Every year SUEANNE KYLE (Martinsville, Virginia) could hardly wait for the holiday dinners she and her family would have at Nanny VIRGINIA KESTER’S (also of Martinsville) house. Sueanne remembers that Nanny’s house was filled with the wonderful smell of a roasting turkey and all the trimmings, and there would always be delicious cookies and goodies. Sueanne’s favorite cookie was Nanny’s Noel Wreaths, and she shares, “I’d make a beeline to the tin as soon as I walked in the door! I’m still traditional, like my Nanny, in that I only make certain cookies at the holidays . . . once they are gone, you won’t see them again till the next year. I could always count on the Hickory Farms cheese ball, olives, and spiced apples for appetizers . . . a tradition I still keep for my holidays. And we always dressed up for those dinners.” (Sueanne now lives in Marlborough Massachusetts.)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
½ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling out dough
1 ⅓ cups roasted pecans, chopped
¼ cup maple syrup
Red and green candied cherries, cut into pieces
1 In a large bowl use a hand mixer to beat the butter and sugar until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the egg and vanilla. Stir in the flour in three batches, blending after each addition, to make a soft dough.
2 In a small bowl take one-third of the dough and mix with the pecans and maple syrup.
3 Put the rest of the dough in the refrigerator for 4 hours. When dough is ready, preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4 Roll dough on a lightly floured surface, and use a cookie cutter to cut the dough into circular shapes. Drop ½ teaspoon of the nut filling onto the middle of each cookie and add a piece of candied cherry at the top for the “bow.” Bake on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a nonstick baking sheet for 10 to 12 minutes, just until golden brown.
5 Let the cookies cool on the baking tray for 2 minutes, and then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container (a holiday tin is beautiful) and keep in a cool, dry place. Will keep for two months. Nanny’s recipe card says it makes a “tin full!”
MAKES 6 DOZEN COOKIES.