Retro Electric Gifts- Coconut Squares

In the late 60's and early 70's my local power company San Diego Gas & Electric had a home economics department. Every year they published a holiday recipe booklet and I have quite a few of them. The picture is their centerfold of gifts ideas. I don't know too many people who would be thrilled with a can opener or iron as a gift. I had to look at the item in the lower right corner several times before it dawned on me that is is an old style hair dryer with cap. I had one of those a long time ago.

Here is a bar cookie recipe from one of the booklets:

Coconut Squares

"Chewy cookies in two layers with brown sugar in the bottom, coconut in the top"
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup sifted flour
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 2/3 cups flaked coconut
1 cup chopped walnut
1/4 cup sifted flour
1 cup brown sugar packed
Cream butter and 1/2 brown sugar together in large bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy. Add flour and mix well. Pat into greased 13x9x2-inch pan. Bake in preheated oven at 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Meanwhile, beat eggs lightly in mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients and mix well. Spread evenly on baked base in pan. Put back into oven and bake 20 additional minutes. Cool 10 minutes. Cut into 24 squares. Cool in pan.

Retro Farm Journal Christmas

Yesterday I discovered that I had a hardcover Farm Journal Christmas Book from 1970. I love the retro look to the room in the scan. The decorations are simple cut and fold paper. The book has a lot of recipes, for party foods, cookies, baked goods, and food gifts.
Here is their recipe for chocolate cut out sugar cookies:

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup light corn syrup
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, melted
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Cream shortening, sugar and egg. Stir in syrup and chocolate.
Sift dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture. Chill 1 hour.
Roll 1/8- thick on well-floured pastry cloth. Cut into shapes. Bake on ungreased baking sheets in moderate oven 350 degrees 10 to 12 minutes. Makes 2 1/2 dozen 3" cookies. Frost and decorate if desired.

This is one of the bar cookie recipes. The blurb: "Pink-frosted cookies with shortbread base, rich candy-like topping."

Cherry-Walnut Bars
2 1/4 cups sifted flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 (2-oz) jar maraschino cherries (do they make this size anymore?)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup confectioners sugar
1/2 cup flaked coconut, optional
Mix flour, sugar and butter until crumbly. Press into 13x9x92" pan. Bake in 350 degree oven 20 minutes, or until crust is lightly browned. Blend eggs, sugar, salt, baking powder and vanilla. Drain and chop cherries, reserving liquid. Stir chopped cherries and walnuts into egg-sugar mixture. Place on top of baked crust. Return to oven and bake 25 minutes. Remove from oven; cool cookies. Combine 1 tablespoon softened butter and 1 cup confectioners sugar with enough cherry liquid to spread. Frost; sprinkle with coconut, if you wish. When icing has set, cut into 48 small bars.

Melt Away Bars and Brazilian Jubilee Cookies

These recipes are also from the 1969 Pillsbury book- Bake Off Cookie Favorites. These recipes are for holiday type cookies. The bars are the ones with the sugar in the pic and the Brazilian Jubilee Cookies are the ones with the nuts on top.
Yesterday at Wal-Mart I got a 1 lb. package of pecan pieces for $4.00, that is a very good price for my area. My cookie baking day is coming up and I am going to make Snowballs with the pecans. I am also going to make these Melt Away Bars and put some red sugar on them. They seem so easy to make, I love bar cookies none of that messing with dropping the dough and waiting for the cookie sheets to cool a little between batches.
Melt Away Bars
1 egg separated
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
1 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts
Colored sugar or 1/2 cup chocolate pieces and 1/2 cup peanut butter or butterscotch pieces
In large mixer bowl, combine egg yolk and remaining ingredients except nuts and sugar or chips. Blend well at low speed. Stir in 1/2 cup walnuts; mix thoroughly. Spread in ungreased 15x10-inch jelly roll pan. Beat egg white until frothy; spread over bars. Sprinkle with remaining walnuts and colored sugar. Bake at 350 degree for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly; cut in bars. OR omit sugar and sprinkle chips over bars immediately after baking. Let stand 5 minutes; spread to form marble frosting.
Brazilian Jubilee Cookies
1 1/2 cup flour
1 to 2 tablespoons instant coffee
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup chopped Brazil or other nuts
Chocolate candy kisses or semi-sweet chocolate pieces
In large mixer bowl, combine all ingredients except nuts and chocolate. Blend at low speed. Stir in 1/2 cup nuts; mix thoroughly. Chill dough for easier handling. Shape into balls, using a rounded teaspoon for each. Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove from oven. Press a candy kiss or 5 chocolate pieces into center of each hot cookie. When chocolate has softened, spread to frost. Sprinkle with remaining chopped nuts. Makes about 36 cookies.

