Date or Raisin Filled Cookies

These cookies are good but kind of labor intensive, so I've only made them once or twice. You end up with a little (ok kinda big for a cookie) pocket full of raisin jam, like a sweet pirogi or something.

img via: Epicurious Runner

Filling:
1/2 c water
2 c dates or raisins
1/2 c sugar
1 T vanilla

Dough:
2 1/2 c flour
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 c butter
1 c sugar
1 egg
1/2 c sour milk

Preheat oven to 350F.
Grind water and dates/raisins. Add sugar and vanilla. Optional: add walnuts. Cook 5-10 minutes until thick as jam. Remove from heat, keep covered. 
Sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Combine butter, sugar, egg, and milk. Alternate adding wet and dry to form soft dough. Roll dough thin. For each cookie, cut two large circles. Spoon jam into center of one circle and cover with second. Seal edges, slit top. Bake 15 minutes.

Giant Macaroons

I always thought that macaroons were one of Grandma's cookies, but apparently not. They are still really good. The bottom gets all gooey-melty-carmelized, the coconut on top gets a little crispy at the ends, and the middle stays soft. Topping them with melted chocolate just adds to the goodness.

Apparently the real origin of this is, my mom bought some macaroons at a bake sale at the grocery store one day, and when she went back the next day they were all sold out. She asked the person running the table, who told the lady who had made them, who wrote my mom a letter with the recipe. She had two sons and I was in the grade between them, but this was back before I was in preschool even. I'd never seen it before, but I found while going through my mom's recipes on Mother's Day and I think it's totally cute.

14 oz shredded coconut
14 oz sweetened condensed milk
dash salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 2 cookie sheets. Combine all ingredients until well blended. Drop onto cookie sheets with an ice cream scoop or large spoon. Bake 15-20 minutes until golden at edges. Remove and cool on wire racks. Optional: While baking, melt chocolate chips in a double boiler. Dip the top of cooled macaroons into the chocolate.

Nana's Cookies

Also known, by sticklers for precision, as Betty Crocker's Vanilla Cookies, these are the cookies my husband used to make when his nana, Louise, babysat him. One day when we were dating, he called her up to get the recipe, and at our wedding shower she gave us a copy of the page from her Betty Crocker cookbook, which you can just barely see at the back of my photo. We make them every now and then, but he usually ends up eating all the dough before we can actually make it into cookies.

1 3/4 c sifted flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter
1 egg
2 T milk
1 t vanilla

Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and sugar. Cut butter into flour mix to the consistency of coarse cornmeal. Stir in egg, milk, and vanilla. Mix well with clean hands. Form into a ball. Wrap in waxed paper and refrigerate for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Roll dough to 1/8" thick and cut out. Place cookies 1" apart on sheet. Bake 7 minutes. Cool on racks.

Crescents

I'm getting ahead of myself, because we don't make these cookies until Christmas, but that's okay. It's another from Grandma.

img via: the bon appetit diaries

2 cups ground pecans
1 pound butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
5 cups flour
1 T vanilla
powdered sugar (at least 1 cup)

Mix pecans, butter, and sugar together. Add flour and vanilla. Knead dough until smooth, then shape into crescent-moons about 3" high. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees. Cool 1 minute, then roll in powdered sugar. Let cool, then roll in sugar again. Makes 56 cookies.