THE FAMOUS CPS BUTTER COOKIE RECIPE
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| These are exactly as you remember them! |
SHARE OR EMAIL THESE RECIPES USING THE ICONS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE ARTICLE. THEY BRING BACK FOND MEMORIES JUST THINKING OF THEM.
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"I worked baking these very cookies at the Joan F. Arai Middle School in the Uptown community at 900 West Wilson Avenue back in the 1980s. We cranked out 75,000 cookies a week, and they were delivered throughout Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Elementary and High Schools. Students LOVED our handiwork! Both recipes are spot on!"—K. Doerksen, Nov. 13, 2022
INGREDIENTS
1 cup OR 2 sticks OR ½ lb of unsalted butter softened to room temperature
⅔ cup granulated sugar
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
4 teaspoons sugar (for direction #6)
DIRECTIONS
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons natural vanilla extract
1 pinch salt
4 teaspoons sugar (for direction #6)
DIRECTIONS
● Preheat oven to 350°F.
● Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
● Mix in vanilla extract.
● Mix in flour gradually.
● Using a small cookie scoop, roll dough into balls and slightly flatten on a non-greased cookie sheet.
● Flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass. (dipped in sugar if desired)
● Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
● Mix in vanilla extract.
● Mix in flour gradually.
● Using a small cookie scoop, roll dough into balls and slightly flatten on a non-greased cookie sheet.
● Flatten cookies with the bottom of a glass. (dipped in sugar if desired)
TO MAKE THE RIDGES
With one hand, spread your fingers out, place them on the raw cookie dough, and bring your fingers together. Repeat for each cookie.
● Bake until golden brown; approximately 12-15 minutes. See Picture.
MAKES ABOUT 2 DOZEN COOKIES
Suggestion: Quadruple the recipe - you'll easily knock down a dozen cookies with a glass of milk or a cup of your favorite coffee or tea.
INDEX TO MY ILLINOIS AND CHICAGO FOOD & RESTAURANT ARTICLES.
INGREDIENTS
CPS PEANUT BUTTER COOKIE RECIPE
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| TWO, WITH CHOCOLATE MILK, EVERY DAY AT LUNCH. AND YOU KNOW WHO YOU ARE! |
2½ cups OR 5 sticks OR 1 1/4 lbs unsalted butter at room temperature
2½ cups granulated sugar
1¾ cups brown sugar, packed
1 pound peanut butter
3 eggs
5½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
● Heat oven to 375°F.
● In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add both sugars and mix until no granules remain, about 5 minutes. Add peanut butter and mix until combined. Add eggs; continue to beat on high speed for 1 minute.
● Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until well-blended.
● Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto greased baking sheets.
● Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand to form 3-inch circles that are ¼ inch thick.
● Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.
2½ cups granulated sugar
1¾ cups brown sugar, packed
1 pound peanut butter
3 eggs
5½ cups flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
DIRECTIONS
● Heat oven to 375°F.
● In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat butter until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add both sugars and mix until no granules remain, about 5 minutes. Add peanut butter and mix until combined. Add eggs; continue to beat on high speed for 1 minute.
● Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Slowly add flour mixture to butter mixture; stir until well-blended.
● Drop dough by heaping tablespoons onto greased baking sheets.
● Flatten the dough with the palm of your hand to form 3-inch circles that are ¼ inch thick.
● Bake cookies for 10 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the bottom.
Thanks, brings back memories of Morrill and Harper High
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely! Harper High C/O 83'
DeleteYes indeed, from Harper High School 1968 - 1972
DeleteI can't wait to try these good memeories
ReplyDeleteThank you ...I LOVES these cookies.. it sure brings memories....
ReplyDeleteThe butter cookies with a carton of chocolate milk was a school lunch favorite!
ReplyDeleteI will try this I do remember the old days at school eating these cookies.
ReplyDeleteLet me think about elementary all over again in Chicago
ReplyDeleteYess thank you
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing!!
ReplyDeleteLove these cookies when my 5 Sons were young . The cafeteria lady would sell us a bag full of both kind of cookies .1982- 1987 Good ole days.❤️����
ReplyDeleteWow, you really did have the hook up❣️ðŸ˜
DeleteGreetings and thank you for being a sharing soul! I attended Mary Mapes Dodge elementary in the 70's. I wanted to be a lunchroom helper so bad because, when the rest of the kids were finished eating the helpers would clean off the tables with the Lunchroom staff. Then they got to eat lunch having access to seconds & free cookies! ( Yess, I was a bit greedy). LOL
DeleteI remember being a lunch room helper and getting a free cookie afterwards .. you had to be in 6th grade to help .. . They would never allow that today ..
DeleteCan I use a food processor to cream the butter and sugar?
ReplyDeleteNo, since the heat of the food processor may melt the butter and mess up the process. Fork is best.
DeleteMy mother made them for CPS. She was the head cook at Doolittle and Phillips.
ReplyDeleteMy mom also made them at Ward Elementary. To die for!!
ReplyDeleteI worked at Ward When I started teaching in Chicago in 1987. That was one tiny kitchen in an old building!
