“Test the Recipe” is a recurring column on PCFG where we test vintage (anything published before 1990) recipes and see if they stand the test of time or need updating. In this post we test the recipe as exactly as possible for the most accurate outcomes. Those recipes that need updating will be featured later in a “We Can Do It Better” post.

I knew when I started the “Test the Recipe” column that I had to do at least one cookie recipe around Christmas-time. I didn’t want to take on any family favorite Christmas cookie recipes though, mainly because I already know that they’re good. To find a new old cookie recipe I turned to a book from Erik’s mom, McCall’s Cookie Collection from 1974.

There are a lot of interesting cookie recipes in here, but I wanted one that was definitely different from the cookies I knew me, Erik, and our moms would be making. I ultimately decided on this one because it was different from the usual Christmas cookies but also still had a bit of a Christmas call-back since it sounded like it could be a bit fruitcake-esque (without being a food no one wants to eat). So I set to work testing this glazed pineapple cookie recipe.

The Recipe:

The Test:

I started by rounding up my ingredients.

That’s where I ran into my first little snag. The recipe calls for an 8 ¾ ounce can of crushed pineapple, but I don’t think they make that size can anymore. The only options I found while staring at the canned fruit wall of my local grocery store were 8 ounces or 20 ounces. Since I didn’t want to have to figure out what to do with 11 ¼ ounces of crushed pineapple I opted for the 8 ounce can. Other than that the rest of the ingredients were easily obtainable/things I already had on hand.

The cookie part of the recipe went together fairly easily. It was pretty much standard cooking making procedure. If you can make our chocolate chip cookies you can make these cookies. Sifting things was kind of annoying and probably unnecessary, but I did it for the sake of accuracy.

Sifting the dry ingredients.

The dough all together.

I just realized now a step that I didn’t follow exactly…I didn’t grease the cookie sheets, I used parchment paper. I really doubt it made that much of a difference though. And I really hate cleaning cookie sheets, so I always go parchment paper.

Ready for baking.

While the cookies baked I made the glaze. The glaze is where I started to have real problems with the recipe. I followed the recipe and added the required amount of pineapple liquid to the sugar. And it was still way too dry. It wasn’t usable at all as a glaze. At this point I recorded the results of following the recipe for posterity and then had to alter it if I wanted a usable glaze.

The glaze after following the recipe.

So I added the rest of the reserved pineapple juice and also pulled the mixer back out. I was able to get it to at least resemble a frosting but it was still very thick. Part of the problem is that the recipe doesn’t even say how loose or thick the glaze should be. Since I didn’t want to mess around with it too much for the initial making I left it at this point.

The final state of my glaze.

However the glaze came back to haunt me when it was time to put it on the cookies because it was so thick it was hard to spread without starting to tear the cookies. But I did the best I could.

Cookies right out of the oven

General Notes:

While the recipe says it will make about 3 ½ dozen cookies, I ended up with only 32 cookies. I’m not sure if this was due to making scoops that were too big, or if it had to do with the missing ¾ ounce of pineapple, or a bit of both. It’s not really a huge deal, it didn’t really matter to me how many cookies I got so much as how they tasted. But that’s something to keep in mind if you do need/want a certain number of cookies.

I used a hand mixer as per the instructions, but I see no reason why you couldn’t just use a stand mixer. It’d probably be a bit easier on the arms. I would also use it the whole time. Stirring the flour into the wet part by hand was a pain in the ass.

If you have a teaspoon sized ice cream scoop you could totally use that to dish out your cookie dough. You’d end up with more even cookies, and maybe even get closer to the estimated amount. But I did not have one, so I had to just use a regular teaspoon (the kind you use to eat with, not the measuring spoon kind).

I found that my cookies took around 9 minutes to bake, right in the middle of the estimated cooking times. But how long they take for you will largely depend on your oven.

The Results:

So how’d the cookies turn out? Not bad. They’re pretty tasty. I found I liked them better when I tried them again later in the night as opposed to when I first tried them. I’m not sure if that means that they’re better cold than warm, or if I was just still annoyed after the glaze debacle the first time and subconsciously determined to find fault.

While they taste good they don’t actually taste all that pineapple-y, unless you bite directly into one of the pineapple chunks. Mostly though it tastes like generic cookie with a slightly pineapple frosting. They’re good cookies, but they could definitely be better. And the glaze portion of the recipe certainly needs a re-do. So keep an eye out for a “We Can Do It Better” version of this recipe to appear in the coming weeks!

**UPDATE** You can now go see our improved Glaze Pineapple Cookie recipe and test that one out yourself as well.  See it here.