Soft Jumbles (pioneer cookies)

Today, my class went to Buckley Homestead. We did many activities that pioneers use to do in the 1900s. It included grinding corn for corn bread, chopping onions, and making stew. We also made bookmarks and journals. We got to clean sheep wool. We went to a pioneer school where we learned calligraphy with a nib pen.

For the day, parents were asked to make these cookies or a different homemade cookies. We used the recipe the school provided.

1 cup butter

2 eggs

4 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cream of tartar

2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp vanilla extract

Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. Add half the milk and the vanilla. Then add half the flour. Beat the eggs and then add them into the batter. Mix the cream of tartar with the remaining flour and add it to the bowl. Dissolve the baking soda in the remaining milk and mix that in.

Drop the batter by spoonfuls onto a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake in a 360 degree oven for 12 minutes.

Kay: They were very soft. It made a lot more cookies than I needed for my class. Plus, other students made cookies. If they turned out badly we had other cookies. They were awesome!!!!

Mom (Dana): First of all, this was the funniest recipe I ever read. I think it was written in "pioneer talk" and since I am not a pioneer, I wasn't sure half the time what they were talking about! I adapted the recipe above so the rest of you non-pioneers would understand it.

Also, we used vanilla flavored soy milk so I reduced the vanilla extract to 1/2 tsp.

The recipe said to roll these in sugar. Personally, I thought they were very sweet and this wasn't necessary.

And yes, we used the Kitchen Aid which I'm sure isn't very authentic but, like I said, I'm not a pioneer!