Once a Prairie Tradition, now an Endangered Cookie
My maternal grandmother. Maude (yes, Maude), would make these Brown Eyed Susan Cookies so big and flat and perfectly round, but for no special occasion whatsoever. That was the first reason I loved her. If I was staying with her, or the whole family was there, she would cook and cook and cook and cook whatever she had in the house that she thought we would enjoy. Her cookie jar was always full. Well, half full, actually. It got a really good daily workout. She had one of those mammoth glass mason jars with the wide metal lid that screwed on it. I am not sure what originally came in those jars, but they were everywhere when I was a child, and now there are replicas everywhere. Maude invented Costco-sized-cookies when it was bad manners to take more than two cookies. I loved her cookies. No one could ever eat two of them. These ones were my favourite because of the chocolate and the almond. Her other specialty – well, she had many others, actually. Her other most common cookie that filled that jar was her Sugar Cookie.
I love you grandma. I miss you, too. You were such a tremendous influence on me and these cookies, once so common in on prairie tables are almost non-existent. Is it possible for a cookie to become extinct? I suppose it is. Eating a family meal at the dinner table is on the endangered list, so I guest it would be fair to say that a cookie could easily have been overlooked, and at risk, as well.
And, I also have brown eyes. Brown Eyed Susan Cookies are my namesake cookie. Grandma would tease me and call them “Brown-eyed Valerie’s”. Even more reason to raise my wooden spoon in concern.
But, I do wonder what ever happened to the longevity of the Brown Eyed Susan Cookie named after a prairie flower (and me). You can Google it, and find recipes of it, but no one is making it anymore around these parts. I love it. Not as sweet as shortbread, but a tender bite of prairies past. I make them small. I always want to taste everything, and small is the only way to justify that. Besides, Brown Eyed Susan Cookies are the perfect counterpoint to the Turtle Cookie on my assortment plate. I do make an effort to present the positive and negative image of a cookie, or a tart side by side. Contrast is always good; even on a cookie tray.
So, I work to repopulate the endangered Brown Eyed Susan Cookie every Christmas. And, every season I notice there are more and more of them left on the tray. That would be a good thing in the living world of preservation. But this is Cookie World. In Cookie World the cookies have to get eaten, and the recipe has to be asked for and people have to run home to make them at their house.
Is this because they are not so sweet? They are a quiet, unassuming cookie. Pure in composition and strong in stature, but have just not kept up with the times, I suppose. Sugar, baby! Lots and lots of sugar! Maybe there is just not enough sugar?
I support the Preserve the Christmas Cookie Baking Foundation, and will continue to work my memories into this dough year after year. Someone will join the cause, eventually – or, let me know if they are already out there tending to their Brown Eyed Susan Cookies et al, as well.
I form each by hand, shaped as above. I told you they were flaky! I can never wait for the icing.
Hot water, cocoa and icing sugar are used instead of chocolate to make the glossy globules of goodness on top. I have thought of melting a great quality chocolate, but that would be so wrong. They are a taste of the paste, and changing that may not get me kicked out of the Preserve the Christmas Cookie Baking Foundation, but it certainly would muddle the genes for those working to preserve this, and other cookies on the endangered list.
Brown Eyed Susan Cookies
Ingredients
Ingredients for the Cookie:
- 1 cup butter
- 3 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
Ingredients for the Icing:
- 1 cup icing sugar
- 2 tablespoons cocoa
- 3 tablespoons hot water
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
Instructions for the Cookie:
-
Pre-heat oven to 350ºF
-
Cream all together and roll into balls, flattening slightly on cookie sheet
-
Bake at 350ºF for 8-10 minutes, until bottom is barely brown
Instructions for the Icing:
-
Combine sugar and cocoa; add water and vanilla
-
Dot each cookie very carefully with icing, and top each with one whole blanched almond
-
Freeze in a well sealed container
Recipe Notes
* Almonds must be really fresh; I don't toast them for this application
* When icing the cookie, use the smallest spoon and tiniest amount of icing; ensure it is glossy
* Hands must be super clean to not mark the cookie; hold it and turn it to avoid the icing from running down the sides (best to have a teardrop shaped dollop to match the shape of the almond you place on top of it)
* The icing can get muddy and loose its gloss; heat it and stir it up to regain its gloss and continue
Hey, Valerie! Where I come from, having brown eyes doesn’t mean you’re full of cookies! Now that’s a tail slapper!
What a lovely story and a memory of your grandma! Now I start to understand the passion in you as we sit together watching movies and you have your precious dough in front of you and you roll, and roll, and roll,…Maude would be so proud of you, and Beave certainly is!!
I can taste these, they look incredible and although I can no longer eat them due to my nut allergies, I can still remember the taste and the texture! These were always one of my favorites!! 🙂
Gorgeous cookies… beautiful photos… I can taste the love from here!
I have been looking for this recipe for a while now and am thrilled that I found it. My great grandmother used to make these and send them to me. I agree its a shame they are an endangered cookie because they are such a great cookie!
Sheryl!
I am tickled pink that you have found a long lost family recipe here. Now, go forth and multiply (this cookie)! 😉
V
I bought some of these cookies today at a bakery in Huntsville,
Texas. I love them!!! I’m glad I found your recipe. I will definitely make these this week.
Wonderful, Peggy!
These are a family cookie for us too! In addition to making the cocoa icing, my grandma also made them with green and red buttercream icing for Christmas. I can’t make them without thinking of her. And my kids love helping with them too, another generation of bakers! Thanks for sharing your memories…it brought me back to my childhood…
Heather!
