Here is a very pretty cookie for Christmas when it is dressed up with red and green sprinkles. But it is also a delicious cookie for every day indulging. This makes a crisp cookie with a wonderful texture and delicious flavor.

This is a cookie that my mom used to bake for us on Sunday and then my sister and I had them for our lunches and for our “treat” in the evening before bedtime. I remember dunking them in milk but they would also be good with tea or coffee.

I will have to ask my mom, but I think this was one her grandma used to make for her. My great-grandma (my mom’s mom’s mom) had a farm in Iowa and she worked before daylight until well past nighttime. 

Here is the everyday recipe and then I will tell you a variant I invented this Christmas to make the cookies more seasonal. 

By the way, it is an easy cookie to make and does not require refrigeration before baking. This recipe makes about 50 cookies and really only requires about an hour’s worth of time.

Ingredients (and preheat oven to 350 degrees)
1 1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup Crisco 
Cream these three ingredients until light and fluffy. It is important to have half butter and half Crisco to get the crisp crunch of this cookie. When we were growing up, we could not afford butter and so my mom made these with 100% Crisco and this was in the days when Crisco contained tranfats. 

Then add 2 egg yolks and beat again.

Add 1 teas baking soda and beat.

Add to this mixture:
1 teas cream of tatar
1/2 teas salt
1 teas vanilla and beat. I usually add an extra teaspoon of vanilla.

Now add 2 cups of flour and beat. The dough will get heavy but trust this.

Now add 1/2 cups of chopped nuts and beat. I prefer pecans and usually add 3/4 cup. 

Drop cookies onto a cookie sheet. Nowadays, I always bake with parchment paper because it makes clean up so much easier.

My mom’s recipe called for rolling the dough into balls by hand and this was probably one of the reasons I did not make these cookies since I hate rolling cookies. I hate how sticky and greasy my hands get, and I hate the time involved. So boring. Instead, I use a smallish cookie scoop — it is probably a 1 teaspoon size. 

Make sure you leave space between the cookies. I usually have 16 cookies on each sheet.

Bake them for 12-15 minutes. Take the pan out of the oven just as the cookies barely get brown at the edges and let them cool on the pan for at least 5-10 minutes. Otherwise if you try to take them off when they are hot, they will crumble apart. These are delicate cookies.

Let them cool completely before you pack them away. I suggest waxed paper between layers but my mom never did that!

If you want to make them more Christmasy, when you pop the cookie out of the scoop, catch it in your fingers. Roll the round end in red or green sugar crystals. Set each cookie on the cookie sheet covered with parchment paper. Bake as directed above.