Margaret Warner takes doctors’ medicines.
Doctors return the favor — they take Margaret’s medicine. And Margaret’s prescriptions include sugar, chocolate, peanut butter and cinnamon.
Warner, who has fought cancer twice in the past 10 years, always brings cookies to her friends in the medical profession. Friends of her husband Everett, who has a cardiac condition, are also on the delivery list.
“It’s our way of saying ‘Thank you,’” said Warner, 69, who lives in Fonda. “We go to the pharmacy, Palmer Pharmacy in Johnstown, they’re very good to us and they deliver medicine if we need it delivered.”
Folks at New York Oncology Hematology in Amsterdam and Dr. Ingrid Rund, Everett’s heart specialist, receive cookies. The routine keeps Warner busy — she said she makes around 1,000 cookies during the holiday season.
Margaret’s generous spirit is what makes her the winner of The Gazette’s Holiday Cookie Contest. She gets $100, and readers get a chance to sample her recipes; we’ve included four of the many types of cookies she makes each year.
Margaret says she’s been baking and cooking since she was a teenager, when she worked at the restaurant of grandfather Charlie Hagen. The place was called “Charlie’s Coffee Pot” and was on Route 30A between Sloansville and Central Bridge.
Among Warner’s favorite recipes are “Great Grandmother Mary’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies,” “Drop Chocolate Jumbos,” “Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies” and “Berried Cherry Cookies.”
“It makes me feel good,” Warner said of her holiday cookie project. “I’m the type of person, if I can help somebody, I will do it. The kids in the neighborhood, they come around and I give them cookies and they just love it. The neighbors love it. It’s something I can do — it’s me.”
Here are some of Margaret’s recipes:
Great Grandmother Mary’s Sour Cream Sugar Cookies
1⁄2 cup lard or shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
22⁄3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1⁄2 teaspoon salt
1⁄4 teaspoon nutmeg
1⁄2 cup sour cream
Preheat oven to 425 F.
Mix first four ingredients thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients, then add to sugar mixture alternately with the sour cream.
Roll dough to 1⁄4-inch thick on well floured board. Cut with 2-inch cookie cutters, and place on greased baking sheet. Sprinkle with sugar.
Bake 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned. Make 4-6 dozen cookies, depending on size and shape of cookie cutter.
Drop Chocolate Jumbos
1 cup sugar
1 cup shortening
1⁄2 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 cups flour
3⁄4 cup cocoa
11⁄2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup cool coffee
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Cream together sugar and shortening, add molasses, egg and vanilla. Beat until mixed thoroughly.
In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Add to wet ingredients, alternately with coffee. Mix until well blended. Refrigerated four hours or overnight.
Drop by teaspoonful onto greased baking sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until they test done with toothpick. They will be soft in the center.
Soft Chocolate Chip Cookies
41⁄2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups butter, softened
11⁄2 cups brown sugar, packed
1⁄2 cup sugar
2 3.4-ounce boxes instant vanilla pudding mix
4 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Sift together flour and baking soda. Set aside.
In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Beat in pudding mix. Stir in eggs and vanilla.
Then blend in flour mixture. Stir in chocolate chips and nuts.
Bake 10-13 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Makes 6 dozen. Recipe can be cut in half.
Berried Cherry Cookies
1 jar maraschino cherries, drained
1⁄2 cup batter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
11⁄2 teaspoon vanilla
11⁄2 cup flour
1⁄3 cup cocoa
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Beat butter, sugar, egg and vanilla until creamy.
In a separate bowl, mix together dry ingredients, then add them to wet ingredients. Beat until smooth.
Refrigerate for one hour.
Roll into one-inch balls with cherry inside, and bake 8-10 minutes.
Get more recipes, gifts ideas, fun activities for the kids, and a roundup of holiday traditions from The Daily Gazette’s special Celebrate page!
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