookbook I ever had...still sad about it 10 years later! Making these later today.
Any time a recipe calls for raisins.. I use my favorite dried vegetable instead..chocolate chips. What? chocolate comes from a bean.. White chocolate chips that are colored red and green would probably work to keep that theme.
I made these yesterday for our Christmas party and people loved them, including one person who said they didn't like candied peel. I added 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground Nutmeg, heavy cream instead of milk(I was out of milk), Craisins instead of currents(what can I say I live in New England), and scooped with a 2 teaspoon scoop(yup I measured it), and ended up with about 2 1/2 dozen. The peel I used came from the market and was labeled fruit cake mix, it was a nice small dice except for the cherries(cut in half) so I ditched those. They held their shape beautifully and the texture was fantastic, I'll be making these again next year! I ended up using about 1/4 cup of the heavy cream but that could be because I scoop and scrape my flour when there isn't a weight measurement. The husband of the person that didn't like peel left the party of with 5 or 6 of them in a baggie, and I had the last 2 as a snack while tidying up the last of the party this morning.
In the USA, ice cream was sold mostly by the half gallon for the longest time. Several years ago, "shrinkflation" struck and the containers got smaller.
I make a version of these every second Xmas called fruitcake cookies. The ratio of fruit to batter is 2 to 1ish. We use glacé fruit, candied peels, raisins and any nuts we have on hand. Thanks for the vid
Not a fan of currants, too wee and hard, but fortunately in the UK (in my case Scottish Borders) we also have raisins (bigger, lighter and juicier) and my favourite sultanas (even bigger and much lighter). I have inherited my Great Granny’s Royal Recipe Book. Imported from the US in 1929. The painted illustrations are so beautiful. Thanks for all your hard work.
Love raisins and sultanas, but also currents as well. You are right that they can be rather hard - I usually plump them in hot water for about a half-hour first.
@@EastSider48215 Yes, I do the same. I remember making oatmeal cookies as a teenager from a decades old cookbook and it had me soak the raisins first in freshly boiled water. The resultant cookies were moist and tender. No hard chewies. I still make them that way.
My grandma made these in the 1950s - I haven't had them in 60 years. I live in Mexico, and in the local mercado (a big city-owned building with lots of different sellers each in their own section, selling a wonderful variety of things) I get green raisins that are delicious, better than any I've gotten in the USA, and some very big and tasty dark raisins I've never seen anywhere else. But no currents (which is ok). So Mexican raisins, pecans and vanilla for me - I'll make a batch soon. Grandma would approve.
On currants/raisins/sultanas... Not saying they don't all come from grapes, but there is a subtle difference in flavor between all three (not surprising since there are differences in flavor between types of grapes), and I really prefer the those packaged as "raisins" or "sultanas", so I normally sub them for "currants".
This is the exact recipe and method for my family's version of "hermits." It's one of the cookies my grandma makes every single year, and they are delicious. I've always wondered why her hermits were pretty different from most other recipes; seeing this recipe listed next to another hermit recipe leads me to speculate that someone along the line wrote down the wrong name and it stuck around in my family.
I'm glad that my childhood was spent either watching my nanna or my mother cooking treats, and then on weekends or holidays - having a go myself - rather than just frequenting the Bakery section at Woolworths and buying cookies or cakes. At least I have those memories, which have lead to the occasional cooking experience with my own children, though sadly not as frequent as my own childhood. It just seems a lot harder these days to find the time, despite how much easier modern society is supposed to be for us...
Love it when you break out the small Kitchen Aid Mixer! Don’t know if it’s intentional but it has the same colors as your plane! Intentional? Cute, regardless.
This is near identical to what my great grandmother used to make. She just made them entirely from memory, and fortunately my sister managed to bake a session with her to record the recipe before she passed. Also, from previous visits to your channel, learning what “shortening” meant ingrained in me that which you reinforced today 😊
Looks good and was wondering about the reverse cream. Also love how you guys approach the first batches of a recipe like I do. This is how the recipe says it is but throw in some crib notes about adding nutmeg and other things to tweak it for next time. :) Milk in a bag, next thing we'll be seeing a house hippo running around. It's been too long since I have driven along the Lake to hit the Falls.
They sound good - you could cheat and throw a jar of mince meat (Robinsons) instead of the fruit... Yes, I did learn about currants from you, Glen, no one ever told me there weren't otherwise! I did used to wonder how come they weren't full of pits!! Merry Christmas! This does sound like a recipe I used to make many eons ago with cocoa powder - then gluing them together with a chocolate gnash or icing.
