My grandmother's cookie recipe surprised me when I hit 500 batches

I always thought her recipe made exactly 3 dozen cookies, but last Christmas I counted every single batch I made over 20 years. Turns out I baked over 500 batches of her sugar cookies from that one card she wrote in 1952. Not a single batch came out the same because she wrote 'a pinch of this' and 'a handful of that' which drove me nuts at first. Has anyone else had a family recipe that changed on you like that over time?

3 comments

3 Comments

gavin_reed25d ago

Actually 3 dozen is 36 cookies, so if you made 500 batches that's 18,000 cookies not counting the ones that got eaten before you could count them lol. That "pinch of this" stuff is rough though, my grandma's pie crust recipe literally says "add flour until it feels right" which is basically useless for a first timer. Had to figure out the exact flour to butter ratio by trial and error over like 10 pies before I got it consistent. You ever try weighing out what your hand considers a "handful"? Mine varies by like half a cup depending on the day.

casey39325d ago

Call them out on it - the "pinch of this" nonsense is just an excuse for lazy baking.

mason84725d ago

Why is it such a bad thing that the recipe changes though? You said yourself that not a single batch came out the same, but that's the whole point of an old family recipe. It's not some science experiment where you need exact measurements every time, it's more about the feel and the memory of making it with your grandmother. If you forced it to be exactly the same every time with precise weights and numbers, you'd probably lose whatever made those cookies special in the first place. My aunt's famous banana bread recipe has a note from her saying "add more flour if it looks too wet" and nobody has ever complained that it comes out different each time. Maybe the variation is what makes it yours, not just your grandmother's.