Mennonite Girls Can Cook is a collection of recipes which were posted daily for a period of ten years from 2008 to 2018. We have over 3,000 delicious recipes that we invite you to try. The recipes can be accessed in our recipe file by category or you can use the search engine.

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Oma's Glazed Chocolate Cookies

I'm so excited to share about the wonderful day I had with my Mom yesterday. My family has been telling me for a long time that I NEED to learn how to make Oma's chocolate cookies and Perishky! I bake pretty well anything else, but I've played ignorance with some of her specialties because I just want to enjoy them when she makes them.
It was so cute how she was almost giddy about me taking pictures of her while she was doing what she knows how to do best! I'll post the cookies first. The Perishky are coming later . . . Oh, and these cookies are the best cookies to take camping because they keep so well. Feel free to ask questions because I may have missed something.

Ingredients:
  • 1 cup butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup honey
  • 2 egg yolks (save whites)
  • 5 cups flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon soda
  • ½ cup cocoa
  • ½ cup milk
  • ½ cup whipping cream
Glaze
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 2 egg whites
Method:
  1. In a stand mixer, mix butter and sugar, beat in yolks and then honey.
  2. Add combined dry ingredients alternately with milk and cream. ( you can use light cream instead of milk and cream)
  3. Cover bowl and refrigerate overnight. 

4. Divide dough into quarters. Roll each quarter into a 20 - 24 inch roll (snake) and slice into aprox 1 inch pieces to roll into balls.
5. Place on prepared cookie sheets and bake at 375° F about 12 -13 minutes.
6. Remove to wire rack to cool.  Frost with sugar glaze.



Sugar Glaze - This is a bit tricky but a fun challenge. With experience you learn exactly what to look for as you cook the syrup. Be prepared to focus on glazing the cookies as soon as the glaze is ready.  You can't let it sit.  Have wax paper lined cookie sheets ready. If you want to test this procedure, you can do half the recipe and cook twice. Use a small pot if doing half the recipe.
  1. In a medium glass bowl, beat egg whites until almost stiff and set aside.
  2. In a medium saucepan, bring 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup water to boil. Once the liquid looks clear and bubbly even while stirring, set timer to 3 minutes.  Boil between low and medium heat, stirring occasionally to keep sugar from crystallizing on the sides, until liquid is just a mass of tiny bubbles and syrup-like when you drip it from the spoon. ( 3 minutes is a good mark - you can adjust time once you have figured out your stove, pot etc * see note in next paranthesis) 
  3. Immediately pour syrup into beaten egg whites, with beater on, and continue beating for a few minutes, until thick and wavy.
  4. Scoop some glaze up with your hands and coat each cookie, first bottom and then top.(*If syrup is cooked too little the glaze will be very easy to spread, but harder to dry. If syrup is cooked too long, the glaze dries quickly and doesn’t go on as smooth. It may help to wet your hands)
  5. Place on waxed paper lined cookie sheets, not touching each other, until glaze dries. Slightly undercooked glaze may take up to 24 hours to dry. Leave cookies uncovered until they are no longer tacky.
Store cookies in ice cream bucket in a cool place or freeze. This recipe yields 7 - 8 dozen. Gauge baking time by their size. If you have less than 80 cookies, they will be larger and need an extra minute or two to bake. You want them to taste moist and cake-like, but if they "cave" once cooled, they are under baked.

Some ways you  may be able to salvage glaze that has not turned out perfect:  If it is too thin (runs off the cookies, beat it for a few more minutes, adding a tablespoon of cornstarch. If, while you are icing the cookies, it dries too quickly and becomes grainy, beat in a tablespoon or two of water. If nothing works, just start again. =) ... but remember that even cookies that don't look perfect, still taste amazing.

(My mom adapted this recipe from the Mennonite
Treasury Cookbook, (1962) page 171)


24 comments:

  1. Oh Anneliese. . it was so nice to have a glimpse of your mom. I haven't seen her for so long. .She hasn't changed at all since we sang in the choir together. .
    Oh and tell her thankyou for sharing this recipe. I think we may be at a new milestone where the recipes that have been special for our own familes are shared so they won't be lost and forgotten.

    My dream for this blog is coming true. Thank you so much for this wonderful tutorial .. oh and your collage is wonderful.. I give you an A plus.

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  2. wonderful...again...this brings back so many memories. Thanks Anneliese.

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  3. Thank you for the post Anneliese... nice to see pictures of your mom making those 'special' cookies we have all enjoyed over the years at B&M's. She did give me the recipe years ago, but I've only attempted them once. Great pictorial :) Well done! Say 'hi' from us Manitoba Thiessens. Oh, I am so hungry for a cookie right now!!

