A vintage recipe for National Cookie Month

Pillsbury cookbook from my collection

When I shared that squash recipe a few days ago,  I mentioned how I used up a lot of our Blue Hubbard squash (from our very first garden over 40 years ago)  by baking dozens of squash cookies.  To do this, I adapted a recipe for pumpkin cookies.  I thought it might be fun to hunt that recipe up and share it here.

It came originally from the Farm Journal Homemade Cookies cookbook.  My mother subscribed to Farm Journal magazine (as did her mother before her) and in the 1960s and 1970s Farm Journal published a number of excellent cookbooks.   I acquired as many as I could.  In a way I suppose these cookbooks were the forerunner of Taste of Home magazine, for many recipes came from good farm cooks all over the United States.

Here is my cookie recipe:

SQUASH COOKIES

1/2 cup margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups mashed cooked winter squash
2 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1 cup raisins if desired

Cream together margarine and brown sugar.  Add eggs; beat thoroughly.  Mix in vanilla and squash.

Sift together dry ingredients.  Blend into creamed mixture.  Stir in raisins if using them.

Drop dough by heaping teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheet.  (The old recipe says greased baking sheet, but I use parchment now and you probably do, too.)  Bake at 375º about 15 minutes, or until lightly browned.  Remove cookies to cooling racks.  Makes 5 dozen.

Hope you enjoy this vintage recipe if you try it!