Susan’s Cookies

Susan’s Cookies are a yummy butter and nut cookie topped with a piece of jelly candy or colored cherry. The nuts in Susan’s Cookies are chopped and mixed into the cookie dough. I just love cookie recipes that call for chopped nuts mixed into the cookie dough like this. To me, this adds a different level of nutty flavors to the cookie end result cookie. Add a gum drop on top and I think you have a perfect cookie!

I have to think that Susan’s Cookies are named after my Aunt Suzie. Aunt Suzie is the #4 child in the Bess and Abe Hoffman family. Older sister June and twin brothers Rich and Ron were pretty much grown and out of the house as Aunt Susie was growing up and Grandma Bess was working on writing and publishing Cookies by Bess.  So, I’m sure Aunt Suzie has lots of fun helping Grandma bake all the cookies and write the cookie book!

There is one other cookie recipe named for Aunt Susie in Cookies by Bess (Susan’s Favorite Christmas Cookies) and a cookie recipe for Aunt June (June’s Cream Cheese Jam Pockets), all the granddaughters at the time (Cathy’s Ginger Creams, Janet’s Brown Sugar Drops, Paula’s Spicy Apple Bars), daughters-in-law (Joanne’s Tasty Pineapple Bars, Toby’s Lemon Bars), and other family members (Maude’s Butter Cookie Recipe, Sue’s Apricot Strudel, Mom’s Butter Cookies). I imagine Grandma Bess had fun picking the recipes out for each of us!

It’s been a blast for me to make all the namesake cookies in Cookies by Bess. I still have a few more to go, so I’ll keep going until they are all made, tasted, and blogged ?

I’m rating Susan’s Cookies 2-stars for baking difficultly. There are several steps in the baking process, nothing difficult, but all the steps add time and a bit more effort to the baking process.

I pulled all the ingredients together and got started mixing!

The recipe calls for chopped nuts, but doesn’t specify which kind. I decided on pecans because I really like the richness of pecans and butter cookies!

The dough turned out perfect! Perfect tasting and perfect for rolling into small balls!

Prior to rolling the dough into small balls, I pulled together and chopped the toppings. The recipe mentions gum drops and/or colored cherries. I decided to go with gummy jellies and red maraschino cherries.

Next, I beat my egg whites slightly.

Next, I then organized the dough, egg whites, and toppings so I could easily work through the rolling and topping steps. First step is to roll the cookie dough balls in the egg whites.

Once I had a cookie sheet full of rolled cookie balls, I was ready for the gum drop jellies and cherries.

I cut the jellies into small bite sizes and placed them on top of each rolled cookie dough ball and did the same with the cut cherries.

Finally, I was ready to bake! I learned after the first batch how important it is to ensure the baking sheets are greased thoroughly. The bottoms of the baked cookies, having been rolled in egg whites, stuck to the cookie sheets. It took some care to remove them after baking and some elbow grease to wash the cookies sheets when cleaning up.

The cookies baked up nicely! They expanded a bit so the jelly gum drops seems to fit perfectly on top of the baked cookies!

I just love all the fun colors of the jellies and the bright shiny red of the cherries!

Susan’s Cookies are a wonderful butter nut cookie! The added jelly or cherry on top pairs perfectly with the butter and nut flavors and adds the perfect extra sweetness! I’m not surprised these cookies are named after my Aunt Suzie…they are fun and sassy and yummy good!

XXOO,

Janet

 

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