Katie’s Amish Buttermilk Cookies…An Amish Favorite Rediscovered

My dear mother’s old recipe box continues to provide me with long forgotten recipes and wonderful memories…like this “abbreviated” version of our dear Amish friend Katie’s Buttermilk Cookies. And since I had a container of buttermilk languishing in my refrigerator I decided to see if I could remember how these cookies were supposed to look and to taste.

First…let me tell you about Katie, the author of this buttermilk cookie recipe.

Back in the 1970’s Katie was a young Amish woman who lived with her sister Susie in a “grandpa house” on the farm where they grew up. You see, Amish families don’t send their parents to nursing homes. They build small homes near the large family home and the elderly parents move into the small home where the young family can care for them as long as they live. And since Katie’s parents had already passed away, and since Katie and Susie had never married, they lived together in that small but comfortable grandpa house.

My mother first hired Katie to do some light housekeeping for her. So one day per week Mom would drive out to the country and pick up Katie and take her to their home in town where Katie would spend the day helping Mom with cleaning, laundry, gardening and whatever “chores” Mom had around the house. Katie was a joy to be around…always laughing and singing while she worked. (I can still hear her giggles when someone teased her or gave her a well-deserved compliment.)

When Peepaw and I moved back from the West Coast to Iowa and started our own family, Katie also took on duties as our babysitter…but she was so much more than that! Katie would care for our sons, clean our house, and have a wonderful meal ready for me at the end of the day when I returned from the doctor’s office where I worked several days each week. And our sons loved her just like we did. You see…Katie wasn’t just a hired helper. She was (and still is) our dear friend! In fact you can CLICK HERE to read about how we met again at an Amish wake I attended several years ago…where Katie was cooking in the big farmhouse kitchen.

When I stumbled onto this recipe card I just had to try it, especially since I am beginning the annual task of emptying out our winter home in preparation for heading back North to our family. And this recipe is so simple it required no additional groceries.

So…Here goes! Such simple ingredients…

First I combined the lard (yes…LARD!) with the sugar and mixed well. Now keep in mind Katie would be doing this task by hand since she has no electricity in her house. (No need to head for the gym after a day of baking in an Amish home.)

Next I added three eggs…

Thank heaven for my electric mixer!

Then I mixed in that cup of buttermilk…

In a separate bowl I added the baking powder and the baking soda to the flour…

And I whisked together to combine all the dry ingredients.

Next I combined the wet and dry ingredients…

I laughed at Katie’s “Amish” advice written on the recipe card which said “Flavor to suit taste”.  To me that meant to add some real vanilla extract, but I’m sure you could substitute almond or lemon flavors as well.

The resulting batter was VERY soft. So soft that I stuck the bowl into the refrigerator for about an hour before I began to bake the cookies. Now allow me to share the mistakes I made.

1. I tried to put 12 cookies on a sheet pan to bake. Wrong!

2. I sprayed the cookie sheet with cooking spray. Wrong again!

Here was the result of my first batch. (Peepaw never complains about eating my mistakes.)

So this old dog learned from her mistakes and I baked the rest of the cookies on pans with only six or nine cookies per pan.

My results improved dramatically as the baking progressed.

And after I was finished baking I vaguely remembered a thin white frosting on these cookies so I mixed together some powdered sugar, vanilla and milk to make a thin glaze. 

Not bad for my first time recreating a recipe with no written directions included on the card. But the best part of the dessert? Remembering dear Katie and the friendships our families shared..and still do to this very day!