I can still see the boxes, stamped with "Woodward & Lothrop," the first department store in Washington. Grandmother Daisy always carried two WL boxes into our house for Christmas in Connecticut. If you peeled back the layers of waxed paper, you'd find one box filled with cookies shaped like Christmas trees and dyed green. The other held flower-shaped cookies, no food dye. Two versions carefully made, both with sprinkles on top, usually nonpareils but sometimes those hard, BB-sized silver balls. The cookies were colored-coded - if you tasted the green trees (or sometimes pink), they were peppermint-flavored. The no-dye versions were always almond-flavored. Whether attracted by the color or taste, we seemed to go for the peppermints first. Grandmother Daisy might run out of sprinkles at times, so she'd try to cover with a pecan, but we never ate those - unless they were all that was left.
It was years before I understood that these were "spritz" cookies she made using a "Mirro Press," meaning the dough was shot through a tube with a pattern imprint to make the shapes. It was a very 1950s or '60s thing to do - you could make canapes shaped like card suits and other fanciful treats such as "Palate Pleasers," "Nibble Bait" and "Dagwood Delights." But it was the Christmas trees that we held vigil for, little understanding the manual dexterity necessary to pump the shortening, sugar and flour through a press. We just waited, anticipated and chased every crumb when they arrived.
Only the web can (arguably) deliver to more homes than Santa Claus, so here's a Christmas trees recipe using a cookie press.
Eventually Daisy gave me a Mirro Press as a gift, and I have stayed in business to this day, even though the product maker seems to have slipped away. She had to let go of the cookie-making because her hands could no longer grip and squeeze the press effectively. Now I have true insight into that twinge in the hands, but my kids still beckon for their favorite Christmas treat.
I only make the colored version, and only the peppermint.
When you're the main squeeze, you get to decide.
(Photo of Mirro Press spritz cookies lying on a childhood Christmas apron made with loving hands.)
No comments:
Post a Comment