The Mystery of the Elevator Lady Spice Cookies … solved!

 

As I've mentioned here before, I write a monthly cooking column for a local publication called The Weekly. In this month's column, I shared how last fall, I was browsing at a local antique mall when I came across a vintage recipe booklet titled Candy and Cookies Cook Book by the Newnan Junior Service League. The local Junior League is known for its legendary Taste of Georgia cookbook, which is still sold today, but I'd never heard of this candy and cookie booklet.

No publication date is listed, but the type looks like something from the fifties or sixties. I was delighted to find recipes by several local ladies who are gone now but whom I met early in my career, including nurse Harriet Alexander. My favorite memory of Harriet is that she was already beautifully white-haired when she was asked to serve as a consultant on 1960s-era nursing practices to Kevin Costner when he was in town to film The War. She got to bandage him up for a scene!

Another lovely contributor was Pat Crook, who assisted with the teas I was once asked to attend in neighboring Senoia so I could report on them for the newspaper (imagine going to tea as part of your job!).

But another recipe caught my eye because of the intriguing name: Elevator Lady Spice Cookies. No contributor name was listed, and I wondered how these cookies ended up in a Newnan cookbook when, based on the local folks I asked, Newnan didn't have any "people elevators" back in the fifties and sixties, just freight elevators. Maybe, I thought, some Junior Leaguer went to Atlanta and got the recipe from an elevator lady at one of the department stores like Rich's or Davison's. At any rate, I followed the recipe and baked these cookies, which are perfect for fall, and loved them, as did Mr. Tea With Friends.

The one thing I did not do before submitting my latest column, however, was google "Elevator Lady Spice Cookies," so when I asked readers of my column to let me know if they knew the backstory, several of them did. Apparently, the booklet simply reprinted a recipe from this popular Peg Bracken cookbook from the sixties! (So much for my theory that this was a local recipe with a tie to Atlanta.) Still, the cookies are definitely worth trying and make a fabulous afternoon tea snack.

Elevator Lady Spice Cookies

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg, unbeaten
1/4 cup molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon ginger

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, add shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses and blend well. In larger bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger. Add dry ingredients to the wet ones and combine well. Roll mixture into 1-inch balls and space 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Yields 40 cookies.