Pearl cookies!
The name evokes images of beauty and ultimate taste. At least it did for me when I first saw the recipe.
They’re ok. I think their name built them up too much for me. And Joe’s reaction was, “That’s a cookie.”
Sometimes it takes a day or two for cookies to taste their best. We’ll see how they do today.
The most unusual thing about them is how you cut them out. You mix the dough, roll it out very thin and bake on a cookie sheet. Only after they are done, and you take them out of the oven, do you cut them with a cookie cutter. . . which heats up, by the way. I had to keep stopping to wait for the cookie cutter to cool off. I guess I should have waited a bit longer to cut them, but I was afraid they would cool off too soon.
My only criticism of this method is there seems to be a lot of waste of dough after the cookies are cut out.
Pearl Cookies
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 pound butter (2 sticks)
1 egg yolk
1 egg white
2 teaspoons vanilla
Cream butter, add sugar and cream well. Add sifted flour, egg yolk and vanilla.
(I was out of all purpose flour, so I used my gluten-free all purpose flour. Oh, shoot. I forgot the xanthan gum. I just realized that. Hmmm. And, I did not have quite 2 cups, so I added a couple of tablespoons of self-rising flour. It was either that or whole wheat flour. I don’t think they rose too much due to my substitution. I think I’m beginning to realize why the pearl cookies did not wow us. I may have to try again. DARN!)
Mix thoroughly. Divide dough and spread very thinly on greased cookie sheets. (I used parchment paper) Paint top of dough with unbeaten egg white, sprinkle with nuts.
Nuts? This is the first time they are mentioned in the recipe. Typical.
I used chopped walnuts.
Bake at 375 degrees until light brown. (about 10 minutes) Cut while hot, but do not remove from cookie sheet until cold. But like I said, be careful holding the cookie cutter. It gets hot.
These came from my great grandmother’s cookbook, “Southern Cooking,” by Mrs. S.R. Dull. An Atlanta native.