DeleteI ate them voraciously when I worked for Chicago Public Schools!
ReplyDeleteAt Talcott in the 70's
ReplyDeleteWanda started with a gallon can of US surplus peanut butter. We had a very large school.
I knew it! I’ve been trying to duplicate that recipe for years...I knew the secret ingredient was surplus peanut butter! Can’t find that these days.
ReplyDeleteMy daughters grew up in the Chicago school system so when she saw this she sent it right over. Seems a bit dry for the butter cookies. No eggs? dough isn't really coming together like it should.
ReplyDeleteThousands of locals have followed the directions and the cookies come out just like CPS's. No eggs because they were expensive, the main reason CPS choose this recipe.
Delete❤️
DeleteThe dough will be crumbly.
DeleteThank you Dr. Gale for bringing back my high school lunch cookie recipe!!!! As you probably know, these peanut butter and sugar cookies helped many high school kids get through another day of classes!!! LOL (along with a bottle of coke and a few candy bars)
ReplyDeleteMade the butter cookies they came out great thank u for the recipe.
ReplyDeleteBeen using this recipe for years. This is close, but they do not taste like the original lunchroom cookies. The texture and taste is not the same. I believe ingredients used in all cooking have been enhanced for profitable reasons. This is cookie is just not the same. Some have substituted granulated sugar for powdered sugar. Still not the same. The lunchroom cookies was softer, crisper and more flavorful.
ReplyDeleteI disagree. I'v eaten this recipe's cookies many times. Moreover, I've heard, over the years, from dozens of Facebook group members, who have made and tasted these recipies. ALL say it's 100% what they remember from CPS.
DeleteSpeaking as an amateur chef with some experience at trying to duplicate recipes, one mistake that people often make when trying to recreate a dish that they loved in their youth is to no longer be a kid.
DeleteSeriously, tastes change. Think of how many things you like now that you couldn't stand as a child.
I don't know yet but I'm going to try, my friend told me her sister makes them and they are the same, we went to school late 50's-early 60's and Illinois food I remember the most
DeleteI've made these numberous times.they come out delicious every time!! One thing to remember is to use room temperature butter...never melted butter. And if you like them to be a little soft..bake them until the bottom is slightly browned/golden.usually 12 mins.
ReplyDeleteI only went to the Chicago Public Schools from Fall, 1966 through Sprng 1970, Elementary School, K-3. Were these available then? I went to Lewis School. Btw, I made these exactly as the recipe says but with Gluten Free flour, and I love them!
ReplyDeleteBaked for 15 minutes, crunchy but delicate!
Can't wait to try the butter cookie recipe....Amundsen High School--it was my lunch with a diet soda for many times!!
ReplyDeleteMaaannn listen, I remember going to school spending a dollar every day(10 cent each), and if the cookie lady wasn't there, I went back home!!! ��������
ReplyDeleteThank you for the recipe. Reading some comments about taste differences, just FYI, peanut butter has changed dramatically from the early 60's... High Fructose Corn Syrup and Hydrogenated oils have been added. PB flavor is really different. Try using a natural PB (peanuts only).
ReplyDeleteWell I can say that I have tried this recipe and memories of Mary C Terrell come flooding back 5 cent a cookie , after eating that good hot lunch freshly cooked in lunchroom not like the crap they serve those kids now.I bet we stayed healthy.
ReplyDeleteI literally was telling my youngest grandson about our hot lunches and cookies the other day!! Oh what a day when they had those cookies for sale. They were five cents for me. Late 70’s. I consider myself an untrained baker and I can’t wait to make these tonight! I’ll come back and let you know how they turned out.
DeleteI worked at Joan Arai Middle School, back in the 80's, baking these very cookies. The recipes are spot on. We cranked out 75,000 cookies a week and they were delivered throughout CPS. Students LOVED our handiwork!
ReplyDeleteI went to McLaren Elementary school in Little Italy in the 60s. I baked these delish butter cookies! I am grateful I found the actual CPS butter Cookie recipe because now I am sharing them with my grandchildren, family and neighbors. Thank you so much for taking the time to Give us this wonderful buyer cookie recipe that remind me of my wonderful days growing up in the Chicago Public Schools.
ReplyDeleteCan these be made with whole wheat flour?
ReplyDeleteSure, but they won't be Chicago Public School cookies.
DeleteWhen we had these at Sullivan High School back in the '70s, they were sold as 'Senn High School Butter Cookies'. I never knew if being 'imported' from Edgewater gave them some special cachet, or if it was just that Senn had the kitchen capacity to produce them for both schools.
ReplyDeleteRead the "sidebar" in the article. Cookies were baked at one location.
DeleteThank you. I guess the reason they were (incorrectly) marketed as a product of Senn is a mystery lost to time. But they were (and still are) the best butter cookies ever!
DeleteMemory from McCormick Elementary School
ReplyDeleteSo glad I came upon this receipt. I've tried so many others and none match the taste of our high school cookies. I went to Schurz and loved these cookies. So tomorrow I will give this recipe a try.
ReplyDelete