Jubilee Jumbles Cookies

Jubilee Jumbles Cookies are a soft cake-like cookie with a nice brown sugar flavor and are topped with a delicious brown butter frosting. These are a fun cookie because you can choose all kinds of different add ins too.

This cookie recipe is from the Betty Crocker’s Cooky Carnival recipe booklet. The recipe I have is dated 1955. Many people grew up with this recipe, and it’s a fun and easy one to make.

The old-fashioned cookies are soft, moist, and cake-y. Not crumbly, dense, or crunchy. And that Browned butter frosting is the bees’ knees! It’s rich and nutty flavor makes these cookies and amazing delicious treat.

Here’s the recipe that I have from the booklet. Isn’t it funny how little detail these old recipes have, but they’re still so good!

We appreciate your support

Please let me know if you have any questions about this recipe. I read all the comments myself and I try to help as soon as I can. I have readers from all levels of comfort and experience in the kitchen on my site, and I’ve tried to answer some of your questions already in the post. But if I’ve missed anything, please feel free to leave a comment and ask.

Sifted flour

Let’s talk a little about flour and sifting flour.

You’ll notice in the recipe it tells you to sift the flour and the powdered sugar.

Nowadays, most flours are already sifted when you purchase them. So, most recipes don’t require you to do this anymore. Sifting the flour helped to make sure all the lumps were out of it. It also helps to incorporate more air into the flour, ensuring less flour in the measuring cup, and a better textured cookie.

I’ve left the sifted part in the recipe card, though in all actuality you don’t need to do this step any longer.

And, for clarification:

4 cups sifted flour means, you sift the flour first, then measure it. I like to sift the flour onto a large sheet of parchment paper or wax paper. Then, lightly scoop the flour into the measuring cup and level it off with the back of a knife. Any unused sifted flour can be returned to the canister.

Alternatively, if a recipe says, “4 cups flour, sifted”, this would mean that you measure the flour first, then sift the total measured amount.

Check out my Baking Tips for more info on baking great cookies!

How to make

The full printable recipe ingredients and instructions are available in the recipe card at the bottom of the post. You can find important tips and tricks in the post.

Ingredients

Let’s take a quick look at some of the ingredients and the questions you may have about them.

Vanilla extract: Be sure to use pure vanilla extract for best results. I’ve been using {affiliate link} vanilla bean paste in many of my baked goods lately. I love the flavor and the pretty specks of vanilla.

Evaporated milk: Be sure to use evaporated milk rather than sweetened condensed milk in these cookies.

Brown sugar: Should I use dark or light brown sugar in these cookies?

In all actuality, either will work. I find that dark brown sugar has a richer flavor, so that’s what I always try to grab. But if you find yourself with only light brown sugar, or if you want a lighter flavor in your cookies, grab the light brown sugar.

What does brown sugar do to cookies?

Brown sugar is nice and dense and compacts easily. It creates fewer air pockets during creaming and mixing. That means there’s less air in the cookies which makes them rise less and spread more. Brown sugar also creates cookies that are moist and chewy.

Shortening: Room temperature fats will cream better with the sugars, resulting in fluffier and lighter texture cookies.

Can I use butter instead of shortening?

Yes, you can use butter in place of shortening, but with some notes. Vegetable shortening contains 100% fat which means it creates baked goods that are more tender than those made with butter. So, your cookies baked with butter will not be as soft as those made with shortening.

Vegetable shortening has a melting point of around 118° F (whereas butter melts at 90-95° F). Due to this, baked goods made with shortening tend to not spread as much. So be sure to leave more room for your cookies to spread if you use butter. And, you may want to chill the dough for a bit longer so that the cookies keep their shape better.

Continue mixing & making cookies

In a stand mixer or using a hand mixer or a sturdy fork, mix the shortening, brown sugar, and white sugar together until nice and fluffy. Add eggs and mix well, scraping sides of bowl as needed.

Stir in evaporated milk and vanilla to the mixture and blend well.

In a separate bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, and salt. Add flour mixture to butter sugar mixture. Mix in add ins (nuts, coconut, etc…).

Pro tip: Don’t over mix. Overmixing the dough can result in tough cookies, so be sure to mix the wet and dry ingredients together just until they’re combined.

Chill the dough in the fridge for about 30 minutes, or overnight if you prefer.

Bake the cookies

Preheat oven to 375° F.

Using a tablespoon sized cookie scoop, drop rounded tablespoon sized scoops about 2 inches apart onto a parchment paper or silicone baking mat lined baking sheet. The cookies will spread a bit, but not a lot, as they bake.

Using a cookie scoop means that all the cookies are the same size, which means they’ll bake evenly.

Use parchment paper or silicone baking mats on your baking sheets for easy clean up as well as cookies that release perfectly from the pan.

Bake in a preheated oven for 9-10 minutes until lightly browned, or, when touched lightly with finger, almost no imprint remains. Be careful not to over bake.

Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before transferring to racks to cool completely. I like to pull the silpat or parchment paper off of the cookie sheet with the cookies still on top and let the cookies cool completely on the rack on the paper.

Frost the cookies

Once all cookies are baked, make the brown butter frosting.

The frosting is a nice amount – not too much and not too little. Just right for a smear over each cookie. If you like a lot of frosting, you may want to double the frosting recipe.

In a small saucepan heat 2 tablespoons butter. Cook butter over medium heat until butter is a golden brown and fragrant. Do not walk away from butter as it heats because it can change quickly and burn.

Pour browned butter into a bowl with 2 cups powdered sugar and vanilla bean paste. Mix well.

Add evaporated milk 1 tablespoon at a time, mixing well after each addition until the frosting is a thick but spreadable consistency.

Be sure the cookies have completely cooled before frosting them so the frosting doesn’t melt.

Frost each cookie and allow the frosting to harden at room temperature.

Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

How to Store

Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.

The cookies will get softer as they sit.

When storing, use parchment paper or wax paper between each layer to prevent cookies from sticking to each other.

Can I freeze these cookies?

Yes, these can be frozen. 

Once the cookies have cooled completely, place them in an airtight container or freezer bag for up to 3 months in the freezer.

Thaw the cookies at room temperature before serving.

If you’re in the Southern California area, I’ll be donating my cookies to the SBACC. They have bake sales to help support the animals, so stop by and get some tasty baked goods. You can keep an eye on their events page, or contact them for info on the next bake sale.

Changes to the recipe

The 1955 recipe itself offers several mix-in ideas – change up the nuts from pecans, walnuts, almonds, or hazelnuts.

Use fruit like coconut, dates, or raisins. Make them more of a fruit and spice cake by adding 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg to the dry ingredients.

Double chocolate cookies: stir 2 ounces melted unsweetened chocolate into the shortening mixture, and follow the rest of the recipe. Add in 6 ounces of chocolate chips as well.

Can I use yogurt in place of sour cream in this recipe? Yes. This recipe works well with Greek yogurt or sour cream. Each of these changes will change the flavor profile of the cookie as well.

Citrus jumbles: Add in 1 tablespoon lemon zest or orange zest and use lemon juice or orange juice instead of the vanilla extract. Also, make a citrus swap in the icing using juice instead of the evaporated milk in the icing.

You can also tint the frosting with food coloring for Christmas cookies. Top with Christmas sprinkles as well.

The cookies are also delicious fairly plain – no mix ins or frosting needed.

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