Skip to main content
Dessert

Surprise Cookies

Cookies made with dates, oats, flour, sugar, butter or lard, milk, eggs, soda, salt, nutmeg, and almond extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog] · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 18,623 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Surprise Cookies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Mix two cups sugar with one cup butter or lard (or the two mixed).

  2. Add two beaten eggs.

  3. Add one-half cup milk (sweet or sour) in which one level teaspoonful soda has been dissolved.

  4. Add two cups flour and two of raw oatmeal or rolled oats.

  5. Add one-half teaspoon salt, one-half teaspoon nutmeg and almond extract to suit the taste.

Make the date filling

  1. Stone and cut fine one-half pound dates, then cook with one-half cup sugar and one-half cup water to a smooth paste.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll the dough thin and cut into small cookies.

  2. Spread the paste by the teaspoon on each cookie.

  3. Cover with another cookie, pinch the edges together, and bake in a moderate oven.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

809Calories
28 gProtein
15 gFat
139 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 7 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Date1 date (24g) medjool66
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Salt1 tsp (6g)0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Chicago. Bethany union church. Woman's society. [from old catalog]. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures. See the original page.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Nutmeg + datestop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together194 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Milk + datestop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together470 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Milk and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 78,219 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Butter or lard (in the method)
Adds fat for tenderness and a rich texture in the dough.
Eggs
Bind the dough and add structure to the cookies.
Dates
Provide sweetness and a moist, chewy filling when cooked to a paste.
Flour
Forms the structure that holds the cookies together.
Rolled oats (in the method)
Add chewiness and a hearty texture to the dough.

The step that matters

Cooking the date paste to a smooth paste. Dates must be cooked fully with sugar and water so the filling becomes smooth and spreadable. Undercooked, lumpy paste can tear the thin dough and stay gritty.

Swap the dates

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, milk, flour, nutmeg, egg):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Datesthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, flour, nutmeg, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Stuffed DatesStuffed Dates32 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes