Authentic sugar cookie recipe from the early 1900s using old-fashioned, whole ingredients with a flavor most have never experienced before!
My paternal Grandmother was not much of a cook, but wow, could she ever bake!
Every year during the first week of December, she would go on a baking binge. Over one weekend, she would make dozens of cookies for the Christmas holiday.
My two favorites were her incredible gingerbread cookies and the old-fashioned sugar cookie recipe below. She and Grandpa lived down the street. So, my siblings and I could bike over after school and grab a couple for an afternoon snack.
It’s hard to believe, but if Grandma was alive today, she would be over 125 years old! Born in 1890, she grew up without fast food, vegetable oils, refined flour, or GMOs.
As you can see from her yellowed, handwritten recipe card below, butter and cream were considered essential for cookies back then.
Eating plenty of nourishing fats with your sweets greatly mitigates the blood sugar spike, thus reducing the chances of a mood-altering sugar crash later.
Compare this simple, wholesome 7 ingredients list to the nasty, dangerously lowfat sugar cookies at the supermarket!
The ingredients’ lists are eye-popping including synthetically fortified refined flour, GMO sugar and rancid polyunsaturated oils, chemicals, synthetic flavors, and additives of all kinds.
I’m thankful that I grew up knowing what real sugar cookies taste like. This helped me to avoid the temptation of those sugar cookie imposters of today.
I know that Grandma would be thrilled that I am sharing this recipe for others to learn from and enjoy.
Sugar Cookies from the Early 1900s
If you notice from Grandma’s well-worn index card below, she wrote that the recipe came from the “Home Bureau”. What was that you might wonder?
Home Bureaus were established across New York State in the early twentieth century to provide information on household economics and management to its citizens.
My Grandparents lived in Chautauqua County, New York until they retired and moved to Florida in the 1950s. That is where she originally came across this recipe for sugar cookies in the early 1900s!
This Recipe Only Needed One Substitution
The only change I’ve made to my Grandma’s sugar cookie recipe with my own family is the choice of flour.
I use sprouted flour made with ancient grain to add additional nutrition and digestibility to the cookies (see my frequently updated shopping guide for quality sources).
Feel free to use whatever grain-based flour you choose, including a homemade gluten-free flour mix.
However, note that I have not tested this recipe for sugar cookies using anything but sprouted ancient grain. If you make them with another flour, please post in the comments and tell us all how they turned out!
Make Sugar Cookie Cake if Pressed for Time!
If you are pressed for time and can’t bake three dozen individual cookies, spread the batter out on a large pizza pan and make a sugar cookie cake!
This recipe for a chocolate cookie cake describes the process in more detail.
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
My Grandmother's sugar cookie recipe reinvented using sprouted ancient grain flour to add a boost of nutrition and extra digestibility.
Ingredients
- 4 cups sprouted flour sifted
- 1/4 cup cream raw or pasteurized, NOT ultrapasteurized
- 1 cup butter softened, preferably grassfed
- 2 eggs well beaten, preferably pastured or free range
- 2 cups cane sugar preferably organic
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg preferably organic
- 1 Tbl vanilla extract
- 1 tsp sea salt
Instructions
-
Mix cream and softened butter in a large bowl (I use these).
-
Blend in sugar.
-
Blend in eggs and vanilla extract.
-
Sift baking powder, salt and ground nutmeg together with the sprouted flour.
-
Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients a cup at a time. Blend well before adding the next cup.
-
When all the flour has been blended into the cookie dough, start to form cookies on baking sheets lined with unbleached parchment paper. Spread them a good distance apart, as the cookies will expand a lot while baking!
-
Bake cookies at 400 F/ 204C for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven when the cookies are very light brown.
-
Repeat until all the cookies are baked.
-
Cool and store in airtight containers or a cookie jar.
Recipe Notes
Expeller pressed coconut oil may be substituted for butter. I do not recommend virgin coconut oil for this recipe as it would add a faint coconut flavor to the cookies.
Coconut cream may be substituted for dairy cream.
Sprouted gluten-free flour may be substituted as needed.
The recipe says to sift the flour (together with the baking powder, salt & nutmeg), but that means that valuable bran is lost? When I sifted the flour, I had a lot of bran left over. Or do you simply add it to the dough again, after sifting it out? Thanks for your answer in advance!
You can leave the bran in, if you like, but it affects the cookie flavor. Bran is actually quite damaging to the gut also and some sources say it can contribute to cavities. I recommend the book “Fiber Menace” for the research on this.
Hi Sarah,
I’ve never used sprouted flour but I’d like to. There are many types using different grains. Which one do you suggest? I clicked on the link in your sugar cookie recipe and Amazon pointed to one that’s out of stock: Gerbs Raw Super 7 Seed Mix. Is this the one you use or is the link not accurate? I’m excited to try your grandmother’s healthy recipe. Thank you.
Susan, Vancouver Island
To your Health Sprouted Flour Co unfortunately sprays Tsunami 100 on their grains which the associate told me would cover up any trace of glysophate. “. They cover a pesticide with an FDA approved pesticide.
The grain is organic, so isn’t sprayed with glyphosate in the first place. Can you provide more information?
Finally made these today and they are absolutely AMAZING!!!! I had a small bag of sprouted einkhorn flour and had to add 1/4 cup of sprouted white wheat to get a full 4 cups, but they are just wonderful! Wish I had tried them earlier!
How about einkorn flour that isn’t sprouted? Would that work with this recipe?
It would probably work, but I haven’t tested plain flour to find out.
Can this dough be rolled out for us if cookie cutters?
Yes it can 🙂
what if we made these with white flour and leave out 8 hours do you yhink it will help with digestion?also is raw honey good alternative for sugar and if so do I need to put less as it is more sweeter?
also while I have you there what is your favoute enzyme supplement you use,as I know it is important for everyone to mauntain healthy intestines as I have leaky gut and cant get off sugar and gluten.just cant so I try soaking grains and cooking but haven’t tried biscuits yet.I heard enxymes will help also which is your fav probiotic.can you do a segment on what suppliments you like your favourite just those suppliments that we all need to take for prevention of any illnesses.I also have hypothyroid.do you have a guru out there that you trust like global healing is good they have this product called lacto flora sounds good but don’t know there is so many and we need to think.I feel totally confused.My daughter had tests doctors found nothing .she gets very bad pains in her lower stomache.i feel she might need a good enzyme supplement pls just say which one you take that’s all.thanking you as you are very knowlegable and not selling anything.will you relply to my email as I don’t know how to get back here and check your answer.
White flour is highly refined and not a good sub here. Cooking with honey is best avoided. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/is-cooking-honey-unhealthy/
If you need a disaccharride free sweetener for these cookies due to leaky gut issues, try date syrup.