You may have noticed lately that I’ve been on a bit of a “vintage” cookbook kick. Not only is it fun to browse through the cookbook section of a used bookstore, but I love to find books with hand-written notes, recipes clipped from a magazine or newspaper in between two pages, or just weird old recipes that no one has thought about in decades. I bought two such books in Boston last week, and I will tell you about them soon. But today I was in a cookie-baking mood (shocking, I know), and reached for my “Betty Crocker New Picture Cookbook,” published in 1961. After inflicting a nasty paper cut on myself as I flipped through the pages, I found a recipe that would allow me to break in the mini-muffin tin I bought a few weeks ago, and to use my purple mixer. I even had all the necessary ingredients on hand!
Swedish Macaroon Teacakes
They look like tiny tarts. The rich cooky-like crust and the delicious macaroon-like filling are baked together.
1 cup soft butter
˝ cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups SOFTASILK Flour or GOLD MEDAL Flour
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly. Beat in egg and vanilla. Measure flour by dip-level-pour method or sifting. Stir in flour. Drop a rounded teaspoonful of batter into each greased muffin cup… pressing batter over bottom and up around sides (1/4” thick… center hollow). Chill. Heat oven to 325 (slow mod.). Fill hollows with Almond Macaroon Filling (below). Bake 25 to 30 min. Makes 2 doz. cookies.
Almond Macaroon Filling
Beat 2 eggs until light and foamy. Gradually beat in ˝ cup sugar until well blended. Mix in 1-1/4 cups blanched almonds, finely chopped, and ˝ tsp almond flavoring.
My changes were minimal: I used vanilla extract instead of almond in the filling, and I used almond meal from the health food store instead of chopped blanched almonds. I'm sure the filling would have been much paler had I used blanched almonds, but I like the texture and the color of the almond meal (which includes the skin, obviously).
The crust is buttery and delicate, and just a bit lighter than traditional shortbread. The filling is airy, moist, and ever-so-slightly nutty. These were very tedious to make -- I need to figure out an easier way to pres the dough into the cups -- but it was worth every minute. The only thing I would say is "wrong" with the recipe is the yield -- I made 24 tarts in my mini-muffin tin, and I was more than generous with the shortbread dough. Then I had enough leftovers to make 5 of these:
It just so happens that I own some mini tart tins. They're about 2-1/2" in diameter (the mini-muffin pan made 2" tarts). I was generous with the crust for these, too. I could have easily made 36 of the "two-bite tarts," if not more. Not that a recipe that makes more than it claims is a bad thing...!
