A Cookie Secret

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Some recipes are too special to share. Right?

A few weeks ago, I requested and received my favorite molasses cookie recipe from a family friend, who might as well be my second mom.

The Lowell’s aren’t just friends; they’re family. My parents are best friends with them and have been since before any of us kids existed. We grew up with them in every sense: our houses are less than five minutes apart, birthdays are spent together, and our Christmas morning tradition is to go to their house in our pajamas, eat breakfast together, and swap gifts.

And while my mom’s chocolate chip cookies reigned supreme in our house, Jill made all my other favorite cookies. Especially her molasses, monster, and oatmeal butterscotch.

 

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Nick had never tasted Jill’s Molasses cookies so I got to work last weekend and made my first ever batch with her recipe.

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The great thing? Mine tasted just like hers. Biting into the first cookie brought me back into their home, where I fell in love Five Alive juice and slid down their staircase in sleeping bags and built forts with the dining room chairs while wearing Jill’s old Candie’s platforms.

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But after tasting them, I knew I couldn’t just give out the recipe. This one is something special, and I think there are some recipes that should stay family recipes. It’s part of their charm and keeping them in the family gives me a reason to start my own index card recipe box to pass onto to my future kids someday.

So I’m working on my own version, with a fun little twist Winking smile That recipe will be coming soon.

 

What about you?

Are there family recipes you won’t share with other people? Dishes you want to make for others but never give them the ingredients to make on their own?

If so, what are they? Casseroles, cakes, breads? I love hearing food traditions from other people.

For instance, foods that will always make me think of my family:

  • fudge pie
  • Texas Sheet Cake and homemade icing
  • roast and noodles
  • ham gravy
  • chicken casserole
  • spaghetti sauce
  • no bake cookies

16 comments

  1. I pretty much love molasses in any recipe, sometimes, I even want to add more, oops :) I don’t have any secret recipes. Not yet anyways.

  2. YUMMMMMM I love molasses. I need to go buy some. :)

    And then bake with it, obviously.

  3. we have a VERY UNIQUE stuffing recipe in my family… and it is by far my favorite… part of me wants to keep it a secret and part of me wants to share with everyone!!

    :D

  4. Ahhh you had Texas Sheet Cake toOO!?!??! Ommggg I love Texas Sheet Cake icing.. sometimes I make that icing for non-sheet cake cakes!

  5. Yum! I love how think your cookies are. My molasses cookies always turn out super thin. Can’t wait for your version!

    My chocolate chip cookie recipe always seems to win people over (I finally learned the secrets from my mom), but I don’t share very often.

  6. Every Christmas my mom makes a batch of her famous carmel popcorn and sticks a bag in everybodies stocking. We wait in anticipation and heated debates can occur if you dig into somebody elses bag.

    She said that when she is ready she will pass on the recipe but until then it is top secret.

  7. My grandfather’s stuffing recipe and our Price of Wales Christmas cake I won’t share. They are just too special.

    Everything else I love to share. It is fun to let other enjoy them.

  8. Great post! My favorite cookbook is the Joy of Cooking that was passed down to me by my grandmother when she moved into a retirement home and said goodbye to her big open kitchen. I don’t love it for the printed content on the pages, but for the recipe clippings stuffed between the pages and the edits and notes written in the margins next to the classic recipes for family favorites.

  9. Oo I’d die to have that recipe–I’ve been searching for the perfect molasses cookie for years!

  10. definitely. i mean as much as we all would love to get the secrets.. secrets NEED to be kept. it sort of makes it more fun when u find one that works and then u can have a secret for yourself to pass on thru generations. and only when the world is ready will fate have a way of letting it ‘sneak’ out <3

    also just wanted to quickly wish you a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

  11. Molasses cookies are my all-time favorite – my grandmother used to make them for us nearly every day!
    We have a few family recipe traditions, mostly from the Deep South – lots of Cajun foods and spicy concoctions that I make for nostalgia. Sadly, our top-secret recipes tend to involve alcoholic concoctions, not wholesome baked goods…I guess that’s what happens when you breed whiskey still makers with off the boat Irish stock!

  12. Awww, how sweet!!! I love you, Brandi! Your batch of cookies look better than the batch I just made – lol Keep up the good work.

  13. Those cookies look so perfect!! I LOVE molasses cookies and definitely don’t blame you for not giving away this recipe :) :)

  14. Pingback: Whole Wheat Mac and Cheese

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