Butter. My mom’s secret ingredient for everything baking. Not margarine, not shortening, not vegetable oil. A year ago today, rediscovering her long lost (but hidden under our noses) recipe for banana bread, I immediately realized why no other recipe would ever match the taste memories the family had. Well, of course, it was butter in the recipe.
Keeping warm indoors on a couple of brrrr shivery days, I’ve made that banana bread, and my sweet girlie whirlie granddaughters and I baked and decorated some Christmas spritz cookies, too — yes, all with butter!
So, here are a couple of our treasured family recipes, and here is a link to some gluten free gingerbread men cookies, too. (This recipe calls for some very specific brand names, but I’m thinking that another brand will do just as well.)
ENJOY!
Swedish Spritz Cookies
1 Cup Butter
1 Tbls lard (I used coconut oil — worked quite well)
2 Eggs
1 1/2 Cups Sugar
1 Tbls Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Powder
5 Cups Flour
Mix well. Be sure to cool pans between each baking. These cookies are made with a cookie press. I’ve used several different ones over the years. Currently I have a Wilton Cookie Pro Ultra II Cookie Press (affiliate link). I’m very pleased with the ease of use. After pressing cookies on to the lightly greased cookie sheet, decorate with colored sugars, sprinkles, and assorted candies. We also colored some of the dough to have little green Christmas trees. Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes. I turn the oven down to 325 when using the little red hot candies to decorate the cookies.
Lynn’s Mom’s Banana Bread
1/2 Cup Butter
1 Cup Sugar
2 Eggs, beaten
1/4 Cup Pecans — chopped
2 Cups Flour
1 tsp Baking Soda
3 Ripe Bananas — mashed
Cream butter and sugar. Add beaten eggs and then flour and soda. Mash bananas and mix in. Add pecans. Place in 4 greased mini loaf pans. Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.
