“Andrew! What do you think of when I say Grandma Cookie?” I barked at him.
“What do you mean what do I think when you say it?” he replied. “I think I need one of those cookies!”
Okay well there you go. Andrew loves Grandma Cookies. So much that he often insists we buy them, and then he also took this picture of me with a Grandma Cookie.
What’s with Grandma Cookies anyway? Why are they called that? Do only grandmas make Grandma Cookies?
And what should the icing be? In my head I think of my Grandma Neufeld and then I think of there always being a sort of marshmallow fluff for icing, with coconut on top.
But in the stores the icing is always, well, icing. Not marshmallow. Also, it’s often pink. Why is that?
I think a lot of the attachment to Grandma Cookies is just that, sentimental. These cookies remind us of what our grandmas would’ve served us whenever we visited.
I don’t actually enjoy Grandma Cookies that much, to be honest. But if someone gave me a cookie that my Grandma Neufeld had made, I’d probably become immediately lost in a reverie.
But Andrew loves these cookies very much. Like, any Grandma Cookie. He seems pretty indiscriminate when it comes to these soft white cookies laden with thick pink icing. I think they might be some of his favourites, and he doesn’t even really have much of a sweet tooth! But he insists they must be soft. Like, I think he prefers the kind made with sour cream.
I looked in the Mennonite Treasury cookbook, and found just one recipe titled “Grandmother’s Cookies” (page 181). This is shocking to me. Though there is a “Mother’s Cookies” recipe as well (page 177), so I suppose it depends on which generation submitted the recipe in the first place.
I also appreciate the fact that there is a recipe for marshmallow topping. I think if I were to make some Grandma Cookies this weekend, I would top them with this homemade marshmallow concoction.
And then Andrew would protest because he does not like the way I make cookies. Ha!