This very similar in method to a British "rock cake's though I would add the sugar after the rubbing/cutting in stage - almost like a scone.. just a view from across the pond.
Rant on Glen, it can be very informative. The never-ending saga of what currants are will always amuse this Brit. Now diagnosed as diabetic it is a shame that I will no longer have the opportunity to try this little Christmas gem, not that I have much of a sweet tooth.
I make a cookie very close to thiis one but with glazed cherries will try this one Never too early for Christmas cookies I do cookie boxes for friends and family so I start the first day of fall make the cookie do freeze them bake them off all at once Krrp up the great videos
This was the cookie my mother made most of the time year round..and if by chance a few sit out on a plare too long and get dry, they are great for dunking.
I would love to see a follow up on this, just for argument's sake. Make them with the instructions from the recipe and make them as if you were making a chocolate chip cookie to see how the texture changes with these. Either way, always love watching you both, makes me homesick. Living in Thailand is great, but I miss Canada sometimes.
I just bought this book on eBay because of this recipe but also because I see the “Hermits” recipe. My mother made those all the time and they are great. As you said about the ones you made - more like mini cakes. Please make those next.
I think that the vintage Five Roses Cookbook has a version of this cookie called Christmas Drop Cookies. We still make the cherry almond version sometimes around Christmas, but not every year. We make them a fair bit smaller than your though!
I always make the cookies I bake for Christmas smaller, too. Mostly because everyone always wants to try EVERY kind of cookie, and nobody needs a dozen huge cookies all at once (might WANT them, but that's another tale 😄.)
I'm just starting to plan my Christmas baking, so I've tucked this recipe into my files. Looking forward to trying them. Please give us news about Hope Air from time to time, especially if you do a flight yourself. (I know you wouldn't intrude on the family's privacy, but it would be interesting to know a bit afterward about what it's like from the pilot's perspective.)
This looks like another winner. I've been making the "Thank You" spice cookies every couple of weeks since Glen posted it. I guess we have to wait for next Saturday to learn what's in the Green Dutch Oven?
I can see it now, on Glen’s tombstone 🪦: Welcome Friends. Glen would like you to know, dried currants are a raisin and shortening can be any solid fat.
It is interesting that the recipe right next to it is for Hermits because when I was trying to think if I had ever had these I was thinking they were Hermits as I have had those. The candied peel and dried fruit would give a bit of fruit cake vibe which I normally am not a fan of but these looked good.
Of course, Royal was not the only cream of tartar-based leavening in the market. When I think of tasty fats, I also include the British favorite, beef suet. It is fine to use in biscuits for dishes using a beef stock.
... except that in Britain we would NEVER serve biscuits with dishes that use a beef stock! Although to further complicate matters, we make many different types of suet _pudding_ ...
Living in sub tropical Australia I didn't see a real currant in a green grocer until I was in my 50s. And you ard right, in Australia the box just says currants. I googled it and we grow varieties called carina and black gem.
I'll be making these this year! A long time ago, I stumbled on a PET No Bake fruit cake. I gave it a whirl, but I think I did something wrong. Would love to hear if you've made this recipe before. PET MILK EVAPORATED NEW NO-BAKE FRUITCAKE 1. In 3-qt. saucepan over medium heat, stir 2/3 cup PET Evaporated Milk (1 small can), 2 cups KRAFT Miniature Marshmallows and 6 Tblsp undiluted Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate until marshmallows melt. Take off heat. 2. Stir in 3/4 cup cut-up dates, 3/4 cup raisins, 1 cup broken walnuts, 1 cup Mixed Candied fruit, and 1/4 cup candied cherries. Stir in until well blended a mixture of 4 cups fine Sugar Honey Graham Cracker Crumbs, 1 tsp. Cinnamon, 1 tsp. Nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cloves. 3. Press firmly into 5 to 6 cup ring mold or loaf pan lined with waxed paper. Cover tightly. Chill 2 days. Makes 3 Ibs. For large fruitcake---double recipes, use 9-in. angel cake pan. Makes 6 lbs.
The problem there is that they should not have called that recipe a fruit cake. It sounds like a lot of those snacks things you can make that don't require baking. I would roll them into balls before chilling.
An interesting recipe, especially with your suggestion of freezing the unbaked dollops of batter. I think I'll give it a try (with some adaptations to make it more British-christmassy, ie fewer nuts and peel, more fruit) for a nearer-to-Christmas home-baked cake sale I'll be helping to supply - I like the idea of getting the hard work done in advance, and only needing to bake 'on the day'.
