Vintage RG&E Pineapple Cookies

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This Vintage cookie recipe comes from an RG&E recipe booklet put together by their Home Service Department. These light fluffy cookies Pineapple are a nice break from some of the richer Christmas cookies.

It may seem odd for a company like Rochester Gas & Electric to put out a cookbook today, but it was actually a very common practice before the internet.

If you’re from my neck of the woods you’re probably very familiar with Rochester Gas & Electric, they serve gas and electricity (obviously) to roughly 378,500 customers in the Rochester area.

Back in the day, it seems like every company had a home service department or home economist working for them, even department stores had Home Economists on staff! From what I can gather, the purpose of the home services and economist seemed to be two-fold;  to educate the consumer, and to also act as a marketing technique, to get homemakers excited about new services and products.

I’ve talked about my fondness for collecting old cookbooks about a million times here on the blog,  and occasionally perusing eBay for vintage local cookbooks is somewhat of a hobby, which was how I happened to stumble upon Everyone Likes Cookies by the Rochester Gas & Electric home service department.

The typewritten booklet doesn’t have any publication date on it, or any reference to a time frame at all actually, but based on the style and formatting of this booklet, it seems to be very similar to other Rochester Gas and Electric booklets I’ve been able to find on Ebay published around the 1970s. So I am going to go with that. 

If you have any ideas or thoughts, or even just want to drop your best guess at when this book was published drop them in the comments, I’d love to hear what you think! 

Once I had the cook booklet in my hands I begin flipping through it looking for a vintage cookie recipe that would be worth trying.  The pineapple cookies caught my eye instantly.  I’d never really seen a pineapple cookie recipe before and I liked the idea of a pineapple cookie the counterbalance some of the more rich and decadent cookies on my cookie platter.

Soft, fluffy and slightly tropical this cookie was love at first taste. I’ve made this cookie three times now since I got this cook booklet from eBay and I found a couple of small tweaks really perfected this vintage recipe for the modern cook.

Tips for making vintage pineapple cookies:

  • Use real butter. All of the cookie recipes in Everyone Loves Cookies use shortening as the fat. Shortening isn’t something I typically bake with, so I just swapped out the shortening for the butter in equal amounts which worked perfectly.
  • Bake at 350 F. The 375 F -degree oven temperature that the recipe originally calls for seemed a little hot for a cookie recipe, and I noticed the previous owner of the booklet had circled the shorter cooking duration when there was a range of cooking times listed. Baking at 350 degrees for 12 to 15 minutes was the perfect baking time and temperature for these cookies.
  • Dress them up with a little quick glaze. I adored these cookies without any additional toppings, but  I also wanted to be able to add some holiday sprinkles and give them a more finished appearance. Pineapple glaze with the perfect solution. Reserve the pineapple juice from the canned crushed pineapple when you’re making your cookies and set it aside, mix it with just enough powdered sugar to create a thick glaze and dip the cookie tops in the glaze once they are cool, if you are using sprinkles, sprinkle the tops of the cookies while the glaze is still wet if not let the glaze set before you add them to your cookie platter.
Pineapple Cookies

Pineapple Cookies

Yield: 30 Cookies
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Additional Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 27 minutes

This Vintage cookie recipe comes from an RG&E recipe booklet put together by their Home Service Department. These light fluffy cookies Pineapple are a nice break from some of the richer Christmas cookies.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 /2 cup crushed pineapple, drained, reserve juice
  • 1/2 cup crushed nuts, optional
  • 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 tablespoon reserved pineapple juice or lemon juice

Pineapple Glaze

  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 2-4 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice

Instructions

Cookies

  1. Drain pineapple, reserving 3 tbsp juice.
  2. Set pineapple and drained pineapple juice aside.
  3. In a bowl, cream butter and sugar.
  4. Add egg, mix well.
  5. Add pineapple, 1 tablespoon pineapple juice, and vanilla, mix well.
  6. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt.
  7. Stir sifted dry ingredients into creamed mixture.
  8. Using a cookie scoop, drop cookie dough 2 inches apart on greased cookie sheet.
  9. Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.
  10. Remove cookie sheet from oven and let cool on wire racks 5 minutes before removing the cookies from the baking sheet to cool completlety on a wire rack.

Pineapple Glaze

  1. Combine powdered sugar with just enough reserved juice to get a smooth glaze.
  2. Frost cookies when cool.

So, this is my first time seeing pineapple cookies but have you ever had them before?  Honestly, this might be one of my new favorite vintage cookie recipes. what are some of your favorite vintage cookie recipes?

