Recipe: Ethel's Nice Tomato Cookies

ETHEL'S NICE TOMATO COOKIES
From: Rural New- Yorker October, 1926
Source: Old-Time Farmhouse Cooking: Rural American Recipes and Farm Lore by Barbara Swell

I taste-tested this recipe on 15 friends and family and not one of them guessed this was a tomato cookie. I mean, if someone handed you a filled sugar cookie,, would you guess "tomato, right?" I don't think so. My taste-tester's minds told them they were eating a fig, raisin, or date-filled cookie. Only when I told them it was tomato, did they say, "cool" or "gross, how could you?" It's well worth the trouble it takes to make these surprisingly tasty cookies, if only to watch your friend's reactions.

SUGAR COOKIES:
3/4 cup salted butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. baking powder
2 1/2 cups flour
Tomato Filling (recipe follows)

SUGAR COOKIES:
Cream softened butter and sugar. Add egg and vanilla and beat until fluffy.

Mix baking powder with flour and add to other ingredients. Beat until blended. Chill until dough is firm.

While dough is chilling make Tomato Filling (recipe follows).

Form chilled dough into a ball and knead a few times until smooth. Divide into four sections. Refrigerate two.

Roll other two out into same sized rectangles (onto floured waxed paper) about 1/4-inch thick.

Spread half of the tomato filling on one rectangle, topping with the other. Repeat with remainder of dough.

Flip the dough onto a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 until lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes.

Cut into squares when cooled.

TOMATO FILLING:
1/2 cup unsalted tomato sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup raisins
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of salt

Combine tomato sauce, brown sugar, and raisins. Add the lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Cook on low heat 30 minutes until thick, stirring constantly toward the end. Cool and lightly chop in food processor.