I’ve never been fond of raisins and preserved peel in cookies, I think it’s more a textural thing rather than just taste. But I think these might be good with dried apricots.
It's funny before you started making them I thought sounds like a hermit cookie. Then the shot of the cookbook page and there by gosh is a hermit cookie recipe. I hope you make those hermit cookies too from that time period. When I was young hermit cookies were everywhere. You seldom see them now and it would be nice to see that recipe as that is likely what we ate when we were younger. Glen you are about the same age as I am so pretty sure you had them around as well as a kid and young adult. It's what Canadians are at that time.
We make a very similar cookie, but it must be from a later time period as it has more butter, sour cream and a greater quantity of candied fruit and raisins. They are called Julfrutkalor. Thanks Glen and Julie.
And to mess with you, in Australia, we have sultanas as our dried grapes. We get currants and raisins, but sultanas were the one of choice when I was a kid. We have stores here that are already putting out Christmas goodies, so Christmas nugget biscuits won't be out of place.
I don;t think you can say too much about making Christmas cookies in September. I work in a grocery store, and we already have holiday nuts and red/green chocolate pretzels!
In the US the size of ice cream containers has changed over time. In days of yore we used to have ice cream in 10 gallon for shops, 5 gallon , 1 gallon / half gallons / and quarts for home. These days for home we have a 46oz. From Turkey Hill, 1.5 quart from Breyers, 1.5 quart from Friendly's, 14oz. & 28oz. from Haagen-Dazs and pints from Ben & Jerry's , Halo and Telenti. You may still be able to get full gallons and half gallons at local super markets of their name brand ice creams. Our local Stop&Shop still offers 1 gallon Stop&Shop REAL ice cream.
I appreciate the book's note on gingerbread. I find the butter flavour can be overpowering in a gingerbread cookie, drowning out the spices and molasses
oh those look yum-e!!! i could so easily adapt those to my gf need. just wondering if i could try baking some of my gf pumpkin fruitcake batter in cookie form 🤔...sounds like a plan!
I thought you had uploaded this by mistake! Oh well, they look lovoey and give me an excuse to be the first person this year to say bah humbug! to christmas!
Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens for holiday baking! Hopefully it'll cool off soon so I can bear to use my oven again. Time to buy baking supplies
Glad to hear the shortening explanation, and be able to read along in the cookbook. I'm still confused about the currants/raisins ingredient issue, since the Nuggets recipe lists currants, but the Hermits recipe right next to it lists raisins. If they are the same, why would the cookbook name them differently?
Well - The worldwide 'raisin' debate. When a North American cookbook says raisin, it lets you decide which dried grape you want to use. But some recipes will specify "Thompson', or 'Sultana', or Currant because they want you to use a specific raisin. But for the most part (here anyway) raisin is a catch all generic term for any dried grape.
I find I get a different texture in some cookies depending on the fat I use. Butter makes them spread out, vegetable shortening not. So I'll go half and half to get the flavor and the shape I want. Especially true of tollhouse cookies.
Shrinkflation, the 1/2 Gallon was replaced with a 48oz, 3 Pint container. I occasionally see a 1/2 Gallon container but not very often. 2 1/4 Barley Corns fit into a #50 scoop which is about 19ml
Having been trained as a baker it falls under a process method,in which the liquid is added last to keep the gluten from developing to much while mixing large recipes like a hundred cakes or fifty pounds of cookies, or things like pie dough
Any guesses on how many Barley Corns fit into a #50 scoop?
Like having to learn that shortening is just any room temperature fat, I had to learn that "corn" is really means a small nugget of a grain or even salt (corned beef). To check myself I looked up "barleycorn" and found that it is also a unit of length measurement
"The barleycorn is an English unit of length[1] equal to 1⁄3 of an inch (i.e. about 8.47 mm). It is still used as the basis of shoe sizes in English-speaking countries."
47 or 53... if it's 50 well...
11 barleycorns
Now I want to reverse Christmas nugget mix my chocolate chip cookie recipe and see what that does
I would guess more than 50, I will say 70
My grandmother made these cookies and I've been looking for the recipe forever! I can't wait to make these and unlock a ton of memories of sitting in her small kitchen and consuming my body weight. She called them Fruitcake Cookies, but Christmas Nuggets work just as well. Thank you so much for making this video!
Me too,I’ve looked for this recipe for ever! Can’t wait to bake them and won’t wait to Xmas.
I'm so happy for you! How wonderful.
