Common Jumbles

So I had my first recipe request, and it came from none other than my DH. He requested I make Jumbles. Jumbles are cookies, seemed pretty basic.
The recipe I chose for this cookies comes from Domestic Cookery and Useful Hints to Young Housekeepers, 1859.

Small hands helping Aunt Amanda

Using modern conversions  the recipe calls for 4 cups of flour, 2 sticks of butter, and 3 cups of sugar with 3 eggs. So following the recipe mix the butter and sugar together. Then add the flour & eggs. It does not instruct you on when to add the flavorings or how much to add.  Well, I didn't have any Rose Brandy, so I opted for a little regular Brandy! I added about a teaspoon or so of nutmeg, and about 2 tablespoons of Brandy. The added liquid helped to soften the dough. Then you "mould them in rings." This means that they are going to look similar to doughnuts. For this I rolled them into a ball then gently worked a hole in the center rolling as I went. They looked pretty good, very much like doughnuts ( I did not get a picture of these). Then, into a slow oven of 300 for about 15 minutes.  Well, that was easy! Right? No, no it wasn't. The cookies turned into a sheet of cookie, they didn't stay together at all, just ran all over the pan. I really have no idea what caused this. The mess still tasted good. Luckily, I did have dough left. This time I just rolled the dough into 1" balls, like you would most standard cookies, and baked them at 300 for about 20 minutes. The results were much better! The taste was about the same. Very sweet. They could have baked for 15 minutes, that probably would have eliminated the brown edges. But, other than the runny dough mess from the first batch, the cookies were pretty good! 

Jumbles on the pan.