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  4. this is good mother daughter project.........i am so glad that we can document these family treasures.

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  5. I LOVE these cookies, but have never attempted them myself either. It's been a LONG time, but I have memories of my Mom icing those cookies with her hands & thinking how weird :) Mom's had a spice in them as well. Thanks for sharing.
    Vange

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  6. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  7. When I first saw these, I thought, "Moon Pies." Beautiful cookies and I'm sure they are delish too. The one tip I loved was to roll out the dough and cut into 1" slices and THEN roll into balls. I always just "wing it" when it comes to cookie balls and so they aren't as perfect.

    I can't wait to try this recipe.
    Loved your mom smiling as she baked.

    Jody

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  8. I stumbled onto your blog and found it very interesting. I am of Mennonite background and cook some of the same meals you have here. Will be checking back quite often. My daughter has a cooking blog called http://thebakingbeauties.blogspot.com/ I help her out with some of my cooking. Good job..keep it up.

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  9. Hooray Mom & Oma!!! These cookies look DELICIOUS...can you send me some? =)

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  10. Oh yummy yummy....Anneliese you are so productive.
    Just to add to your load a little invitation..
    I am inviting you to participate in a meme @
    http://five-minutes-of-fame.blogspot.com/
    originally from:
    http://the160acrewoods.wordpress.com/

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  11. How do I print just the recipe part without all the comments

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  12. Hello. .annonymus. . whoever you are ..
    I'm sorry that I haven't yet figured out how to print the recipes without the comments. . the comments generally add 1 page to your printing. .
    the other option is to copy and paste yourself and then print. . however if your time is more valuable than 1 sheet of paper .. print away. . and enjoy the comments that go with it.

    The nice thing about the comments is that they often offer additional hints of how to prepare the dish from seasoned cooks. .

    enjoy!!

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  13. thanks Lovella, for the answer, I'll just print away, since there is no way I will figure out how to copy and paste, i was just wondering, so enjoying this recipe blog, thanks again

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  14. Way to go Anneliese. That's an excellent blog and it looks like you are enjoying Lovella's tutorials. WOW

    You are so lucky to have your Mom.
    It always renews an ache in my heart.

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  15. Oh I LOVE those cookies! One of my great memories of staying with Bob & Monika when I was 10.

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  16. Hi, I am a new reader of this blog and I think that it is the best blog ever. I am Annelieses cousin from Winnipeg and I have always wanted this recipe. When we would come to B.C. she would always have them for us to eat and we could never get enough of them. Her Mom would always give us a pail full of these wonderful cookies for our travels back home. I will make them now and I will always be reminded of Anneliese and her mom for sharing this recipe with all of us.
    Thanks to the both of you with much love. Alvina

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  17. Oh I love those cookies too! My grandma Janzen makes them as well, and someday I too will attempt them.

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  18. i remember you always brought these cookies to lake chelan and i ADORED them... i would sneak them from your trailer if i knew where you kept them! i can't wait to make these... i 'm lazy when it comes to icing though so they might just be made without!

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  19. How special to see Mom & Oma posting! Everyone loves these cookies. Oma even made them in my kitchen here in Indonesia!

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  20. I remember my Oma icing cookies similar to these, but they weren't chocolate. We called them Honig Pletzien, and some were filled with plum jam and formed into football kind of oblongs, the plain ones were left round. Does anyone else remember something like this? I think I'll try this recipe w/o the cocoa and I bet the result will be what I remember since they have honey in them. Thank you for this recipe and the photo---brought back such a nice memory.

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  21. AngAK - I know which ones you mean. My Mom makes them as well ... the oblong ones with the plum jam as well as the round ones. I think the oblong ones have syrup in them and the round ones honey. It's the same glaze on them that keeps the flavor in and keeps them moist. I will have to get together with her again to do some more baking... and writing down the recipes. Thank you for the reminder.

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  22. Anneliese, I would dearly love for you to post this variation. Sadly, I don't know where Mom's or Oma's recipe notebooks ended up. I have a few handwritten recipes, but not these. I'm not sure which spices were in these.

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    Replies
    1. AngAK, the honey cookies are http://www.mennonitegirlscancook.ca/2013/12/glazed-honey-cookies.html
      and the syrup- oblong ones rilled with jam, are in our first cookbook.

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  23. I hadn't checked out your recipes for a long time. Came across this and just had to check. It is a wonderful tutorial and I shall be making some this week. I pulled out my well worn Treasury which I received in 1962 or 3. Any wonderful baking always makes me remember either my Grandmother or more particularly my Aunt Helen. Her cookies, etc always just melted in your mouth. Another Manitoban here.

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