A Month of Hand-Me-Down Recipes
Tiny Tea Cookies c. 1968
I made these cookies in 7th grade home economics class. The teacher’s only method of making multiple copies (rather than writing out 30+ individual recipes) was via mimeograph. The word mimeograph elicits a distinctive olfactory memory for me. If you’re not among those nodding in remembrance, here is a blog article that reminisces about the mimeograph days in schools.
This is the original recipe: Mexican Wedding Cakes. You’ll notice the typo in the directions. Mimeographing was a messy endeavor. Purple ink fingertips were a clear indicator that you were still a newbie at the mimeograph machine. Typos were tolerated rather than start over.
My second-oldest granddaughter renamed these cookies Tiny Tea Cookies when I served them to her during our Kentucky Derby tea party when she was 5 years old. The name fits.
Until next time,
Kaye Spencer
writing through history one romance upon a time
They remind me of the crunchy little cookie balls I know as “Russian tea cakes.” 🙂
Russian tea cakes. Mexican Wedding Cakes. Tiny Tea Cookies.
A cookie by any other name would taste as sweet.
🙂