Melt-in-your-Mouth cookies
Also known as “Melt-in-the-Mouth” cookies. These are my favorite cookies and a family recipe passed down from my Grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Myers Barnette (aka Grandmommy).
Update, January 14, 2009: After some research it appears that Grandmommy originally got the recipe from the December 1964 issue of Woman’s Day.
Ingredients
(recipe can be doubled)
- 3/4 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 cup (1 stick) soft unsalted butter (do not microwave/melt)
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400°F
- Sift flour, salt, and baking powder into a small bowl and reserve
- In a large mixing bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, egg, and vanilla until creamy
- Slowly beat in flour mixture until smooth
- Stir in pecans
- Drop by scant teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet
- Bake for about 4 minutes. Do not wait for the edges to brown. Pull out quickly after the cookies’ gooey centers drop. They should look something like this:
- Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2-3 minutes before removing swiftly with a flat spatula to cool further
- Once cooled, store in an air-tight container, separating layers using wax paper (makes about 70 cookies)
melt-in-your-mouth cookies (for engineers)
| Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C) | ||||||
| 3/4 cups flour | sift | beat | stir | drop scant teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased cookie sheet | bake 400°F (204°C) 4 min. | cool 2 min. |
| 1/2 tsp salt | ||||||
| 1 tsp baking powder | ||||||
| 1/2 cup soft butter | beat | |||||
| 1 cup light brown sugar | ||||||
| 1 egg | ||||||
| 1 tsp vanilla extract | ||||||
| 1/2 cup finely chopped pecans | ||||||
(thanks dad!)
12 comments
Damian
I tried these cookies and they were awesome! Thank you for sharing your recipe.
Gina
I had this recipe for several years and made them every Christmas, except I use walnuts in stead of pecans. Anyway, I lost my cook book and have been searching everywhere for the recipe. Thanks SO much for sharing it!
Marci
These are my all time favorite cookies. I thougth my Grandmother made up the recipe. We have made these every Christmas of my life; however, we use walnuts in stead of pecans as well. I’ll have to try some with pecans. Aloha!
Mel
i just made these with regular sugar, and crumbled up cookies and cream chocolate bar instead of nuts, and they are so delicious. i also made the cookies double the size it says here, and left them in the oven for about 5 and a half minutes.
they are a little bit doughy on the inside, but not too much… mmm
Donna
I love these cookies and so do my kids. My mother-in-law made them and she got the recipe from The Woman’s Day Encyclopedia Cookbook Volume 3 – Christmas Cookies. These are special to us as we call them Grandma’s Cookies and now they have become Mom’s (that’s me) cookies and our family published the Woman’s Day Cookbook. Is your Grandmother from either Minnesota or Connecticut?
Another good trick is to use parchment paper, that way they don’t stick to the cookie sheet if you are a minute or two late. Before I used parchment paper, the cookies either stuck to the cookie sheet or broke into a million pieces when I tried to release them with the spatula and were all over the kitchen. The clean up was really horrid. My kids Grandma didn’t share that secret with me, but, hey, I like to make things easy for everyone. Enjoy, these are wonderful and I’m going to share this with my daughter-in-law, so my son can always have his cookies.
justin
Wow Donna, I must say you piqued my curiosity so much that I decided to pick up a copy of the Woman’s Day Encyclopedia of Cookery Volume 3 on Ebay. Who knows, maybe that’s where my grandmother got the recipe back when this was published in the 1960s.
Chris
Hi Justin! It’s so cool to see how many people have an obsession with these cookies and they all come from our respective Grams! I’ll get you that information you requested from the old magazine page. Hopefully it will turn up something!
Donna
My oldest son, who lives in Alaska, and took some back with when he was home for Thanksgiving has just asked for the recipe and I’m sending him your page.
Hooray for MELT IN THE MOUTHS. Happy New Year
justin
Donna, I’m so glad you stopped back and left another comment. If you could, please send me an email so I can tell you about the research I’ve done on this recipe since you left your first comment…
justin
Donna, thanks to your comment, I discovered there were several copies of “Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies” published by Woman’s Day in the 1950s and 60s. I found the recipe in the cookbook you mentioned, as well as a really neat copy in the December 1953 issue of Woman’s Day. I’ve posted scans up of everything I’ve found here: Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies, a brief history.
Thanks again!
Augusta
I cut this recipe out of I think a Woman’s Day Magazine some 20 or 25 years ago, but I I had lost it. I could remember the ingredients, but wasn’t sure about how much of each. So I decided to get on the internet and low and behold I found it. These are the best cookies, when I used to make them, I would eat the whole batch almost by myself. I’m so glad I found it again especially right here at Christmas.
justin
Augusta, I don’t know if you noticed, but I wrote a whole history of the melt-in-the-mouth cookie from Woman’s Day magazine here: Melt-in-the-Mouth Cookies, a brief history.