A sweet elderly relative gifted similar to these every year at Christmas, only she called them jewel cookies (because of the candied fruit). I recall that they did have a slight amount of nutmeg in them.
@@wintersky_ Yup, I added a lil nutmeg, for sure!
They'd def' be great with a splash of rum extract! Make it truly fruitcake. I'm here to make another batch. They disappear SO fast
One mouse-centric amusement company started airing winter holiday commercials earlier this September, and I decided I would not frequent anywhere that bombarded me w/ “holiday cheer” before Halloween.
Fortunately, your sheepish look when you acknowledged that it was only mid-September qualifies for my amnesty program, so I can continue to be a faithful viewer.
I’m sure you’re relieved.
🤣❤️🤣❤️🤣 (yes, I need to get out more…)
Even before Thanksgiving!
I'm with you. I fast forward or stop watching. It's infuriating being reminded of the holidays in September (except if Glen is making cookies).
Christmas is not allowed in our house until after Thanksgiving! Halloween isn't allowed until October 1 (Shhh! We won't mention my hidden stash of Halloween candy!)
@@MelanieCravens Our Thanksgiving happens before Halloween, and up until a few years ago Christmas didn't start in stores until after Remembrance Day (Nov 11). But Globalism strikes and we started to get American Black Friday - which kicks things off early.
@@GlenAndFriendsCooking , yeah, sorry about that….
Yet another testimony for the Glen and Friends apron. It's soft but not in the abraded way of sandwashed denim, it's easy to adjust and I greatly appreciate being able to select the right length for me (I'm guessing I'm considerably shorter than Glen!). It only took a few days to reach the status of "how did I put up with that old rag I was using before?" because it has that just-right feel.
I adore Glen's genteel rants.
These are going into my Christmas rotation. I think I’ll add nutmeg and a pinch of cloves.
great idea!
Cloves don't get the attention they deserve!
Thank you for explaining the difference between butter & shortening. I'm from Wisconsin we take butter very seriously here. My Great Gramma was a butter fundamentalist. She died at 102 in 1994 & till literally the very day she took a nap & died in her chair if she found any shortening or Crisco in your home she would scoop it into the garbage can with her fingers. Then she would shake the filthy fingers at you & go into a rant about commie propaganda detailing how our family lives on dairy & you will too or else! This rant often was a mangled mess of English, German & words that I'm positive our family made up over a century ago being we still speak loose German on the homestead.
It's so serious for us here in Wisconsin we actually have state wide butter laws. Only recently have they begun a slow change to allow Kerrygold even into the state. If a recipe doesn't call for butter I was raised to properly translate the recipe to say butter because obviously the author was raised wrong & didn't have an Oma Marja-Ana to teach them how to live right.
I love this story 😂😂😂. Thanks for sharing 👍 ❤️
Laughing hysterically because part of my family are in WI and are descended from a long line of Swiss dairy farmers. I don't recall anyone going that far, but I do recall many accusatory statements like 'You used oleo in these cookies, didn't you?" from the eldest generations.
My grandma made these sort of drop style cookie using candied cherries and filberts. A real favorite that no one could quite duplicate!
My gran had this recipe written into the "cookie book" published in the 60's and she called them gum drop cookies. The nut and dried fruit varied depending upon what was at hand. My favorite was rasins, candies citrus peel, dried cherries, and almonds. Still a household favorite, and great dunked in tea.
My grandmother made gum drop cookies too. Sometimes she cut up orange slice gummy candies to put in them. Weird food but good memories.
I always use butter for baking. I grew up in the 60's and eating/using margarine. Once I got a certain age, I found that I much preferred the taste of real butter.
I absolutely LOVE this channel! Not only do I often learn something new, but regularly get regaled with interesting stories and find a new variation on a recipe I'd like to try!
As an aside, I grew up on a farm and we made just about everything from scratch; from my grandmothers, I learned that "shortening" just meant Crisco. When they finally wrote their recipes down, they would specify "lard," "butter," or "shortening," to indicate what kind of fat to use. While it makes sense that shortening can mean any kind of fat, the resulting product will differ depending on what kind of fat to use and so I am very grateful that my grandmothers specified the exact type of fat so that I can still replicate their recipes and have them come out tasting like I remember from childhood! ❤
My maternal grandmother used to make something similar at Christmas. Can't for the life of me recall if we ever called them anything except "grandma's fruit cookies." Then again, might be best if I don't know since grandma also called 7-layer bars "idiot bars" because, according to her "any idiot can make them." Grandma was... a character.
