Jewish Cookies / Chewy Bars
One of my favorite childhood cookies were these chewy bars entitled Jewish Cookies. As a little girl, I never questioned the name, nor where my Methodist-turned-Baptist mom got the recipe. We didn’t know any Jews, and I’m fairly certain there weren’t any in our small Nebraska town, so even if I wanted to find out how authentic the name was, I couldn’t.
Until now.
The last couple months I’ve been baking childhood favorites, and though I hadn’t made these cookies in decades, I managed to find the recipe. At least, our version of it. I remember Mom had altered it to comply with Dad’s low-cholesterol diet, and her heart-healthy version wasn’t nearly as good as the original.
Here’s the recipe card I found, and it tells the tale of the conflict she and I had regarding those alterations:
This is my (teenage) handwriting. One summer I’d embarked on the lofty goal of copying all our recipes onto uniform cards so they’d fit into one box. I was also in a phase of handprinting with experimental fonts. 😄
Anyway, I’d copied Mom’s low-cholesterol version, but off to the side added “or 4 eggs, no margarine” so—ahem—I’d know how to make the original version. Because when I baked the cookies, I wanted them to taste good, especially when I took the entire pan to my bedroom and ate them all myself. Oops…did I just confess that? 🤣
I see now that at some point Mom had scribbled out my addendum, and also changed the name “Cookies” to “Bars.” I agree the latter is a more accurate description, though she left “Jewish”, which—having had over three decades to build my skepticism—I was fairly certain wasn’t accurate at all. 😂
And I was right. After searching for “Jewish cookies” and not seeing any pictures remotely like these bars, I ran across a baking blog that had the same question I did: Why Are These Called Jewish Cookies?
The blogger had bought a binder of old recipes and was intrigued by this particular one. Her friend suggested the recipe came from someone who happened to be Jewish, and thus the name was born. However, a commenter proposed what I think is the truth:
“The reason they are called “Jewish Cookies” is the absence of leavening (e.g. no baking soda, baking power or yeast) in keeping with the tradition of unleavened bread and baked goods during Passover.”
There you have it. This recipe most likely was dubbed “Jewish” for that reason alone.
I think this recipe actually originated in the South—perhaps Texas—sometime in the 1960s or ’70s, since several commentators from Texas were familiar with the recipe. I found another version called Grandma’s Chew Bread, which the author calls a “southern style bar cookie loaded with brown sugar and pecans” which lends credence to that theory.
But what do I know? After all, I found yet another version of these unleavened bars called Chinese Chews… 🤣🤣🤣
Chewy Bars (Jewish Cookies)
Ingredients
- 4 large eggs
- 2¼ cups packed light brown sugar
- 1½ cups flour
- ¼ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1½ cups walnuts or pecans or 1 cup coconut or chopped dates
- 1 tsp cinnamon optional
- powdered sugar optional
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/177°C. Grease the bottom of an 11×15 pan. (If using a 9×13 pan, note longer baking time, below.)
- Beat eggs on high about 3 minutes. Add brown sugar and beat on high another 3 minutes.
- Add flour, salt, and vanilla (and cinnamon, if using.) Beat on low until thoroughly mixed.
- Add walnuts (or pecans/coconut/dates) and mix just long enough to combine.
- Pour batter into pan and bake in 350°F/177°C oven for 30 minutes. (40 minutes if using 9×13 pan. The top will bake sooner than the interior, so check the center with diligence!)
- Remove from oven, cut into bars, and dust with powdered sugar before letting them cool. Makes about 18 bars.
Notes
