We have been making this cookie for years during the holidays. It is a recipe that my mom passed down to me. Now I have passed it down to my son, Michael.
Holiday Drops
by Iris Raie
Ingredients
1 cup shortening
2 cups light brown sugar (packed)
2 eggs
½ cup buttermilk
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups pecans (chopped)
1 cup green candied cherries (halved)
1 cup red candied cherries (halved)
2 cups dates (cut up)
additional red and green cherries for top of cookie (halved)
Directions
Mix shortening, sugar, and eggs well. Stir in buttermilk. Sift flour into mixture. Blend dry ingredients and stir into mixture. Add pecans, cherries, and dates, and stir until well blended. Chill at least one hour. Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Drop rounded teaspoonfuls of dough about 2 inches apart on lightly greased cookie sheet. Place a red or green cherry on each cookie. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until golden brown.
Iris Raie and her son Michael are the authors of a tasty new southern cookbook “No Place Like Home: Southern Cooking With a Latin Flair!” It is a fantastic cookbook! They have been featured on three previous T.V. cooking segments, which include Fox 13 Charleys World, Studio 10 and Daytime with Cindy and Dave. They were also at this years Epcot Food & Wine festival in Walt Disney World recently doing book lectures and book signings. They taught a southern style cooking class in October of this year at the Rolling Pin in Brandon,FL. Plus they also have done a couple of radio interviews about our book on the Magic 94.9 FM and The Dove 105.5 FM. Visit http://noplacelikehome.tatepublishing.net/
