There’s nothing quite like a cookie to get us in the holiday spirit, so we’re celebrating by highlighting the sweet treats from the Spanish Bakery. Located behind Salcedo House, this bakery once offered tourists “Spanish bread and cookies in the old-fashioned way” as part of the living history museum San Agustin Antiguo.
The structure housing the Spanish Bakery – also known as Salcedo Kitchen – represented a Second Spanish Period (1784-1821) kitchen. The white-stuccoed shingle-roofed kitchen with its large chimney – separate from the main house – blended architectural features of Spanish and British cultures (common for that time). In 1965, The Historic St. Augustine Preservation Board reconstructed this building based on a 1788 map. While excavating the site beforehand, archaeologists uncovered wall-footings and a coquina hearth. The Board incorporated these historic finds into the construction of their “new” kitchen.
Bessie Bargmon and Lizzie Murray created delicious Spanish inspired cookies for St. Augustine at the bakery for many years. As stated in a 1968 St. Augustine Record article, the bakery could turn out 280 cookies at a time! These cookies came in a variety of flavors ranging from rum to cinnamon.
Want to try your hand at some Spanish cookies? Join us and the St. Augustine Historical Society in the video bellow as we try our hand at one of Bargmon and Murray’s delicious recipes found in our archives:
Governor's House Library 