Cookie Cutters Are A Popular Tradition With Lots of History
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Posted On :
Mar-05-2010
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Article Word Count :
613
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Cookie cutters have been around for hundreds of years, and today they’re seeing a renewed popularity as more and more cooks are turning to traditional cookie recipes.
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Cookie cutters have been around for hundreds of years, and today they’re seeing a renewed popularity as more and more cooks are turning to traditional cookie recipes. Although baking fans have always relied on cookie cutters to create interesting and attractive sugar cookies, gingerbread men and other tasty treats, cookie cutters haven’t always been as popular as they are now.
The earliest cookie cutters were actually wooden molds made in Europe with some even dating back to the Middle Ages. These early molds were brought to the United States by German settlers in the 1600’s and 1700’s and quickly became popular with colonial homemakers.
Tinsmiths probably made the first true cookie cutters in the late 1700’s. Tinsmiths would keep the scraps of leftover tin from larger projects and craft them into pretty shapes for cookie cutters. Simple hearts, crosses and stars were popular gifts that tinsmiths would give to their customers. Eventually they became so popular that tinsmiths began making sets and selling them to new cooks and housewives across the frontier.
Tin remained the most popular metal for cookie cutters throughout the 1800’s largely because it was easy to work with and inexpensive. You could create a wide variety of shapes and hold them together with a bit of solder, making them inexpensive to make. In the 1920’s, however, tin gave way to aluminum. These new cookie cutters kept their shiny good looks better than tin and were lighter weight.
After World War II, plastic took over as the favored material for cookie cutters. Increasingly complex and detailed cookie cutters could be created using machines, and the plastic was easy to mold into any shape imaginable. Unfortunately some bakers discovered that the plastic cookie cutters just didn’t do the job well because the dough tended to stick more to plastic and sometimes the plastic was flimsy and would break during use.
Today’s cookie cutters may be made from aluminum, tin, copper or plastic. Which kind you prefer is largely a matter of what works best for you. Since most cookie cutters are now factory made, you can get just as much detail with a tin or aluminum cookie cutter as you can with plastic. Try a few different sizes, styles and materials of cookie cutter to see which type you like for your own cookie making.
Cookie cutters are so popular today that there are cookie cutter collectors clubs across the country. Collectors are always on the look out for rare and vintage cookie cutters. If you want to start looking for vintage cutters, keep a few things in mind. If a cookie cutter has a solid back, rather than being an outline that’s hollow, it is probably from before World War II. This makes it more valuable to collectors. Other prized vintage finds are cookie cutters that were made to commemorate special events, promotional “gifts with purchase,” and limited edition holiday cookie cutters such as the Peanuts line by Hallmark from the 1970’s.
In fact, today’s cookie cutter collectors have formed a national Cookie Cutter Collectors Club that has a newsletter dubbed “Cookie Crumbs” and sponsors annual conventions that are attended by hundreds of avid collectors to compare their collections, share stories of great finds and swap or buy new cookie cutters for their collections.
It’s obvious that cookie cutters aren’t just for making cookies anymore. If you’ve always enjoyed the many fun and interesting shapes you can find in cookie cutters then perhaps it’s time to start your own collection today.
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Article Source :
http://www.articleseen.com/Article_Cookie Cutters Are A Popular Tradition With Lots of History_12574.aspx
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Author Resource :
Wow your party guests with adorable cookies made from cookie cutters or dog cookie cutters from cheapcookiecutters.com.
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Keywords :
cookie cutters, dog cookie cutters, cookie cutter sets, cookie cutter, cookie cutter set,
Category :
Business
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Marketing
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