Hickory Nut Cookies

I'd been wanting to make these cookies for a week and finally got around to it last week. Ummmm, I guess I ate a few before taking this photo.

I didn't eat them all though, I promise. Here it is a week later and the cookies are even better than when first made, believe it or not. Here is what's left, under glass in the cake stand.

The recipe I used comes from Feasting Fred's blog, and it is absolutely delicious. I'm sure other nuts could be substituted, but with the hickory nuts it's really something else. First, of course, I had to sort through the nuts to remove all the tiny bits of shell that always seem to get mixed in when shelling, no matter how careful we are.

Hickory Nut Cookies

Ingredients

1 cup packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup shortening

1/4 cup butter

1 large egg
, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

1.5 cups sifted all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup hickory nuts

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375°F. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

First toast your hickory nuts in a dry skillet until fragrant. Remove from heat, allow to cool, then chop.

Sift the flour, baking powder, and salt together and set aside.

Cream together your brown sugar, shortening, and butter in a stand mixer or with a hand beater.
Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Add half your dry ingredients (except the nuts) and mix on low, when incorporated, mix in the other half.
Fold in the hickory nuts.

Form into small golf ball sized balls and place on lined cookie sheets.
Bake at 375F for 12-14 minutes, until they begin to turn golden brown at the base.
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the cookie sheets for a few minutes before transferring the cookies to wire racks to cool.When completely cooled, decorate with maple cream icing.

Maple Cream Icing

1 cup sifted confectioners sugar

2 Tbsp cream

2 Tbsp maple syrup

Preparation

Mix together all ingredients until smooth. Add more maple syrup to taste, if desired.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.