Many years ago a dear friend gave me this recipe. It was her grandmother’s favorite cookie and it soon became the favorite of our family and friends also. It is the perfect cookie served at any time of the year, whether for Valentine’s Day tea, a Southern buffet, or a church Christmas cookie swap.
1½ cups (3 sticks) butter or margarine, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla flavoring
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 jar tart red currant jelly
In a bowl using an electric mixer beat the butter and the sugar. Add the egg yolks one at a time, mixing after each addition. Add the vanilla. Add the flour gradually, stopping the mixer occasionally to hand stir because the mixture will be very stiff. Continue mixing with the electric mixer until the batter is well blended.
Preheat the oven to 350°. Cover several cookie sheets with parchment paper. Pinch off pieces of the batter large enough to form balls about 1-inch in diameter. Place the balls on the cookie sheets about 2 inches apart. Make a depression in each ball. Bake about 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and fill the depression with the red currant jelly, using about ¼ teaspoon of jelly for each cookie.
Return to the oven for 2 minutes or just long enough to melt the jelly and let the cookies turn golden brown. Cool on racks and store in airtight cookie tins.
YIELD: ABOUT 5 DOZEN
Bernice Wilson
Lawrenceville, Georgia