Thank you for the definition of "shortening". For someone outside of North America and a none English speaking country. Using recipe from across the pond, I have always struggled with that word. Butter I can get, even lard. But something like Cristco is not available. This helps a lot.
Any fat that is solid at normal room temperature is a a "Shortening."
Our friend Glen once explained that the fat surrounds the flour particles which prevents the gluten molecules from combining and thus shortens them making for a softer crumb.
Believe me, you're not missing anything by not having access to Crisco. It's neutral flavoured, which means that if things go a little wrong and your cookies (or whatever) end up a little oily or greasy, they're just icky, rather than icky-delicious as they are with good butter.
I guess it's never too early for Christmas cookie 🎉🎉🎉
Yes! My mind has wandering about what to bake for Christmas and it’s September haha
I did it all for the cookie, the Christmas cookie.
Or too late, either 😊
Year-round 😊😊😊
My mom made a version of these cookies and her recipe called them “Christmas Rocks” and they taste like my childhood!
Yes I love rocks! Note at the end of the video he shows the recipe in the book and right next to it is 'Hermits' which imho its a morph between the two.
I'm with Julie.. Yay! Cookies! those look wonderful, a nice little drop cookie perfect with a nice cup of tea
Yes! That's the first thing that popped into my head. When he said 'cakey', I heard 'absorbant'!
Glen, thanks SO much for this recipe! It's very like my favorite recipe from a paperback Mennonite cookbook that I had for years...and lost in my last move. All of my favorite Christmas recipes gone in one fell swoop. It was the size of a novel, but the best cookbook I ever had...still sad about it 10 years later! Making these later today.
Any time a recipe calls for raisins.. I use my favorite dried vegetable instead..chocolate chips.
What? chocolate comes from a bean..
White chocolate chips that are colored red and green would probably work to keep that theme.
Yes, it's hard to make a bad cookie😁 & thanks for the hint on freezing portioned dough!
I made these yesterday for our Christmas party and people loved them, including one person who said they didn't like candied peel. I added 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ground Nutmeg, heavy cream instead of milk(I was out of milk), Craisins instead of currents(what can I say I live in New England), and scooped with a 2 teaspoon scoop(yup I measured it), and ended up with about 2 1/2 dozen. The peel I used came from the market and was labeled fruit cake mix, it was a nice small dice except for the cherries(cut in half) so I ditched those. They held their shape beautifully and the texture was fantastic, I'll be making these again next year! I ended up using about 1/4 cup of the heavy cream but that could be because I scoop and scrape my flour when there isn't a weight measurement. The husband of the person that didn't like peel left the party of with 5 or 6 of them in a baggie, and I had the last 2 as a snack while tidying up the last of the party this morning.
Wikipedia has an article on shortening, it explains what Glen says. Also it's in the name, it's something that "shortens" gluten fibres.
I love it when you put a little something at the very end ❤!
We got an apron for my wife just yesterday! It's great!
Remind me of Mom's hermit cookies.... a Christmas favourite.
In the USA, ice cream was sold mostly by the half gallon for the longest time. Several years ago, "shrinkflation" struck and the containers got smaller.
I think it might be the commercial bucket that ice cream parlors use in this case.I could see those having fifty scoops easily.
I was really stoked when you showed the recipe page in the book to see the recipe for Hermits because I lost mine ages ago
I'm always happy to hear about raisins vs currants (and sultanas) - it always fascinated me when my Mum was making fruit cakes! 🍇
I make a version of these every second Xmas called fruitcake cookies. The ratio of fruit to batter is 2 to 1ish. We use glacé fruit, candied peels, raisins and any nuts we have on hand. Thanks for the vid
Not a fan of currants, too wee and hard, but fortunately in the UK (in my case Scottish Borders) we also have raisins (bigger, lighter and juicier) and my favourite sultanas (even bigger and much lighter).
I have inherited my Great Granny’s Royal Recipe Book. Imported from the US in 1929. The painted illustrations are so beautiful. Thanks for all your hard work.
Love raisins and sultanas, but also currents as well. You are right that they can be rather hard - I usually plump them in hot water for about a half-hour first.
@@EastSider48215 That's what I was going to suggest ... it doesn't take much to get them plumped up.
@@EastSider48215 Yes, I do the same. I remember making oatmeal cookies as a teenager from a decades old cookbook and it had me soak the raisins first in freshly boiled water. The resultant cookies were moist and tender. No hard chewies. I still make them that way.
