I have watched 5 seasons of Great British Bake Off and still don't know what a pudding is.

[almondbutterandjelly]

3 minutes ago, StellaM said:

A traybake is a slice. 

What are these soft cookies ? Are soft cookies not just underbaked cookies ? ?

No, some cookies are just soft.  Sugar cookies, for instance, or some cookies my grandmother made, which we call plain cookies but I have no idea what they are.  Similar to sugar cookies, but less sweet.  Not savory, just less sweet, made with shortening.  We actually prefer soft cookies to crunchy cookies at my house.  As I think about it, maybe the fact that they are thicker helps them to be soft.  They are maybe 1/4 inch in thickness.  

[almondbutterandjelly]

Just now, StellaM said:

 

Sort of like snickerdoodles ?

No cinnamon in them.  Here's the ingredients.  If anyone can identify what type of cookie it is, I'd be interested.  I never know what to call them.  You make the dough, roll it out, and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters.  Oh, and actually, the recipe says roll to 1/2 inch thick, not 1/4 inch.  I was mistaken before.

Grandma's Plain Cookies

1 1/2  cups sugar, 3/4 cup shortening (Crisco), 3 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp lemon extract, 4-6 cups flour.

[Lang Syne Boardie]

1 hour ago, perkybunch said:

No cinnamon in them.  Here's the ingredients.  If anyone can identify what type of cookie it is, I'd be interested.  I never know what to call them.  You make the dough, roll it out, and cut it into shapes with cookie cutters.  Oh, and actually, the recipe says roll to 1/2 inch thick, not 1/4 inch.  I was mistaken before.

Grandma's Plain Cookies

1 1/2  cups sugar, 3/4 cup shortening (Crisco), 3 tsp baking powder, 1 cup milk, 3 eggs, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1/4 tsp lemon extract, 4-6 cups flour.

 

In the Midwest, those are just called sugar cookies (or they were, when I was a child). They can be flavored lots of ways; my folks just used vanilla, and then sprinkled a tiny bit of granulated sugar on top of each cookie before baking. Our recipe could be rolled into balls, placed on the cookie sheet, and somewhat flattened with the bottom of a drinking glass. Oh, I just remembered - we would dip the glass in the granulated sugar, and then smush down the ball of dough, to get the shape right and transfer just a little sugar.

Edit: My great-grandmother probably used lard instead of Crisco.

(Note: I keep editing as I remember stuff. This was THE cookie at my grandma's house, except for at Christmas when she made lots of other kinds.)

Edited October 8, 2018 by Tibbie Dunbar

[Storygirl]

6 hours ago, StellaM said:

A traybake is a slice. 

What are these soft cookies ? Are soft cookies not just underbaked cookies ? ?

That sentence means nothing to me!! I've never heard of any dessert called traybake OR slice. ?

Though I can guess it means a bar cookie (dough baked in a rectangular pan and then cut into pieces, instead of the usual way of making individual cookies aka biscuits).

[lailasmum]

10 hours ago, regentrude said:

Maybe the British don't do soft cookies?

I cannot recall ever having a soft cookie growing up in Germany; a proper cookie had to be crisp. It was only after I moved to the US that I encountered soft and chewy ones.

We have both soft and hard/crisp ones. On the biscuit aisle in the supermarket most of the prepackaged cookies are hard to the point of being dry and crumbly but we also have cookies in the bakery section that are soft and a couple of pre packaged brands are soft. I always hated cookies until I started making them at home, dry crumbly biscuits are not my thing.

[KarenNC]

12 hours ago, Tibbie Dunbar said:

 

In the Midwest, those are just called sugar cookies (or they were, when I was a child). They can be flavored lots of ways; my folks just used vanilla, and then sprinkled a tiny bit of granulated sugar on top of each cookie before baking. Our recipe could be rolled into balls, placed on the cookie sheet, and somewhat flattened with the bottom of a drinking glass. Oh, I just remembered - we would dip the glass in the granulated sugar, and then smush down the ball of dough, to get the shape right and transfer just a little sugar.

Edit: My great-grandmother probably used lard instead of Crisco.

(Note: I keep editing as I remember stuff. This was THE cookie at my grandma's house, except for at Christmas when she made lots of other kinds.)

We did the same thing here in NC. These were Christmas cookies, and we had one bowl of sugar dyed green and one red, so that the cookies could be stamped with our choice of colored sugar using the glass, though you had to dampen the glass first so the sugar would stick.