A few months ago, an old cookbook of my mom's resurfaced. Homemade Cookies by the Food Editors of Farm Journal, published in 1971. The intro of the book is titled 'Choice Homemade Cookies from Countryside America'. Lately, I've been seeking out older traditions, lifestyles and recipes to implement in our current modern life and was intrigued by the history of cookies in America.
I came to a paragraph about cookies that once served a purpose but disappeared once the need was gone. I was instantly inspired by one example, the Boom cookie. As the book put it,
' They were giant size—about 5" in diameter—molasses/coffee-flavored cookies, which hungry lumberjacks joyfully ate at the Boom in Minnesota, a sorting station when logs were floated down the St. Croix River.' The cook shack is now long gone and so is the circumstance and need for the cookies. The book does substitute with a recipe for smaller cookies that still provides the same taste of molasses, spices and instant coffee powder.
I loved the idea of Boom cookies and their great size for a breakfast treat. One of the things I'm purposing this year is making easy to eat, to go breakfasts for my family. My husband wakes up insanely early for work and our weekends are usually busy with softball games and tournaments for my daughter. Sometimes it takes more time and money just for them/us to grab something to eat. I thought Boom cookies, or as I'm calling them, Lumberjack cookies would be a good idea to add to our eat quick breakfast list.
Though the recipe is meant for smaller cookies, I still made them bigger than the average cookie I usually bake. I wanted them to be very much like the original cookie. The only substitutes I made was using regular molasses, almond milk instead of cow milk and pecans in place of walnuts. Everyone enjoyed them with the boy calling it 'cake'. Needless to say, I'll be making them again for my 'lumberjacks'. 😊