My grandma made these in the 1950s - I haven't had them in 60 years. I live in Mexico, and in the local mercado (a big city-owned building with lots of different sellers each in their own section, selling a wonderful variety of things) I get green raisins that are delicious, better than any I've gotten in the USA, and some very big and tasty dark raisins I've never seen anywhere else. But no currents (which is ok). So Mexican raisins, pecans and vanilla for me - I'll make a batch soon. Grandma would approve.
On currants/raisins/sultanas... Not saying they don't all come from grapes, but there is a subtle difference in flavor between all three (not surprising since there are differences in flavor between types of grapes), and I really prefer the those packaged as "raisins" or "sultanas", so I normally sub them for "currants".
This is the exact recipe and method for my family's version of "hermits." It's one of the cookies my grandma makes every single year, and they are delicious. I've always wondered why her hermits were pretty different from most other recipes; seeing this recipe listed next to another hermit recipe leads me to speculate that someone along the line wrote down the wrong name and it stuck around in my family.
I'm glad that my childhood was spent either watching my nanna or my mother cooking treats, and then on weekends or holidays - having a go myself - rather than just frequenting the Bakery section at Woolworths and buying cookies or cakes. At least I have those memories, which have lead to the occasional cooking experience with my own children, though sadly not as frequent as my own childhood. It just seems a lot harder these days to find the time, despite how much easier modern society is supposed to be for us...
Love it when you break out the small Kitchen Aid Mixer! Don’t know if it’s intentional but it has the same colors as your plane! Intentional? Cute, regardless.
This is near identical to what my great grandmother used to make. She just made them entirely from memory, and fortunately my sister managed to bake a session with her to record the recipe before she passed.
Also, from previous visits to your channel, learning what “shortening” meant ingrained in me that which you reinforced today 😊
Thanks Glen! I'll be making these for Christmas!
I would love to see you do your mothers tomato bake-sounds intriguing!!
Looks good and was wondering about the reverse cream.
Also love how you guys approach the first batches of a recipe like I do. This is how the recipe says it is but throw in some crib notes about adding nutmeg and other things to tweak it for next time. :)
Milk in a bag, next thing we'll be seeing a house hippo running around. It's been too long since I have driven along the Lake to hit the Falls.
My favorite cookie of all time is hermits. I saw the recipe on same page of of fruit cookie.
They sound good - you could cheat and throw a jar of mince meat (Robinsons) instead of the fruit... Yes, I did learn about currants from you, Glen, no one ever told me there weren't otherwise! I did used to wonder how come they weren't full of pits!! Merry Christmas!
This does sound like a recipe I used to make many eons ago with cocoa powder - then gluing them together with a chocolate gnash or icing.
Sounds like the fruit jumble recipe I make every Christmas.
This very similar in method to a British "rock cake's though I would add the sugar after the rubbing/cutting in stage - almost like a scone.. just a view from across the pond.
I like this recipe. Nice and simple. Fir me Christmas is too hectic and stressful.
Different strokes for different folks - I’d pile in the spices. Cookies that keep their shape for those who shy away from the unexpected 🫢
Rant on Glen, it can be very informative. The never-ending saga of what currants are will always amuse this Brit. Now diagnosed as diabetic it is a shame that I will no longer have the opportunity to try this little Christmas gem, not that I have much of a sweet tooth.
These look tasty, and I like the idea of nutmeg in them. Maybe some ginger? Thanks for the video.
I make a cookie very close to thiis one but with glazed cherries will try this one Never too early for Christmas cookies I do cookie boxes for friends and family so I start the first day of fall make the cookie do freeze them bake them off all at once Krrp up the great videos
My Nana used to make these! I loved them ❤
This was the cookie my mother made most of the time year round..and if by chance a few sit out on a plare too long and get dry, they are great for dunking.
I love fruit cake and fruit cake cookies!
these are like fruitcake in a cookie yummers
Never change, dude.
I would love to see a follow up on this, just for argument's sake. Make them with the instructions from the recipe and make them as if you were making a chocolate chip cookie to see how the texture changes with these. Either way, always love watching you both, makes me homesick. Living in Thailand is great, but I miss Canada sometimes.
I just bought this book on eBay because of this recipe but also because I see the “Hermits” recipe. My mother made those all the time and they are great. As you said about the ones you made - more like mini cakes. Please make those next.
I think that the vintage Five Roses Cookbook has a version of this cookie called Christmas Drop Cookies. We still make the cherry almond version sometimes around Christmas, but not every year. We make them a fair bit smaller than your though!
