Vintage recipes are a hoot, ya'll. Overly basic instructions that assume pre-existing knowledge, inexplicable ingredient additions, and bizarre names are common in these community cookbooks, but one of my favorites are the Male Cookies in Charleston Receipts. The intro sentence for it provides no reason why these are called Male Cookies. No internet search turns up an explanation. The only one I can think of is that these are called male cookies because they have nuts.
Only one reference to them on the internet exists, a Post and Courier article that describes a cookie also known as a Charleston Chewie, but still doesn't explain the male-ness. So let's just go with the nuts explanation and dive into cookie talk.
Overly Basic Instructions, Explained
This recipe was hard to decipher so I had to make some guesses. The entire instruction set is 33 words, which is not enough to help someone who isn't really into baking able to make these.
First of all, it doesn't say what type of nuts to add. A variety? Are walnuts going to produce a better cookie than pecans? Are hazelnuts too exotic, and are almonds too boring? Given that, I went with a variety, because I had a small bag of Trader Joe's mixed nuts on hand in the freezer, equaling just the amount needed for the recipes — 1 cup worth. So, without specificity, I turned to creativity.
The second befuddling direction is to "cook in a biscuit pan". Being unfamiliar with a biscuit pan, I Googled it. It looked close enough to a muffin tin that I decided to use a classic muffin tin to bake these cookies. Thirdly, how much dough to put in each muffin cavity was left to the imagination, so I went with a safe half-full to avoid spillage. Also should you grease this tin? Why isn't this spelled out better for everyone?
You'd think they'd be more thorough in a time where, if the young women didn't know the answer, they'd have to sit and write a letter to their mothers to ask for better directions. That could delay the baking process for two weeks, at least, and who wants to wait that long for cookies?!
Male Cookies
Equipment
- Muffin tin
Ingredients
- 1 ⅓ sticks unsalted butter room temperature
- 2 cups brown sugar
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs beaten together
- 1 cup chopped nuts (try pecans, walnuts, almonds, or a combination)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 250 F.
- Cream the butter and sugar together.
- Add the eggs and vanilla, then flour, and salt. Mix until just combined.
- Fold in the chopped nuts.
- Divide the batter into a well-greased muffin tin, filling each cavity no more than ¾ the way full.
- Bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted into the center of a cookie comes out clean.
- Let cool and use your hands to break the cookies into rustic, smaller pieces, about 3 per cookie.
- Roll in a bowl with the cup of powdered sugar until coated.
- Store in an air tight container for up to a week.
How are they?
It's true, these are a fairly plain cookie but they are kind of addictive in their own way. I found myself opening the plastic container I stored them in every time I passed through the kitchen, to grab a sweet little bite to nibble on.
Sadly, the recipe contributor Mrs. Lelia Elliot Wardlaw has passed on according to a quick internet search, so we may never know why the male cookies are male. But again, I choose to believe that she had a great sense of humor and named these cookies as such because they have nuts. Unspecified nuts, but any mix of nuts will do.
These make great conversation starters if you want to explain the brief history behind them and speculate with others on the origins on the name. Now that's some great party conversation!