Christmas cookie recipe

I am transcribing this recipe from a handwritten note from my (now) 95 year old grandmother.

She no longer lives in her own home and she no longer cooks.  But I will always remember my grandmother for her cookies.  Even when I was grown, I felt like “Little Red Riding Hood” when I left her home and headed to the airport with a “basket” full of cookies.

Mamaw always made me dozens of cookies to take home when I stopped by during a business trip.  The “basket” was always a plastic gallon container with a handle that had once held “generic” cherry vanilla ice cream!  She would hand it over to me full of layers and layers of cookies separated by wax paper.  My kids would always expect this package of heaven when they knew I had stopped by Mamaw and Papaw’s on my way back from a trip.

I am transcribing this directly as she wrote it on her note to me.  Even though she is still alive, her handwriting makes me cry.  She has good health but she has dementia.  I don’t know if she would remember making these cookies for her family.  But we do.

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound dates
  • ½ pound candied cherries
  • 4 slices red & green candied pineapple
  • 1 quart pecans
  • ¾ cup flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • Pinch salt
  • 3 egg whites
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon good vanilla

Mixing bowl, cut up dates, cherries, pineapple and pecans.

Add the flour, baking powder and salt.

Stir until fruit and pineapple andn pecans are wsell coated with the flour.

In another bowl, beat egg whites until stiff.  Add sugar a little at a time. Beat until holds peaks.

Add vanilla.  Mix this with the fruit mixture.

Shape into balls and bake on greased cookie pan for about 10 minutes in a 350° oven.

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