aunt Lizzie’s ginger snap cookie recipe
2022 - 2023
I found an old recipe box in my mother’s closet with recipes from my great great aunt Lizzie. She was the sister of my great grandmother Ellen who died from pneumonia in 1896. Aunt Lizzie, who was a graduate from the Woman’s Medical College of Pennsylvania, left Philadelphia and moved cross country to Berkeley California to raise her sister’s three young boys.. The Ginger Snap Cookie Recipe was clearly a favorite with the boys. It was well used. One of the boys had doodled on the back, the ink was smudged, the card greasy.
Seeing something so personal made me wonder about these three boys and their Aunt Lizzie Who were they? How did they grow up? What was their childhood like? . And who were their best friends? What games did they play? Where did life take them? I fell down the proverbial rabbit hole, looking for information and searching for photographs of them. I found saved letters, hand written journals. marriage certificates and death certificates (one boy drowned at the age of 18). And so many photographs. And while four generations separate us, they were more like me than I would have imagined. Simply four young children growing, up with family, friends, home and adventures. Bound up with both joy and sadness.
And Ginger Snap Cookies.
Ginger Snap Cookie Recipe
Put a 1/2 cupful of butter and a cup of molasses (Orleans or Breer Rabbit) on the fire. As soon as the butter is softened, remove and add a cup of brown sugar, a teaspoon of ginger and a level teaspoon of soda dissolved in a little hot water. Then add enough flour to make a dough. Roll very thin, cut into cakes and cook in a moderate over.