Pineapple Cookies- Pillsbury Bake Off Cookie Favorites

These recipes are from a cookbooklet I got the other day: Pillsbury Bake Off Cookie Favorites, 1969. It is not a numbered edition. It has a lot of cookies that would be nice for the holidays so I think it must have been put out in the late fall. The first one is a drop cookie with a touch of lemon. The second one is an easy bar cookie.

Hawaiian Moon Drops

3 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon soda

1 teaspoons salt

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2/3 cup shortening

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 teaspoon lemon extract

2/3 cup drained crushed pineapple

1 cup chopped walnuts

1 1/2 cup toasted coconut

Lemon Frosting (recipe called for a dry mix, maybe lemon comes in a can now)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In large mixer bowl, combine all ingredients except pineapple, walnuts, coconut and frosting. Blend well at low speed. Stir in pineapple and walnuts; mix thoroughly. Drop by rounded teaspoon onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool. Frost with Lemon Frosting. and dip tops in toasted coconut.

Hawaiian Fruit Squares

3/4 cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup sugar

2eggs

1/2 cup drained crushed pineapple

1/2 cup chopped dates

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1/2 cup flaked coconut

Confectioners' sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In large mixer bowl, combine flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and eggs. Blend well at low speed. Fold in remaining ingredients except Confectioners' sugar. Spread in greased 9-inch square pan. Bake at 350 for 25 to 30 minutes. Cool slightly cut into 36 squares. Roll in confectioners' sugar.

Vintage Kitchen 1942- Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies

This image is from the back cover of the Dec. 1942 BHG issue. The large picture is of "The Victory Kitchen, complete with Hotpoint Range, Refrigerator, Electric Dishwasher, Sink and Hotpoint Steel Cabinets, costs so little many $6,oo0 homes now enjoy them." The small inset is of the "Daffodil Kitchen" it is for a $4,000 home and didn't have a dishwasher. I didn't even know they had dishwashers back then.
In a column titled, Food Gifts From Your Kitchen this cookie is suggested:

Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup light molasses
1/2 cup hot water
4 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
Thoroughly cream shortening and sugar; add egg and beat well; add molasses and blend. Add hot water. Sift dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture. Chill. Roll 1/4 to 3/4 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut rectangles 3 x 5 inches. Arrange on greased cooky sheet. Bake in moderate hot oven $00 degrees 10 minutes

Vintage Better Homes & Gardens Christmas

I knew I had a vintage BHG issue and figured I would have to dig to find it. Lucky me I stumbled across it with out really looking. It is the December 1942 edition and is full of wonderful vintage ads and recipes. Here are two of the recipes:

Prune-Walnut Pie
2 1/2 cup pitted cooked prunes, well drained
1/4 cup prune liquor
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup chopped nut meats
2/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamonChop prunes coarsely. Add prune liquor, lemon juice, melted butter and nut meats. Mix sugar, flour, salt, and cinnamon' add to prune mixture. Pour into 9-inch pastry-lined pie pan. Adjust top crust; flute edge, Bake in hot oven 450 degrees 10 minutes, then in moderate oven 350 degrees 30 to 35 minutes. Serve slightly warm.

Fig-Marmalade Pudding
1/2 cup shortening
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 beaten egg
2 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup milk
1 cup chopped dried figs
1 cup orange marmalade
Thoroughly cream shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat well. Sift dry ingredients; add to creamed mixture alternately with milk. Add figs and marmalade; blend well. Pour into greased and floured 8-or 9-inch tube pan Bake in slow oven 325 degrees 1 hour. Serve with hard sauce.

Minty Rocky Roads- BHG Treasury of Baking Recipes

This recipe comes from BHG Treasury of Baking Recipes, 1979. I found the book at a thrift store last week and it has some very yummy sounding recipes. This particular recipe seems like it would be a good Christmas bar cookie.
Minty Rocky Roads
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract
1 1/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup miniature marshmallows
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
Chocolate Glaze
In small saucepan melt one-half of 1-ounce square unsweetened chocolate and 1 tablespoon butter over low heat stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla till mixture is crumbly. Blend in enough boiling water (about 1 tablespoon) till glaze is of pouring consistency.
In mixer bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in egg, milk and extract. Stir together flour, baking soda, and salt; add to creamed mixture. Mix just till blended. Stir in marshmallows and chopped walnuts. Spread in greased 9x9x2-inch baking pan. Bake in 375 degree oven for 18 to 20 minutes. Cool cookies till slightly warm. Drizzle with warm Chocolate Glaze. Cut in bars. Makes 2 dozen.