FRENCH PETTICOATS - Petite Sugar-Laced BUTTER COOKIES

FRENCH PETTICOATS – Petite Sugar-Laced BUTTER COOKIES

Table of Contents: COOKIES

1 cup butter (no substitutes), softened

½ cup granulated sugar

2 cups plain flour plus about ¼ cup extra for rolling the dough

½ tsp. baking powder

1 T. milk

Grated rind of ½ lemon

Parchment paper

Confectioners’ sugar for tops of baked cookies

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In an electric mixer bowl, cream the soft butter and sugar until it is light.  While butter is creaming, measure the flour and sift; then re-measure the flour and sift again with the baking powder.

Slowly beat the flour mixture into the creamed mixture until well blended.  Then, beat in the milk and lemon rind.

If you prefer, the dough can be refrigerated at this point to firm up, or the cookies can be made now.   Either choice, flour both a large cutting board (or another clean surface) and the rolling pin.  Roll the dough, using the extra flour as needed to keep dough from being sticky, to about ¼” to ½” thickness.  Do not use more extra flour than needed in order to keep the cookies delicate.

Cut the dough into 2 ½” wide strips; then cut the strips into triangles.  Place the cookies on a parchment paper lined baking pan and bake in the preheated oven for 8 to 10 minutes.   When cookies are cool enough to move, place them on a cutting board and lightly sift confectioners’ sugar over the tops.

To me, these delicate morsels are fabulous!  Joe and Scotty definitely agree.   My brother’s wife, Linda, borrowed an old cookbook that her mother had put aside many years ago.  Probably, it was bought as a souvenir from New Orleans.

Linda and my brother were enchanted by the old cooking terms, ingredients used, and tales from days gone by.   They, of course, brought it for me to enjoy also.   I found a recipe that intrigued me that I just “had” to make!

The name of the cookbook is “A book of famous OLD NEW ORLEANS RECIPES Used in the South for more than 200 years”.  (Quite a title!).  It was printed by Peerless Publishing Co.  515 Lafayette Street, New Orleans, LA.   I was very disappointed because I could not find a date anywhere in the book.

The recipe that caught my eye is named “French Petticoat Cookies”.  At the end of the recipe is this note: “When Mary Stuart left France to claim her Scottish Throne, her attendants brought back with them the recipe for these little cookies.  The French called them “petits gateaux tailes”, the Scotch translated this as ‘petticoattails’.”