CLOTHESPIN COOKIES

Cookies Ready to Serve

No, you are not seeing things. My caption does say 'clothespin cookies.' Those of you who are familiar with my recipe blog posts already know that I like to make recipes that hold tradition with my family and my heritage. In the neck of the woods where I grew up, the Warren, Youngstown and Niles area of Ohio, these cookies were and still are all the rage. My mother made them for years and since she was so good at it, I never even tried making them. I finally decided to finally give them a whirl.

Rolling Out the Yeast Dough

The first problem I had was to actually find the old fashioned, doll head wooden clothespins that every woman of the 40's and 50's era used to hang clothes out on the line. The new ones are either plastic or are spring loaded. After searching all the clothes/laundry places in town and doing a web search, I found out that they are used for craft items today and I was going in completely the wrong direction. Finally, I found them at Joan Fabrics in the wood section.

Cutting the Dough

When my parents would come to visit for Christmas, they always had a huge box of them which were promptly placed in the refrigerator. They definitely need to be kept cool. It's amazing how delicious they are with the yeasty cookie and yummy filling. They melt in your mouth.

Cookies Wrapped and Ready for the Oven

Here is the recipe. I'm a bit late in the season posting it but if you don't have time to make before Christmas, they are still scrumptuous any time of the year.

CLOTHESPIN RECIPE:

Dough:

½ Package yeast (1 ¼ teaspoon)

¼ Cup Warm Milk

¾ Cup butter or margarine

2 Cups flour

2 Beaten Eggs

2 T. Sugar

½ teaspoon salt

Powdered Sugar

Soften yeast in warm milk. Set Aside. In a large bowl, cut 3/4c butter into 2 cups flour til mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add yeast, beaten eggs, sugar and salt. Mix well. Form into a ball and cover tightly. Refrigerate overnight or about 6 hours. Divide dough in half. On a floured surface, roll each half into 10 “ strips. About 1/8th inch thick. Cut each long strip into approximately 3 strips of about 3” Wrap each strip around a buttered old fashioned clothespin, overlapping edges slightly. Bake on ungreased cookie sheet in 300 oven for about 30 minutes. Watch that they don't start getting brown, if so, turn over and continue baking. Remove from clothespins immediately when out of oven. Fill with filling. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and chill in fridge.

Filling:

1 c sugar

1 t. vanilla

1 cup butter

5 T. flour

1 cup milk

Whisk flour and milk together and heat on medium burner, stirring constantly. Remove from heat when it thickens. Cool to room temperature. Cream butter and sugar together til fluffy. Make sure there are no sugar grains left-beat for a long time. Add the cooled milk mixture and beat even longer till the mixture looks very light and whipped.