A Cookie’s Journey: From Texas to New Hampshire to North Carolina
One vintage cookbook. Forty-four years. Three states. And two women connected by a cookie.
Some of the best culinary discoveries begin with a recipe. This one began in a used bookstore in New Hampshire.
I have a weakness for old cookbooks. Give me shelves filled with forgotten recipes, yellowing pages, and handwritten kitchen notes, and I can happily lose an afternoon.
During a recent trip to New Hampshire, I found a spiral-bound cookbook titled Desserts: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, published in 1982 by Favorite Recipes Press of Nashville, Tennessee.
It wasn’t particularly glamorous. Its pages were filled with practical recipes for cakes, cookies, pies, and other familiar American desserts.
But what caught my attention was something far more interesting than the desserts.
The recipes had names attached to them.
These weren’t simply anonymous instructions. They were contributions from home economics teachers across the country, women and men who spent their working lives teaching others how to cook, measure, plan, and nourish their families.
I brought the cookbook home to North Carolina.
And then I made cookies.
But these weren’t just any cookies. They had begun their journey decades earlier in a Texas kitchen.
Meet Carolyn Grams of Hooks, Texas
Tucked among the recipes was one simply titled Oatmeal Crisps.
Beneath the recipe appeared a name:
Carolyn Grams, Hooks High School, Hooks, Texas.
The ingredients were straightforward: shortening, brown sugar, granulated sugar, an egg, vanilla, flour, salt, baking soda, and oats.
No elaborate equipment. No unusual ingredients. Just a practical oatmeal cookie recipe, designed to produce four dozen cookies.
It was exactly the sort of recipe I wanted to try.
But before I tell you what happened in my kitchen, let me tell you about Carolyn.
Once I began researching her name, I discovered a remarkable connection.
An obituary published in 2023 for Carolyn McMichael Biddy of Hooks, Texas, describes a woman whose life fits the details of our cookbook contributor remarkably well.
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1947, Carolyn graduated from Hooks High School in 1965. She continued her education at East Texas State University, earning a bachelor’s degree in home economics and eventually two master’s degrees in education.
She returned to Hooks High School, where she taught for more than thirty years before retiring in 2008.
Her obituary also mentions daughters with the surname Grams, providing another connection to the name printed beneath the recipe.
Although I have not independently confirmed that Carolyn Grams and Carolyn McMichael Biddy were the same person, the matching school, field of study, teaching career, and family name make the identification compelling.
Carolyn passed away in July 2023 at the age of 75.
I found myself thinking about how many students she must have taught over those decades. How many young people learned to measure flour, read a recipe, or understand the importance of good kitchen practices because of her?
And here I was, more than forty years after her recipe appeared in print, preparing to follow her instructions in my own kitchen.
A Little Something from the Spicekeeper
Now, I have a confession.
I rarely leave a recipe entirely alone.
Not because I believe it needs fixing, but because cooking invites curiosity.
Carolyn’s Oatmeal Crisps sounded wonderful as written, but I wanted a little more texture and another dimension of flavor.
First, I added a cup of raisins.
Rather than stirring them into the dough straight from the package, I soaked them in warm water until they were plump, then drained them thoroughly.
This simple step helps soften the raisins so they provide little pockets of tender sweetness against the cookie’s crisp texture.
Next came a teaspoon of Oak City Spice Blends Chia Pie Wallah.
I wasn’t looking to turn an oatmeal cookie into something unrecognizable. I wanted the seasoning to complement the oats, brown sugar, and raisins, adding warmth and aromatic complexity without overwhelming the familiar flavor.
I also used kosher salt, a small detail that proved surprisingly important.
The finished cookies had just the faintest suggestion of salt. Not enough to make them taste salty, but enough to balance the sweetness and make the other flavors seem more complete.
I lined my baking sheets with parchment paper rather than greasing them, rotated the sheets halfway through baking to encourage even browning, and transferred the cookies directly to wire racks the moment they came out of the oven.
The result?
Amazing.
Golden, wonderfully flavorful oatmeal cookies, with plump raisins and just enough spice to make each bite interesting.
And the best part?
The recipe still felt like Carolyn’s.
I’d simply added another chapter to its story.
Oatmeal Raisin Crisps with Chia Pie Wallah
Adapted from Carolyn Grams’s “Oatmeal Crisps,” published in 1982.
Yield: Approximately 4 dozen cookiesOven temperature: 350°F (175°C)Bake time: 12–15 minutes per batchPrep time: Approximately 20 minutes, including raisin soaking
Bloom Classification
Intensity: Gentle, aromatic
Medium: Dry incorporation with oven-activated fat bloom
Why the Bloom Works
Not every spice needs to meet a hot skillet to release its flavor.
In this recipe, the Chia Pie Wallah is dispersed throughout the dry ingredients before joining a fat-rich cookie dough
As the cookies bake, the shortening melts and the dough warms, allowing some of the seasoning’s fat-soluble aromatic compounds to develop and spread through the cookies
Meanwhile, the sugars contribute caramel notes, the oats begin to toast, and the raisins provide bursts of fruity sweetness
This is a gentle expression of the seasoning, designed to complement the cookie rather than dominate it.
