The "Original Half Moon Cookies"

Submitted by Pumpkie

"Better than the ones you can get in a bakery just lke the originals in the north end of boston. The key to the recipe is the nutmeg and as weird as it seems the soured milk"

 

• Ready In: 35mins
• Ingredients: 10
• Yields: 10 large cookies

ingredients

• 1⁄2 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 cups cake flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1⁄2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 3⁄4 cup sour milk (add 1 tblspn of vinegar to milk)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

directions

1. Cream together shortening and sugar and then add beaten egg and vanilla.
2. sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg.
3. add alternately mixture of sifted flour ingreidents and the soured milk to the creamed shortening mixture batter should be thick drop by tablespoons (one on top of the other to give it height one unlevel on bottom one level on top) onto cookie trays bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes until lightly brown on bottoms.
4. cool completely and frost one side with pure white frosting and the other with dark chocolate frosting you can make your own or used canned.
5. If the batter comes out soupy or sticky I add additional flour

Reviews

[lacox]

This was a good cookie. I was looking for a replacement to a half moon cookie recipe from my great grandmother and this seemed close enough. Although, I did substitute 8 ounces of sour cream for the 3/4 cup of sour milk as I recall sour cream in her recipe. I thought that the nutmeg was a tad too strong, and the next time, I will use more like 1/4 teaspoon rather than 1/2. The dough was a little too runny at first and I added flour at 2 Tbls at a to equal about an extra 1/2 cup. I also found that the oven cooked the cookies better at a higher temperature, at least in my oven, like 385 degrees for 9 minutes. My Husband loved these cookies.

 

[Kim D.]

I suspect there might be an error in this recipe, as my dough came out really runny, almost like pancake batter, although the directions say the "batter should be thick". I assumed that the quantity of milk should have been 1/4 cup instead of 3/4 cup. So, I tripled the ingredients (except for the milk). The dough still seemed a little sticky, so I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and placed it in the fridge for one hour. After that I scooped 1 tablespoon size drops onto a baking stone and baked for about 12 minutes. They were perfect! They had a wonderful texture, similar to that of a soft sugar cookie. I used fresh nutmeg which really gave an amazing taste to the cookie!