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Healthy Home Economist / Archives / Recipes / Dessert Recipes / Cookie Recipes / Old Fashioned Sugar Cookie Recipe

Old Fashioned Sugar Cookie Recipe

by Sarah Pope / Affiliate Links ✔

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Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
  • Sugar Cookies from the Early 1900s+−
    • This Recipe Only Needed One Substitution
    • Make Sugar Cookie Cake if Pressed for Time!
  • Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Authentic sugar cookie recipe from the early 1900s using old-fashioned, whole ingredients with a flavor most have never experienced before!

two old fashioned sugar cookies on a cutting board

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!

sugar cookie recipe

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.

sugar cookie recipe
4 from 13 votes
Print

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.

Course Dessert
Cuisine American
Keyword classic, old fashioned, traditional, whole food
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 3 dozen cookies
Calories 117 kcal
Author Sarah Pope

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

  1. Mix cream and softened butter in a large bowl (I use these).

  2. Blend in sugar.

  3. Blend in eggs and vanilla extract.

  4. Sift baking powder, salt and ground nutmeg together with the sprouted flour.

  5. Slowly add flour mixture to the wet ingredients a cup at a time. Blend well before adding the next cup.

  6. 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!

    sugar cookies on baking sheet
  7. Bake cookies at 400 F/ 204C for 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven when the cookies are very light brown.

  8. Repeat until all the cookies are baked.

  9. 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.

Nutrition Facts
Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
Amount Per Serving (1 cookie)
Calories 117 Calories from Fat 54
% Daily Value*
Fat 6g9%
Saturated Fat 3g15%
Polyunsaturated Fat 1g
Monounsaturated Fat 2g
Carbohydrates 13g4%
Protein 2g4%
* Percent Daily Values are based on a 2000 calorie diet.
two classic sugar cookies on a cutting board
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Category: Cookie Recipes
Sarah Pope

Sarah Pope MGA has been a Health and Nutrition Educator since 2002. She is a summa cum laude graduate in Economics from Furman University and holds a Master’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania.

She is the author of three books: the bestseller Get Your Fats Straight, Traditional Remedies for Modern Families, and Living Green in an Artificial World.

Her four eBooks Good Diet…Bad Diet, Real Food Fermentation, Ketonomics, and Ancestrally Inspired Dairy-Free Recipes are available for complimentary download via Healthy Home Plus.

Her mission is dedicated to helping families effectively incorporate the principles of ancestral diets within the modern household. She is a sought after lecturer around the world for conferences, summits, and podcasts.

Sarah was awarded Activist of the Year in 2010 at the International Wise Traditions Conference, subsequently serving on the Board of Directors of the nutrition nonprofit the Weston A. Price Foundation for seven years.

Her work has been covered by numerous independent and major media including USA Today, ABC, and NBC among many others.

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Reader Interactions

Comments (43)

  1. Susan

    Oct 15, 2021 at 4:55 pm

    5 stars
    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

    Reply
  2. Dawn Hass

    Oct 13, 2021 at 5:23 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sarah Pope MGA

      Oct 13, 2021 at 5:27 pm

      The grain is organic, so isn’t sprayed with glyphosate in the first place. Can you provide more information?

  3. Kelly

    Dec 16, 2018 at 1:48 pm

    5 stars
    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!

    Reply
  4. Lisa

    Jan 20, 2018 at 6:07 pm

    How about einkorn flour that isn’t sprouted? Would that work with this recipe?

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Jan 21, 2018 at 1:22 pm

      It would probably work, but I haven’t tested plain flour to find out.

  5. Amanda M

    Dec 16, 2017 at 5:28 pm

    Can this dough be rolled out for us if cookie cutters?

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Dec 17, 2017 at 8:41 am

      Yes it can 🙂

  6. nasreen johnson

    Sep 22, 2017 at 7:20 pm

    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.

    Reply
    • Sarah

      Sep 22, 2017 at 9:50 pm

      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.

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