Department Store Restaurant / Tea Room Recipes

[michaelman2]

Kauffman's Thumbprint Cookies

Xraytech, I had this recipe in a file from years ago and it was entitled, "Kauffman's Thumbprints". Hopefully this is the one you want:

Thumbprint Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 egg, divided

1 cup finely chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix all of the ingredients together except the egg white and the walnuts. Cream mixture for 5 minutes.

Beat egg white in bowl and set aside with nuts.

Roll dough into 1-inch balls. Roll dough balls in nuts then press in the middle with your thumb.

Place flattened balls on cookie sheet and bake until golden brown, about 8 minutes. Remove from oven, transfer cookies to rack and let cool.

When cool, top with icing.

Makes 2 dozen.

 

[vacbear58]

Kauffman's Thumbprint Cookies

Michael

Your recipe looks very interesting bit what happens to the egg white? Is it whipped up stiff or just "loosened" to proved a medium to help the nuts stick to the cookies?

Thanks

Al

 

[michaelman2]

Al,

I wish I could answer your question. I never made a batch of cookies from this recipe. When I started this thread years ago, I had a file with recipes that I had collected over the years. When XRaytech asked for the Kaufman’s recipe it jogged my memory.

My guess is since this started out as a commercial recipe used at the Kauffman bakery the egg whites may have been separated and then used for other items such as meringues?

 

[vacbear58]

Thumbprints

Thanks Mike, no problem with meringues, indeed I might make some of each for the next meet at my place, its always interesting to try new recipies. Or maybe use the whites for macarons which are easy once you get the hang of them

Al

 

[michaelman2]

Hey Al, you know I re-read the recipe and my guess is whomever transposed the original recipe to a home/smaller quantity recipe, left out the step where the cookie is rolled in the egg whites and then the pecans and baked? Again just guessing here.

I love macaroons! Please share, lol.

 

[xraytech]

Yes, the egg whites would be lightly beat to loosen, the cookies are dipped in the egg white then rolled in chopped nuts or sprinkles.

It’s odd that the recipe calls to make an indent in the cookie for frosting, as the ones sold at the Arcade Bakery were completely flat.

Now just to hope to find Kaufmann’s Buttercream frosting for the cookies.

 

[vacbear58]

Thank you both for the confirmation

Michael

I wrote in the cookery programme thread about Joy Of Baking, thats where I learned the technique, not difficult at all, just needs a little time and care. And surprisingly ecomonical compared to buying in the shops. They freeze well too

Video below and recipe (can also be printed out without adverts) on the link - see "printer friendly page" just below the main banner. This is a fairly early video, Stephanie is a lot more relaxed now, there is a new video every Thursday



http://www.joyofbaking.com/frenchmacarons/ChocolateMacaronsRecipe.html

 

[michaelman2]

Vacbear... this video is great. I am going to attempt the macaroon recipe this weekend!

X-ray, sorry, I don’t have any further recipes for the icing.

 

[angus]

I recently found a few books telling the story of some of our beloved and departed department stores and in each there are recipes from those store restaurants. The books are by Michael Lisicky and apparently he is a student of department stores. So far I have read the books on Abraham & Straus, Bamberger's, Maas Brothers, The Denver Dry Goods Company and Filene's. I will try to post a few that may be of interest.

 

[cuffs054]

I still haven't made all of these yummies yet but I'm trying.

 

[norgeway]

I have the cook book

From Lazarus, but its already packed up for the move..

 

[xraytech]

Got a hard to find copy of the Kaufmann’s Cookbook, Volume 2
Still searching for volume 1

 

[vacerator]

What is a

T room? Like in England where they serve tea, clotted cream, scones, and crumpets?

 

[mikael3]

Tea rooms in the United States are a type of restaurant that originated in the early 20th century to serve, primarily, ladies who lunch.  Their inspiration may have been British tearooms, but the similarity is superficial.  Tea rooms are definitely restaurants.  Before and after Prohibition, I think they were distinctly viewed as proper places for unescorted ladies, because they did not serve alcohol. 

 

One very interesting aspect of these tea rooms is that they were always run by women.  In fact, I think it’s safe to say that from around 1900 to 1950 or1960, that is exactly what it meant—a restaurant owned and run by a woman for the benefit of women, while the word “restaurant” was understood to be run by men for a mixed crowd.

 

There’s an incredibly rich history of those establishments, all of which are gone in reality, though some survive in name only. 

 

There are a few sites that have gathered some information on them.  One of my favorites is the restaurant-history blog run by Jan Whitaker:

https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/tag/tea-rooms/
 

Ms. Whitaker also wrote a book on the subject, Tea at the Blue Lantern Inn: A Social History of the Tea Room Craze in America.

 

Another fascinating aspect of the tea room was its role in providing entrepreneurial prospects to African-American women, at a time when opportunities were very limited.  One can argue that running a tea room is just an extension of domestic service, but these women ran businesses when so few women—black or white—were doing that.  Ms. Whitaker has written about that, too.

https://restaurant-ingthroughhistory.com/2011/02/13/african-american-tea-rooms/
 

Another site that promises much but delivers only a little is this one:

http://www.vintagetearooms.net/index.htm
 

I think tea rooms were a distinctly Southern and Midwestern thing.  Maybe I’m wrong about that, or just biased by the great number of tea rooms I have known in the South, and how few—actually, none— I noticed in the Northeast.

 

 

 

[mikael3]

Another funny thing about American uses of that little word “tea” is the fantastic euphemism “tea dance”.  In origin, the phrase meant exactly what it said, an afternoon dance party that included a table set out with tea and teatime snacks.  But during Prohibition, the phrase came to mean a liquored-up night of debauchery, and the “tea dance” description served either to cover up the truth of the matter, or—more likely—to make a joke out of the whole thing.

 

More recently, “tea dance” has referred to Sunday events at gay bars in states where Sunday liquor sales were prohibited.  The bars would serve food on that one day as a way to get around the liquor laws.

 

[maytagbear]

Jane and Michael Stern's

cookbook, Square Meals starts out with a long and GOOD chapter on tea rooms, with a nice sampling of recipes, from department store tea rooms, and independent ones.

eBay, used book stores, and public libraries!!!

Lawrence/Maytagbear