Vintage Chocolate Jumbles Cookie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the history of chocolate jumbles? ›

A Schoharie County favorite with countless family recipes handed down through the generations (some dating back centuries), the “jumbo” made it over the pond to America in time to be included in Martha Washington's cookbook, according to Jones. Rumor has it that the jumble was George Washington's favorite cookie.

Grapevine Farms is home of the original Chocolate Jumble, and we are proud to serve Schoharie County and surrounding areas with our famous cookie that is a customer favorite!

As the butter melts, the cookie's structure loosens, so that the water in the dough is able to combine with the baking soda, dissolving it. The baking soda then reacts to the acidic components present in brown sugar, creating gases that cause the cookie to rise.

They supposedly originated in the Middle East, where the diet was pretty sugar-heavy, and traveled to Europe via the Moors. Unlike European cookies of the time, jumbles were also heavily spiced and scented with flavorings such as rosewater, cinnamon, aniseed, and caraway seeds.

Mayan chocolate was a revered brew made of roasted and ground cacao seeds mixed with chilies, water and cornmeal. Mayans poured this mixture from one pot to another, creating a thick foamy beverage called “xocolatl”, meaning “bitter water.”

Brown sugar

Using brown sugar will result in a denser, moister cookie. Brown sugar is also hygroscopic (more so than granulated sugar) and will therefore also attract and absorb the liquid in the dough.

Regarding using baking soda for gray hair, experts endorse its potential benefits such as controlling pigmentation loss, lightening the strands, and providing texture. It can be used on coarse grey locks to make them smoother too by eliminating product buildup from oils or soaps.

Baking soda is typically used for chewy cookies, while baking powder is generally used for light and airy cookies. Since baking powder is comprised of a number of ingredients (baking soda, cream of tartar, cornstarch, etc.), using it instead of pure baking soda will affect the taste of your cookies.

In the late nineteenth century, before freezers and food preservatives, bakers in some of the metropolitan areas produced Honey Jumbles, a delicious snack that improved with age. One company in Wisconsin used ten tons of honey a year in their manufacture. Beekeepers wanted the secret formula.

Chocolate has an ancient Mesoamerican origin

Clearly, chocolate originated from ancient Mesoamerica. After all, the first cacao plants were found there. Ultimately, the Mesoamericans turned these plants into chocolate. In fact, they even used it as a medicine.

What is the history of the word chocolate? ›

The word "chocolate" is traced back to the Aztec word "xocoatl," and the name for the cacao plant, Theobroma cacao, means "food of the gods." But before chocolate became the sweet worldwide phenomenon we know today, Mesoamerican cultures made bitter drinks with the cacao bean.

Mayan Chocolate

The Olmecs undoubtedly passed their cacao knowledge on to the Central American Maya who not only consumed chocolate, they revered it. The Mayan written history mentions chocolate drinks being used in celebrations and to finalize important transactions and ceremonies.