Christmas Cookies

This belongs to a very old family of Hudson Valley recipes known as New York Potash Cake. It is a type of sweet cracker leavened with alkaline salts derived from wood ashes. Today, we use baking soda or baking powder instead. This particular recipe is somewhat like a German Springerle in that it can be stamped with a cookie print. If you wish to stamp these cookies, follow the procedure given under the recipe for Mrs. Creceleius’s Springer Cake.