I always make the cookies I bake for Christmas smaller, too. Mostly because everyone always wants to try EVERY kind of cookie, and nobody needs a dozen huge cookies all at once (might WANT them, but that's another tale 😄.)
I'm just starting to plan my Christmas baking, so I've tucked this recipe into my files. Looking forward to trying them. Please give us news about Hope Air from time to time, especially if you do a flight yourself. (I know you wouldn't intrude on the family's privacy, but it would be interesting to know a bit afterward about what it's like from the pilot's perspective.)
This looks like another winner. I've been making the "Thank You" spice cookies every couple of weeks since Glen posted it.
I guess we have to wait for next Saturday to learn what's in the Green Dutch Oven?
Those look so good! But the recipe beside it! Hermits are my fave… going to give that recipe a go.
I always love reading the comments on Old Cookbook Show recipes.
I’m going to think of these as Halloween nuggets lol. Just because.
This recipe looks a lot like the ingredients my mother used for her christmas fruit cake.
The Hermits looks pretty good. I love a molasses cookie.
I can never find candied peel. This cookie looks yummy! Thanks for the video!
Sadly you cannot buy good ice cream by the gallon anymore. Haven’t been able to do this for years.
I can see it now, on Glen’s tombstone 🪦: Welcome Friends. Glen would like you to know, dried currants are a raisin and shortening can be any solid fat.
😂 excellent reply
It is interesting that the recipe right next to it is for Hermits because when I was trying to think if I had ever had these I was thinking they were Hermits as I have had those. The candied peel and dried fruit would give a bit of fruit cake vibe which I normally am not a fan of but these looked good.
Of course, Royal was not the only cream of tartar-based leavening in the market. When I think of tasty fats, I also include the British favorite, beef suet. It is fine to use in biscuits for dishes using a beef stock.
... except that in Britain we would NEVER serve biscuits with dishes that use a beef stock! Although to further complicate matters, we make many different types of suet _pudding_ ...
Living in sub tropical Australia I didn't see a real currant in a green grocer until I was in my 50s. And you ard right, in Australia the box just says currants. I googled it and we grow varieties called carina and black gem.
I'll be making these this year! A long time ago, I stumbled on a PET No Bake fruit cake. I gave it a whirl, but I think I did something wrong. Would love to hear if you've made this recipe before.
PET MILK EVAPORATED NEW NO-BAKE FRUITCAKE
1. In 3-qt. saucepan over medium heat, stir 2/3 cup PET Evaporated Milk (1 small can), 2 cups KRAFT Miniature Marshmallows and 6 Tblsp undiluted Frozen Orange Juice Concentrate until marshmallows melt. Take off heat.
2. Stir in 3/4 cup cut-up dates, 3/4 cup raisins, 1 cup broken walnuts, 1 cup Mixed Candied fruit, and 1/4 cup candied cherries. Stir in until well blended a mixture of 4 cups fine Sugar Honey Graham Cracker Crumbs, 1 tsp. Cinnamon, 1 tsp. Nutmeg and 1/2 tsp. cloves.
3. Press firmly into 5 to 6 cup ring mold or loaf pan lined with waxed paper. Cover tightly. Chill 2 days. Makes 3 Ibs. For large fruitcake---double recipes, use 9-in. angel cake pan. Makes 6 lbs.
The problem there is that they should not have called that recipe a fruit cake. It sounds like a lot of those snacks things you can make that don't require baking. I would roll them into balls before chilling.
"Of course I'm going to spill some."
You're singing my song Glenn 😂
An interesting recipe, especially with your suggestion of freezing the unbaked dollops of batter. I think I'll give it a try (with some adaptations to make it more British-christmassy, ie fewer nuts and peel, more fruit) for a nearer-to-Christmas home-baked cake sale I'll be helping to supply - I like the idea of getting the hard work done in advance, and only needing to bake 'on the day'.
Yummy 😋 😊 I love fruity cookies.
I’ve never been fond of raisins and preserved peel in cookies, I think it’s more a textural thing rather than just taste. But I think these might be good with dried apricots.
Never too early for nuggies
It's funny before you started making them I thought sounds like a hermit cookie. Then the shot of the cookbook page and there by gosh is a hermit cookie recipe. I hope you make those hermit cookies too from that time period. When I was young hermit cookies were everywhere. You seldom see them now and it would be nice to see that recipe as that is likely what we ate when we were younger. Glen you are about the same age as I am so pretty sure you had them around as well as a kid and young adult. It's what Canadians are at that time.
