I’ve come across hundreds of outstanding cookie recipes over the years, but some of the old standbys are still my favorites. When I was growing up, there were only a few kinds of cookies we made for Christmas – the “oldies” like oatmeal, peanut butter, sugar, gingersnaps and molasses cookies. My mom also made a variety of “ice box” cookies, using the same basic dough but adding different kinds of nuts or coconut.
Every autumn we picked up all the hickory nuts or walnuts we could find, trying to get them before the squirrels did, and then we cracked open the nuts, picked them and put the nutmeats in jars that Mom put in the freezer and saved for our Christmas cookies. When the holidays approached, Mom mixed the ice box cookie dough, added the nuts (walnuts in some and hickory nuts in others), made them into rolls, wrapped them in wax paper and put them in the freezer. If she wanted to make some cookies right away, she put some of the rolls of dough in the refrigerator, or if it was really cold outside, she put some on the porch, especially if she was out of room in the fridge.
I remember one Christmas season helping Mom bake batch after batch of cookies, and when she went to the porch to get the last roll of dough, she couldn’t believe her eyes! Birds had eaten almost all of the dough. Only some tiny crumbs were left behind, and the birds were busy devouring those, too. Even worse, the wax paper that was shredded into a million pieces!
I always loved my mom’s black walnut ice box cookies, and if you’re like me, once you try out this recipe, you’ll understand why even the birds ate every last crumb!
BLACK WALNUT REFRIGERATOR COOKIES
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup chopped black walnuts
In a large mixer bowl, combine all the ingredients except the walnuts. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl often, until well mixed, about 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in walnuts. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a 12-by-12-inch roll. Wrap each roll in waxed paper, refrigerate until firm (2 hours or overnight). Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut rolls into 1/4-inch slices; place 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 9 to 12 minutes or until lightly browned. Makes 8 dozen.
Note: You can also use English walnuts, but black walnuts give the cookies a very distinctive flavor.
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