Recipe

Aunt Liz's Fruit Cookies

Ingredients

1 1/2 Cups sugar
1 Cup butter
3 Eggs, well beaten
1/2 Cup molasses
1 Teaspoon baking soda dissolved in a little warm water
1 Cup raisins, chopped
1/2 Cup dates, chopped (currants may be substituted)
1/2 Cup nuts, chopped (walnuts, pecans, etc.)
1 Teaspoon each of cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice
4 to 4 1/2 Cups flour

Frosting (See below for suggested recipe.)

Directions

Mix together. Drop by spoonful onto cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 400 degrees. Let cool and frost with frosting of your choice. (See below for a frosting recipe that compliments these cookies perfectly!)

Golden Butter Frosting

Melt 1/2 cup of butter or margarine and heat over a low heat until golden brown. Watch to prevent scorching. Beat melted butter into 4 cups (or a little less) of powdered sugar. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla. Add milk or cream until frosting reaches spreading consistency. Spread generously on cooled cookies.


Molasses and I go way back to younger comfort food days! So, when I tasted these cookies, I had to have the recipe. Turns out Aunt Liz (Flora Rotermund), 87, stopped raising beef cattle four years ago, but she continued baking and sent these cookies to her nephew, where I discovered them. She says they're from a cookbook that was already well worn with yellowed pages when she was a child. It's a safe guess this recipe is from late 1800's to turn of the 20th century. In addition to raising cattle and caring for her parents, an aunt, and an uncle, she was a full time employee of the Missouri Soil Conservation Service. She is still an active member of her congregation, Zion Lutheran, in Lincoln, Missouri, which supports the "Woman to Woman" show! Thanks, Aunt Liz.

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