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17 Comments

  1. I can’t wait to make these and share them with my friends for Christmas!!! Thank you!!!
    ++ One recipe I found said some people make a lemon glaze but she didn’t include the recipe. I’m glad you did!!!

    1. Hi Julie,
      I do, but unfortunately at the moment I am not sure where it is. I can send you an email when I find it!
      What recipe are you looking for?

  2. I made these today and they came out awesome! This recipe is a keeper for me, thanks for sharing it. I used fresh pineapple and creamed it in the blender then measured out my tablespoons of juice from that for the glaze.

  3. Was looking for an updated recipe but why change perfection? A favorite of my 80 year old uncle and myself, I loved these cookies growing up in Ohio. My grandmother person made these all the time with a glaze much as you did. I make the with butter instead of “oleo” as my recipe calls for. Pretty much the same family recipe we have had for years. I will try the time and temperature adjustments you recommended.

  4. I made these cookies today for my boyfriend, who adores both cookies and pineapple. They were good, but I unfortunately they didn’t taste nearly as “pineapple-y” as I had hoped.

  5. I grew up outside Rochester NY, and I remember making cookies from this booklet as a child. So this has to date at least as far back as the 1960s. Sadly, I lost MY copy when I moved to Texas. So thank you for sharing this little bit of home with me.

  6. In the 1960’s and 70’s, when we went to go visit our grandparent on Canandaigua Lake, my grandmother would make pineapple cookies. I’ve had no luck finding the recipe, until I thought it might be regional and googled “Rochester pineapple cookies”. These seem very similar – light & fluffy, not too strongly flavored. I wonder whether my grandmother tweaked her version a bit, or perhaps used a different source of pineapple juice for flavor (the juice from the crushed pineapple can wasn’t very flavorful). In any case, they were a big hit with my wife and 13 year-old daughter. Thanks for sharing! As an aside, when I added the pineapple and juice to the mix, it seemed to curdle the egg, as things looked pretty “granular”. Turned out fine in the end!

  7. This is the recipe I have- few very small differences and this is doubled…

    I tried to share a photo of my well loved recipe, but that’s ok .

  8. This recipe is very similar to one shared with me by a “grandma” friend 25-30 years ago, I made them this am and they came out flatter than I remember and no mention of the glaze in her recipe but I remember she made one for them. I’m going to chill my dough, make your glaze and make a note I can use butter instead interchangeably. Was pleased to see this “vintage recipe”

  9. Made these with my Grandson and they were fantastic. Easy to make, taste great, glazed some and just put sprinkles on some Thanks for such a great recipe.

  10. Yes I did love in an old cookbook that I let a family member borrow! It was from the 50’s my heart was broken? So good and soft too. Now I say copy the receipe! I will try your version tonight grandkids coming in a.m.

  11. Hi Jen,
    My friend is looking for a recipe from an RG&E booklet. She never had the booklet, but saw the recipe published in a newspaper, long ago. She remembers it as “Christmas Sugar Cutout Cookies”. I wonder if you have that, and would you share it? Thanks, Dan

    1. Hi Dan,
      I did find a Cut-Out Cookie Recipe in the RG&E Booklet! I’ll share it in case it is the one your friend is looking for.

      Cut-Out Cookies
      Oven temperature: 400 degrees F,  Bake Time: 10-12 minutes

      1 cup shortening
      4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
      1/2 teaspoon salt
      2 eggs
      1 cup sugar
      1/4 cup milk
      1 teaspoon vanilla
      1 teaspoon (baking) soda 

      Cut shortening into flour as in pastry, and add salt.
      Combine eggs and sugar and beat well.
      Combine milk, vanilla and soda. Add to the flour mixture and mix well.
      Roll out 1/4″ thick and cut with fancy cutters.
      Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake in a preheated oven.
      Frost with thin confectioners’ sugar icing and with colored sugar; or if desired, sprinkle with colored sugar before baking. 

      Note: If very thin cookies are made, bake only 8-10 minutes. 

      Recipe
      I’ve never made these cookies before, and love to hear how they turn out!

  12. So these are amazing! Just stuck the first one in my mouth. The adjusted cooking temp and time were spot on, they are PERFECT!
    Going to whip up some glaze and then eat all of them… maybe I’ll save one or two for Matt.
    Thanks for the recipe!