Plain Cookies.

Rub one-half cup of butter until creamy, gradually add one cup of sugar, then put in one egg and beat together thoroughly. Next add, alternately, one-half cup of milk or water and one pint of flour in which two teaspoons of baking powder have been sifted. Use enough more flour to make a soft dough, from one to two cupfuls, according to the nature of the flour.

Cream Cookies

Mix together one-half cup of thick sour cream, one egg, one cup of sugar, one-half teaspoon of salt, one pint of flour in which one-fourth of a level teaspoon of soda has been sifted, and enough more flour to make a dough that can be rolled. Flavor with one tablespoon of caraway seeds.

Cookies.

Cream one cup of butter, add two cups of sugar, and three eggs, one at a time, beating each in thoroughly before adding the next. Then add a bit of soda, about one-eighth of a level teaspoon dissolved in a tablespoon of cold water, and next gradually work in about one quart or four cups of flour.

Or use less flour and drop from a tablespoon on a buttered dripping pan, about two inches apart, and put nuts on the top of each. They may run together, but can be cut apart before they are cold.

Or grease the under side of a baking sheet and dredge a very little flour on it. Spread the dough upon the pan with the rolling-pin or a knife, till less than a quarter of an inch in thickness. Bake in a hot oven.

Make a boiled icing and spread on the cake while it is still warm. While the icing is still soft, scatter candied caraway seeds thickly upon it. When cold, cut the cake in strips an inch and a half wide; cutting these strips diagonally will form diamonds.

Wafers.

Cream one-fourth cup (two ounces) of butter gradually, add one-half cup of powdered sugar, and almost, drop by drop, four tablespoons of milk. Next mix in a scant cup of bread flour and a few drops of any flavoring extract preferred. Spread on the bottom of an inverted dripping pan as thin as possible. The pan should be buttered unless it is very smooth.

Mark in squares, then sprinkle with nuts, and bake in a moderate oven. In five minutes they should be ready to roll, and this must be done at the oven door before they have a chance to cool a particle. Sometimes they are rolled over the handle of a wooden spoon.

Almond paste may be creamed in with the butter, or flavor with cinnamon or vanilla.

These may be tinted pink or green with color pastes. They may be kept some little time in good condition by putting them between layers of paraffin paper in air-tight cases.