Ingredients
¾ cup shortening (145 g)
¾ cup packed brown sugar (160 g)
¾ cup granulated sugar (150 g)
1 large egg (50 g )
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml)
¼ cup water (60 ml)
1¼ cups sifted all-purpose flour (150 g)
1 teaspoon kosher salt (approximately 3–5 g, depending on brand)
½ teaspoon baking soda (2.5 g)
2½ cups oats (approximately 200–225 g, depending on type)
1 cup raisins (150 g), soaked in warm water and thoroughly drained
1 teaspoon Oak City Spice Blends Chia Pie Wallah
Method
Prepare the raisins. Place the raisins in a small bowl and cover with warm water. Allow to soak until plump, approximately 10–15 minutes. Drain thoroughly.
Preheat the oven. Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Combine the first ingredients. In a mixing bowl, combine the shortening, brown sugar, granulated sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and ¼ cup water. Mix until thoroughly incorporated.
Prepare the dry ingredients. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, kosher salt, baking soda, and Chia Pie Wallah.
Combine the mixtures. Add the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture and mix until incorporated.
Add the oats. Stir in the oats until evenly distributed.
Fold in the raisins. Gently incorporate the drained raisins throughout the dough.
Portion the cookies. Drop the dough by teaspoonfuls onto the parchment-lined baking sheets, leaving space between each cookie.
Bake. Place in the preheated oven and bake for 12–15 minutes, rotating the baking sheet 180 degrees halfway through to encourage even browning.
Cool immediately. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, carefully transfer them to a wire cooling rack. Allow to cool completely.
Best With
A strong cup of English breakfast tea with a splash of milk
Freshly brewed coffee
A cold glass of milk
Vanilla ice cream
An afternoon spent reading an old cookbook
Blooming Notes & The Spicekeeper’s Tips
Plump those raisins. Soaking the raisins in warm water before baking softens them and provides a lovely contrast to the oatmeal cookie’s crisp texture. Be sure to drain them thoroughly so extra water doesn’t alter the dough.
Parchment paper is your friend. There’s no need to grease the baking sheets. Parchment paper helps prevent sticking, makes cleanup easier, and avoids introducing extra grease beneath the cookies.
Don’t forget the kosher salt. There is a wonderful balance between sweet and savory in these cookies. I could just barely taste the salt, and that subtle presence made the cookies even better. Different brands of kosher salt have different crystal sizes, so weigh the salt if you want to reproduce a particular result.
Give the baking sheet a turn. Rotating it halfway through baking helps compensate for uneven oven heat, producing more consistent browning.
Move those cookies. I transferred mine directly to a wire cooling rack the moment they came out of the oven. This stops the hot baking sheet from continuing to cook their bottoms and allows steam to escape as they cool.
Let the seasoning complement the oats. One teaspoon of Chia Pie Wallah provided the flavor I wanted. The goal is balance, not overwhelming the original cookie.
Through the Kitchen Window: The Journey Continues
I keep returning to the unlikely journey of this recipe.
In 1982, a home economics teacher in Hooks, Texas, shared her Oatmeal Crisps with a cookbook publisher.
Somewhere along the way, a copy of that cookbook traveled to New Hampshire.
Who owned it before me? Was it a wedding gift? Did someone keep it on a kitchen shelf for decades? Were there family gatherings where its recipes made regular appearances?
I don’t know.
That’s part of the mystery of secondhand cookbooks.
We inherit the books, but rarely their complete stories.
What I do know is that in October 2026, I carried that cookbook from New Hampshire back to North Carolina.
I opened it in my kitchen, measured the ingredients, plumped the raisins, added a teaspoon of my own seasoning, and baked a batch of cookies based on a recipe from a woman I had never met.
Only afterward did I begin researching Carolyn’s life.
Learning about her long teaching career made the experience even more meaningful. If this is indeed the same Carolyn, she spent decades sharing knowledge with students, and a small piece of that knowledge had found its way into my kitchen.
One recipe. Three states. Forty-four years. Two women connected by a cookie.
People sometimes ask me why I spend so much time researching old recipes.
This is why.
Because food history isn’t simply about ingredients, cooking temperatures, or measurements.
It’s about people.
It’s about the things we teach, the recipes we share, and the small pieces of ourselves that continue traveling long after we’ve left the kitchen.
I never had the opportunity to meet Carolyn.
But I got to make her cookies.
And now, perhaps, you will too.
Taste is how memory travels.
The SpicekeeperOak City Spice Blends
Sources & Historical Notes
Original recipe: Carolyn Grams, “Oatmeal Crisps,” in Desserts: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers. Nashville: Favorite Recipes Press, 1982. ISBN 0-87197-141-0. From the author’s personal cookbook collection.
Biographical research: “Carolyn McMichael Biddy Obituary,” Hanner Funeral Service, published July 10, 2023. Read the obituary.
Publication details: Desserts: Favorite Recipes of Home Economics Teachers, Favorite Recipes Press, 1982.
Kitchen testing: Oak City Spice Blends, Clayton, North Carolina, October 2026.
Historical note: The identification of Carolyn Grams as Carolyn McMichael Biddy is supported by multiple matching biographical details but has not yet been independently confirmed through school or family records.
Recipe note: This version includes the Spicekeeper’s tested additions of raisins, Chia Pie Wallah, kosher salt, and updated baking techniques.
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