A seldom-made but wonderful childhood treat were the raisin-filled Pocketbook Cookies baked by my late mother Margaret. Out of the blue one day, I remembered them. They’d been fun to make because they resembled tiny pocketbooks. But I hadn’t tasted them in years.
Eager to bake some, I discovered I didn’t have a recipe for them among my family favorites. In my cookbooks I found recipes for dainty filled cookies called Rugelach and Hamantaschen… but nothing resembling the sturdy “pocketbooks” I craved.
Finally, I asked my sister Barbara to check her recipes. Eureka! She found a written list of mom’s Pocketbook Cookie ingredients …but without any instructions. Nevertheless, I determined to recreate those cookies… which proved quite a challenge with lots of experimentation and many mistakes. Preparing a cookie dough came first.
Pocketbook Cookies
Sugar Cookie Dough
- 3 1/2 cups flour (unbleached is good)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1-1/2 cups sugar
- 1/2 cup shortening or butter
- 1 egg (beaten)
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
Step one was to cream together the butter, sugar, beaten egg and teaspoon of vanilla. For step two, I combined the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda together in a separate bowl;. Then I folded the dry ingredients slowly into the creamed mixture using a wooden spoon. Step three was adding the 1/3 cup of milk.
I next used my hands to gather the dough into a ball , covered it with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator to firm up.
With the dough cooling its heels, I turned to making the filling. Here’s the recipe.
Raisin Filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 Tablespoon Flour
- 1 cup chopped raisins
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 teaspoons of lemon juice
- Vinegar???
- 2 tablespoons of butter
Note that there are question marks by the ingredient vinegar. I have no idea if this meant you could substitute vinegar for lemon juice or add vinegar in some undetermined amount. You may wish to experiment but I chose to ignore it..
I began my filling by chopping raisins, placing them in a saucepan and adding the 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 cup of water and tablespoon of flour.
Squeezing lemon juice came next. (Half a lemon made two teaspoons worth.) I added the juice, followed by the butter, cooking them over medium heat. .
It’s necessary to keep stirring the filling as it begins to caramelize and thicken. When sufficiently thick, let the filling cool.
Time to retrieve the dough from the refrigerator, divide it in two, roll it into a ball to flatten it and roll it out on a floured surface. This dough rises considerably as it bakes so roll it out fairly flat.
Mistake #1 – The dough is sticky so I had to keep flouring my fingers, the rolling pin and marble surface I was using.. Through experimentation I found it better to roll it out between two sheets of plastic wrap.
Mistake # 2 was using a beer glass as a cookie cutter. In the oven, they puffed up and became huge even when folded in half.
And then, of course, it was time to place the cookies on a cookie sheet and fill them. Thus, I grabbed by favorite old tried and true cookie sheet to which cookies never stick.
I filled the cookies with 1-1’2 teaspoons of filling – a bit too much – and folded them over like a pocketbook. Then remembering that, as a child, I’d seen my mother crimp them with the tines of a fork, I did the same…badly
Mistake #3 – I missed seeing my sister’s note to “grease” the cookie sheet and bake the cookies at 375 degrees for 10 to 12 minutes. Mistake #4 – I bore down too hard on the tines of the fork while crimping. Consequently, my cookies stuck, baked too long and looked more like seashells that pocketbooks.
For my first batch, the cookies were huge, a little overdone and leaking filling. So it was time to try, try again.
For my second batch, I used a water glass to cut the cookies out, achieving smaller circles of dough. I reduced the amount of filling to 1 teaspoon and learned how to best pinch them together. I also used a lighter touch crimping them with the fork tines. However, they still puffed up when baked and didn’t look like my mom’s.
I reverted to cutting my final batch of cookies out with a juice glass. Success at last!
They were the right size and almost resembled my mom’s.
