These cookies called "A.P.'s"- Why?
Diana Hamilton
time. My grandmother lived her whole life in Hellertown, PA (near
Bethlehem) and spoke some Pennsylvania Dutch, a German-language offshoot.
I make her sugar cookie recipe (see below) that's always been titled
"A.P.'s". My mother and I never found out why she called them this, and
assumed it was the initials of a friend of hers.
However, I came across a volume of Moravian recipes compiled from
Moravian cookbooks dated between 1798-1869, and it contained a
(different) recipe called "A. P's" as well (see below)! The Moravians
are a Protestant sect that migrated to America and founded Bethlehem, PA
in 1741.
Could "A.P." be an abbreviation for some term in German or in
Pennsylvania Dutch? Does it sound familiar to any German bakers out
there? I'd also love to hear if anyone else makes A.P.s, and if your
recipe is the same as either one.
Thanks for any help, and enjoy the recipes below!
Diana (hami...@gl.umbc.edu)
Baltimore, MD USA
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Note: Recipes in American measurements; Moravian recipe had been
kitchen-tested by the book's compilers (though I haven't made it).
A.P.'s - Gramma's Version
1 cup butter, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tbsp light cream or whole milk
about 3 to 3 1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cream of tartar
1/2 tsp nutmeg
Cream butter and sugar. Thoroughly beat in eggs, 1 at a time. Add blended
dry ingredients alternately with cream. Dough will be sticky. Chill
thoroughly, several hours or overnight. Roll out portions of dough thinly
on a well-floured cloth (keep the bulk in the refrigerator, removing some
as needed), cut into various shapes and place on greased cookie sheets.
Sprinkle with colored sugar. Bake at 375F a few minutes until just
lightly browned at edges. Cool on a rack. Makes "a ton" of thin cookies.
A.P.'s - Moravian Version
1 cup butter
2 cups granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp baking soda dissolved in 1 tsp vinegar
4 cups flour
Mix and chill overnight. Roll out and cut with a scalloped-round cutter.
[I assume more thickly than those above.] Press half a pecan or walnut
meat into center before baking. Bake at 325F 12 min.
Anne Bourget
heirloom and contemporary recipes from around the world":
APEES
This wine-and-caraway-flavored butter cookies is a good example of how
something from a kitchen of the past can be well worth rediscovering.
The cookies's name is the initials "A.P." spelled out, short for Anne
Parmer, notes food historian William Woys Weaver; this is an American
cookie.
The recipe has been adapted almost unchanged from Eliza Leslie's
"Seventy-five Receipts for Pastry, Cakes, and Sweetmeats", published in
1828. In his preface to a recent facsimile edition of this book, Weaver
points out that Miss Leslie's recipes were actually those of Mrs.
Elizabeth Goodfellow and were available only to those attending lectures
at Mrs. Goodfellow's Philadelphia cooking school.
Makes about 16 cookies
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 rounded teaspoon caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh-grated nutmeg
1/4 cup dry white wine or dry sherry
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Butter 2 baking sheets; set aside.
In a bowl, cut the flour and butter together with a pastry blender or 2
knives until the mixture is crumbly. Mix in the sugar, caraway seeds,
cinnamon and nutmeg; stir in the wine or sherry until the dough comes
together and is somewhat stiff.
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough slightly less than
1/4 inch thick. With a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out rounds ;and
place about 1/2 inch apart on the prepared baking sheets (these cookies
don't spread as they bake). Reroll the scraps.
3. Bake until the cookies are firm but still pale, not golden, about 14
minutes.
4. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an
airtight container.
Sax also includes the original recipe, from "Seventy-five Receipts",
Eliza Leslie, Boston, 1828:
APEES
A pound of flour, sifted
Half a pound of butter
A glass of wine, and a tablespoon of rose-water mixed.
Half a pound of powered white sugar
A nutmeg, grated
A tea-spoonful of beaten cinnamon and mace
three table-spoonfuls of carraway seeds
Sift the flour into a broad pan, and cut up the butter in it. Add the
carraways, sugar, and spice, and pour in the liquor by degrees, mixing it
well with a knife. ..Spread some flour on your paste-board, take out the
dough, and knead it very well with your hands...Roll is out in a sheet
about a quarter of an inch thick. Cut it out in round cakes, with the
edge of a tumbler, or a tin of that size. Butter an iron pan, and lay the
cakes in it. not too close together. Bake them a few minutes in a
moderate oven, till they are very slightly coloured, but not brown. If
too much baked, they will entirely lose their flavor...
Anne Bourget
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Anne Bourget bou...@netcom.com