all in the family……

I have very fond memories of a cookie that my mom & grandmother would bake when I was a child. They seemed labor-intensive to me way back when..

my meme…..wasn’t she beautiful?

They only made them around Christmas time & it seemed to me like they took  forever ….

I have never made them or even asked for the recipe.. until last week. I called my mom & asked her if she would like to come to my house & teach me to make these special cookies 🙂

She & my stepdad came down for the day & my mom & I made

date-nut filled cookies…

she brought an old photo copy of my grandmother’s copy..

you will need

1/2 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

date filling :

2 cup finely chopped pitted dates

3/4 cup sugar

3/4 cup water

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Start by mixing shortening, ( yes, I actually bought it!) sugar, eggs and vanilla together in a large mixing bowl. Slowly blend in flour, salt & baking soda.; wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour

(perhaps this long hour of waiting in my childs’ mind was all day to me?… remember as a kid just how loooooonnnnnggg December seemed?)

while the dough is chilling you can either jump in the car, get coffee & drive to pick up your children/ grandchildren from their perspective schools… (which we did ) 😉

OR

you can make the filling ( which I had prepped while mom made the dough….)

Add dates, nuts, sugar & water to a saucepan & cook over medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens. ( if you want it even smoother, once it is thick you can use an immersion blender to make it smoother, just don’t completely puree it, you will want some texture to the filling)

When said kids are home & have had a snack, preheat oven to 400 degrees and begin to roll dough out on lightly floured board.  Roll dough to 1 /16 inch ( thin)

Using the bottom of a glass ( that’s the way my meme did it…. no fancy cookie cutters back then) cut 3 inch-ish circles from the dough.

Spoon 1 teaspoon of filling on 1/2 of the circle

fold edges over & press edges together.

Place 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet ( we used parchment paper… hey, I finally bought it!!

Brush the tops of the cookies with a bit of milk & sprinkle with sugar

we were so excited, we completely forgot this step… oops!

Bake 8-10 minutes or until very light brown. Remove from baking sheet & let cool ( filling will be really hot!)

One bite of these cookies & I was 7 years old again…

who am I kidding,  I’ve always been 7!!!

oxoxo enjoy!