Cookies suitable for the elderly

[baroness]

I've volunteered to bake a lot of Christmas cookies to be added to others' efforts, divided, and packaged to distribute while caroling at my church's senior citizen housing on the 23rd.

Many of my favorite cookie recipes are not suitable for this audience. I'm looking for recipes that:

1. Don't contain seeds, whole spices, coconut, or other irritants to denture-wearers, etc.

2. Don't contain alcohol (as any leftovers will go to the church school or feeding the homeless).

3. Are not chocolate chip, brownie-type, or other normal/popular types that others will bring.

4. Hopefully can be made NOW, and will improve with a little aging!

I have a great Spritz recipe, but what else can I bake?

Thanks!

[Lior]

How very kind and lovely!

SORGHUM COOKIES

2 cups brown sugar

1 cup sorghum molassas

1/2 cup water

1 cup shortening, full and heaped a bit

2 eggs

5 tsp baking soda

1 tsp grated nutmeg

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp ground cloves

Add enough bread flour to make a dough that is stiff enough to roll without sticking

Cream together the sugar, molasses, and shortening. Add beaten eggs. Dissolve baking soda in the water, then add into creamed mixture. Gradually add dry ingredients (spices and flour) until you have a dough stiff enough to roll out.

Chill for an hour, then cut in shapes and place carefully on baking sheets.

Bake at 350°F for 10 min or so and check. Also, it is noted that Sorghum molasses are what is needed to get the best taste. You can ice the cookies.

Well hope that works! Sounds right... Good luck and merry xmas to you and yours!

Edited December 3, 2007 by Lior (log)

[Tepee]

The fruitcake cookies Jaymes posted are delicious. Ones I made.

1. Play with the ingredients to suit your criteria.

2. Presoak the fruit with some orange juice to moisten them and to plump them up so that after baking, they don't cause any grief.

3. Make the dough and freeze till required.

Cheers.

[JeanneCake]

Molasses or gingerbread cookies would be good. You could underbake them slightly to make them softer if you think they would be too hard for the senior citizens. My favorite recipe comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Christmas Cookie book - it calls for mixing 6.25 oz brown sugar with 6 oz butter til smooth; then add 1 egg and 5.5 oz molasses (don't use the blackstrap, it's too bitter for this cookie); then mix together 15 oz all purpose flour, 2 tsp ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt and add to the rest of the stuff. Roll into sheets between parchment or flatten into a disk and chill for a few hours (then roll and cut). Bake at 350 for 12-15 mins depending on what you've made.

Another good cookie I remember making as a child is Snickerdoodles. Shortbread would be wonderful too.

[annieC]

What about a soft banana oat type cookie? That would be good for those who have difficulty chewing. There are tons of different recipes you could try. Another thing you might want to consider is making one or two types of diabetic appropriate cookies, using Splenda for baking or something similar- so often at the holidays everyone forgets to bring any holiday treats for the diabetics in the nursing homes.

[Desiderio]

Some shortbread cookies , like lime meltaway form martha stewart site, they melt in your mouth are simply deliciously smooth, you can flavor them with anything you can think of , coffee, almond,ginger,cinnamon,orange, lemon,I think I made them with tangerin oil as well , they just good.

I have a recipe for some Viennesi , that melt in your mouth as well, they are piped ones, very tender cookies,let me know if you woul like the recipe.

Good luck with this progect.

[merstar]

These are great:

Cinnamon Cookies

http://www.recipezaar.com/48241

Another great one - you can omit the coconut if you'd like:

Jam Thumbprints

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/re...6_25278,00.html

Edited December 3, 2007 by merstar (log)

[baroness]

What a great start! I just checked and there are 75 apartments in our building, so that means lots of cookies.

Lior, what an interesting recipe. I'll have to see if I can find sorghum molasses.

Tepee, I would NOT have thought of fruitcake (cookies), but it's a great idea and unlikely to be done by anyone else.

JeanneCake, the gingerbread sounds lovely. We have several 'classic shortbread specialists' in our congregation, so I'll leave that to them as they make it so well.

AnnieC, oatmeal sounds good as well. I've never baked with Splenda, but it's a valid point to consider the diabetics.

Vanessa, I'd love the viennesi recipe. If I do shortbread, it will have to be a flavored variety; see above.

Merstar, cinnamon sounds great, and jam thumbprints are so pretty. Maybe I could do part with coconut, part plain.

Thanks all! More ideas are welcome; I can always pass them along to anyone else suffering baker's ingredient block!

[baroness]

Not unusually for me, my final selections were none of my original ideas. You will see that many of the ideas offered morphed a bit, and all were helpful. As I was busy with choir practice, I didn't get to see the other cookies contributed. The coordinator had purchased some lunchbag-type frosted plastic bags with holiday designs and fold-roll-clamp tops and had pre-filled the bags with her cookies; the bag style made it easy for the packers to open them and add the new cookies.

I made:

Pam R's Gingerbread Hamentaschen with apricot, strawberry, and seedless blackberry jams

Lime Pinwheels

Spumoni Slices (cherry/chocolate-cinnamon/pistachio)

Sorbet Slices (orange/chocolate/vanilla)

Biscotti Morbidi di Signora Pilla

ALL the recipes were new to me; I do have a sense of adventure! Personal favorite is the last, though all are 'keeper' recipes.

[pax]

You've gotten great suggestions, I will just add one hint: no nuts. They are tough on those who wear false teeth. Same thing with gummy jam thumbprint type stuff. (Although I am sure your's are not gummy, I've seen lots that are.)

[judiu]

Not unusually for me, my final selections were none of my original ideas. You will see that many of the ideas offered morphed a bit, and all were helpful. As I was busy with choir practice, I didn't get to see the other cookies contributed. The coordinator had purchased some lunchbag-type frosted plastic bags with holiday designs and fold-roll-clamp tops and had pre-filled the bags with her cookies; the bag style made it easy for the packers to open them and add the new cookies.

I made:

Pam R's Gingerbread Hamentaschen with apricot, strawberry, and seedless blackberry jams

Lime Pinwheels

Spumoni Slices (cherry/chocolate-cinnamon/pistachio)

Sorbet Slices (orange/chocolate/vanilla)

Biscotti Morbidi di Signora Pilla

ALL the recipes were new to me; I do have a sense of adventure! Personal favorite is the last, though all are 'keeper' recipes.

←

Please tell us more about the Biscotti Morbidi; I've never heard of such a thing, and some of my friends call me Ms. Know-It-All...

[baroness]

From one Ms. Know-It-All to another (we must keep up appearances, after all):

Biscotti Morbidi

They are somewhat like really fresh and soft Savoiardi, though almond rather than vanilla. And yes, I did use the required shortening in its transfat-free incarnation. Everyone loves them