How lovely of you to chime in to let me know that your family also has this cookie in their recipe archives. Where are you from? The red and green Christas icing idea is fun and funky! And, so 1970’s, no?
Love it!
🙂
Valerie
My Mother in law has always made them, but tops them with a pecan. They are one of my husband’s favorites. We are in SW Michigan, no prairies here, just sand dunes and Lake Michigan.
Well, isn’t that amazing, Susan! Were they a cookie everyone in the neighbourhood made in your area, like mine – as a child? That is what happens when one person loves something, isn’t it? And then they move and the cookie has a whole new life somewhere else and it is so difficult to track where that life began.
Happy Holidays!
Valerie
Hi, Thank you so much for posting your recipe! My husband(of almost two years 🙂 LOVES these cookies and I had to search high and low on the internet to find a recipe that was just the good oldfashioned lovable brown eyed susan. My son who is less than a year old is going to get his first one this evening after dinner and I have no doubt that he will love them too. The first time I had them was at the in laws place where they are a big hit every Christmas and you are not likely to find any leftover after dessert and late night snacking on the first day. Mom-in-law actually left half of them as unbaked dough last year so that they would last longer. Oh, We aren’t even on the prairies. Lots of mountains and snow round here. Happy New Year!!!
Hi Pamela!
What a lovely message. I would love for you to find out the mom in law story about this cookie – where it came from in her family.
So thrilled it has found a new home in yours!
🙂
Valerie
These are my husband’s favorite. I believe I may be making some as a surprise while he’s away at his hockey game tonight!
So happy to hear this. They are definitely a cookie that finds me right in my grandmother’s kitchen beside her wood-fired oven when making it.
🙂
Valerie
I have made these cookies every Xmas for 50 years. They were a staple at our house when I was growing up. My job was to put the almonds on. My boys say it isn’t Xmas without them!
Where are you from, Janice! Same at our house!
I made these cookies years ago. My mother-in-law shared her recipe.
I’m so happy I found your recipe all the others just don’t get it.
My family will be so happy!
Sincerely,
Susian Nichols
Great to hear, Susian!
🙂
Valerie
I was excited to find this recipe and made a batch today. I just took a bite of one, and it took me right back to my childhood – they are EXACTLY how I remember them! As a Canadian (from the prairies of Saskatchewan!) that’s been living in the US for almost ten years now, I am always thrilled to find recipes that remind me of home. Thank you!!
So glad you found my recipe, Kendra,
It was the only one like it when I posted it back in 2010. It was my grandmother Maude’s version of the recipe and so happy to hear that it is a taste of home for you.
Hugs and Happy Holidays,
Valerie
I’m 61 years old, and Brown Eyed Susans were also my Nana’s go-to cookie. She often sent them to our house, along with other “Goodies”, and whenever I visited, we would bake them together.
The recipe was kept in a notebook, of handwritten recipes that my Nana’s mother (Ma, my Scottish great-grandmother) kept for baking. My great grandparents and grand parents lived together, and I was lucky to have known all four of them!
Ma frequently copied recipes from magazines and newspapers, which I’ve always assumed was where the Brown Eyed Susan recipe originated.
In my great grandmother’s version, she specifically states, “Two sticks Parkay Margarine” so I wondered if she got the recipe from an advertisement for Parkay. As an adult, I switched to using unsalted butter, instead of the margarine. After rolling the cookies into balls, I use my index finger, and starting in the center, I gently tap them into a somewhat flattened shape.
I bake mine at 400 degrees for 15 to 18 minutes.
The icing I do exactly the same as in your recipe.
Our family has always fallen into the “Love ‘em” or “Don’t care for them” camps. My sister and I love them. In fact, I just made a batch yesterday, and have four left! Eating them all by myself.
My father never cared for them, referring to them as “A mouthful of nothing!” My children were never fans, and as adults, my daughters still don’t really enjoy them. I now have a granddaughter of my own, and as soon as she’s old enough, I look forward to teaching her how to make these cookies, just as my Nana did with me, so many years ago. Hopefully she’ll love them enough to keep this family tradition going!
Thank you so much for sharing your family story and memory, Karen!
That is exactly what happens when each of us bites into a taste that opens up that memory vault and why I treasure each of these morsels so much that connect me deeply to those I love.
Happy Holidays!
Valerie
My grandmother made these and turtles. You brought up beautiful memories mentioning both..
That’s so lovely to hear Lindsey
These cookies are so packed with nostalgia and yummy home grown memories.
Hugs
Valerie
I make these cookies each year. My mother made them for us as long as I can remember. Right before she passed, at age 96, I asked her where she found the recipe. She answered, “on the back of a margarine box.” They have always been my favorite and my brothers. I send him a box every year on his birthday.
What a lovely gift and sharing, Elizabeth!
Thank you! They are definitely a family favourite here. Simple. Understated and packed full of nostalgia!
Hugs,
Valerie
Thank you! Thank you! Thank you for posting this. I panicked when I could not find my mother’s recipe for Browneyed Susans. I have made it since I was a little girl, and it is my favorite of all cookies. I am clipping eighty and have protected it all these years to pass on to my granddaughter. I planned to make them for tea tomorrow afternoon. Now, thanks to you, I can. Your recipe is exactly like the one my mother made. Have a Merry Christmas!
Thank you for your enthusiasm, Anne!
Love it!
Hope your guests loved your cookies – and that they were just how you remembered them!
Let me know!
Happy 2024!
Valerie