Collectible Cookie Stamps

Collectible Cookie Stamps

Molded cookies have had a place in European and Asian homes for centuries. The tradition was later brought to the United States and has had a lasting impact; you know the names Lorna Doone and Oreo. These cookie stamps are used to imprint various themed motifs as well as patterns on baked cookies.

Stamps have been used to make treats imprinted with a variety of designs for centuries worldwide. Collectible cookie stamps can be used as baking tools in the kitchen, or they can be collected merely as showpieces and decor. Some common examples are carved wood, ceramic, terra-cotta, and cast aluminum. They may also have elaborately carved and sculpted handles made of wood and ceramic.

To maintain the imprinted image, you can use drier unleavened doughs like shortbread. A common recipe for Springerle, a centuries-old egg-sugar-flour stamped cookie from Germany, requires the stamped dough to be left out to dry for 12 hours before baking.

Unique styles include those that are part of a series that is no longer in production and also those that have somewhat more elaborately carved designs. There are cookie stamps and molds that are hand-carved from hardwood and could be more than a century in age. Stamps come in a wide variety of designs, and they can be found with holiday themes, flowers, and animals as well as different geometric patterns. Many models are inspired by well-known characters and scenes from fairy tales and children's literature.

Cookie stamps, or molds as they are sometimes called, have been around for centuries. Therefore, not all of them will be associated with a brand name, but there are many that will be, including:

• Rycraft - since 1968, in Corvallis, Oregon
• Brown Bag - since 1982, in Boston, Massachusetts
• Nordic Ware - since 1946, in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
• JBK Pottery - since 1979, in Calgary, Alberta
• Wilton - since 1929, in Naperville, Illinois

While both are collectibles, each has a different use, end product, origin, and history. Cookie cutters are used to cut different shapes out of a rolled-out dough while cookie stamps are most commonly used to imprint a design into a ball of dough.