We make a very similar cookie, but it must be from a later time period as it has more butter, sour cream and a greater quantity of candied fruit and raisins. They are called Julfrutkalor. Thanks Glen and Julie.
We already have Christmas lights up!
Maybe it’s the eggs that give a more cakey cookie - kind of giving fancy rock cake vibes 😊 - definitely look delicious though.
And to mess with you, in Australia, we have sultanas as our dried grapes. We get currants and raisins, but sultanas were the one of choice when I was a kid.
We have stores here that are already putting out Christmas goodies, so Christmas nugget biscuits won't be out of place.
Ah, in the U.S. we call sultanas "golden raisins."
I don't make cookies anymore. The cookies do look good.
Please do the barley nugget test! Inquiring minds want to know.
#50 is based on quarts of ice cream.
I don;t think you can say too much about making Christmas cookies in September. I work in a grocery store, and we already have holiday nuts and red/green chocolate pretzels!
Ooooh, yummmm! But, what was in the pot on the stove?? It looked like a stew? Thanks for another great video!
Ya my grandma made them, called them Rocks.
They need to rename the cookie. Christmas nuggets sound like a euphemism for presents left by Santa's reindeer.
😂😂😂😂
In the US the size of ice cream containers has changed over time. In days of yore we used to have ice cream in 10 gallon for shops, 5 gallon , 1 gallon / half gallons / and quarts for home. These days for home we have a 46oz. From Turkey Hill, 1.5 quart from Breyers, 1.5 quart from Friendly's, 14oz. & 28oz. from Haagen-Dazs and pints from Ben & Jerry's , Halo and Telenti. You may still be able to get full gallons and half gallons at local super markets of their name brand ice creams. Our local Stop&Shop still offers 1 gallon Stop&Shop REAL ice cream.
I appreciate the book's note on gingerbread. I find the butter flavour can be overpowering in a gingerbread cookie, drowning out the spices and molasses
oh those look yum-e!!! i could so easily adapt those to my gf need. just wondering if i could try baking some of my gf pumpkin fruitcake batter in cookie form 🤔...sounds like a plan!
Ah off to the side Hermits. Never knew for sure if they were cookies or bars.
If Dollarama can put out Christmas stuff then Glen can make Xmas cookies
My first mother-in law used to make those cookies but she called them ROCK COOKIES.
I thought you had uploaded this by mistake! Oh well, they look lovoey and give me an excuse to be the first person this year to say bah humbug! to christmas!
I was told 'Christmas nuggets' was Reindeer poop
hahaha
same - grandma (born 1921) baked these with roasted salted peanuts and called them Flying Reindeer Turds
Yeah we have something like that in a book from the 70s called reindeer plops. 😆 Omg I just remembered as kids we used to call them Doodie Poos!!!
😂😂😂😂
I would add in cloves, nutmeg, and a splash of either bourbon, rum, or Gran Marnier? and perhaps try them in mini muffin tins, or silicone molds?
Ladies and gentlemen, start your ovens for holiday baking! Hopefully it'll cool off soon so I can bear to use my oven again. Time to buy baking supplies
Glad to hear the shortening explanation, and be able to read along in the cookbook. I'm still confused about the currants/raisins ingredient issue, since the Nuggets recipe lists currants, but the Hermits recipe right next to it lists raisins. If they are the same, why would the cookbook name them differently?
Well - The worldwide 'raisin' debate. When a North American cookbook says raisin, it lets you decide which dried grape you want to use. But some recipes will specify "Thompson', or 'Sultana', or Currant because they want you to use a specific raisin. But for the most part (here anyway) raisin is a catch all generic term for any dried grape.
As they are Christmas cookies I wonder if using stout or brandy instead of milk would make them more of a Christmas "pudding" cookie. I may try that.
Brandy certainly qualifies as a flavoring. Good luck !
I find I get a different texture in some cookies depending on the fat I use. Butter makes them spread out, vegetable shortening not. So I'll go half and half to get the flavor and the shape I want. Especially true of tollhouse cookies.
If you chill the cookie balls well before baking, they (usually) won't spread. That can happen when the butter gets too warm.
Shrinkflation, the 1/2 Gallon was replaced with a 48oz, 3 Pint container.
I occasionally see a 1/2 Gallon container but not very often.
2 1/4 Barley Corns fit into a #50 scoop which is about 19ml
Great cookie recipe...now, what's in the pot? :P
Having been trained as a baker it falls under a process method,in which the liquid is added last to keep the gluten from developing to much while mixing large recipes like a hundred cakes or fifty pounds of cookies, or things like pie dough