This recipe is from my Grandma’s Presbyterian church cookbook. I used to know whose recipe it was. Hat tip to whichever lovely lady shared this recipe!
These turn out best if you use the combination of half butter, half shortening that the recipe calls for. We tried using margarine and butter, just butter, and just margarine. When we used lard and butter, the cookies turned out amazingly light, fluffy and crumbly. They literally melt on your tongue. Yes, that’s what lard does.

Ingredients:

1/4 C butter
1/4 C shortening
1/4 C sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 C flour
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 190 C/375 F
Cream butter, shortening and sugar. Add egg and beat in well.
Mix dry ingredients except the tablespoon sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a separate bowl, and add to the creamed mixture, mixing to form a stiff dough.
Mix reserved sugar and cinnamon in a small bowl.

With your hands, roll into 1 inch balls, roll balls in mixture of sugar and cinnamon. Place on ungreased cookie sheet or oven tray, flatten slightly with two fingers, and bake for 8-10 minutes.

Allow the cookies to cool for a few minutes on the baking sheets or tray, and transfer carefully, with a knife or spatula, to a rack to cool completely.

Very yummy…

This is a recipe from the Mennonite cookbook “More with less”. If you like peanut butter in your cookies, try it. It’s the recipe I used every year at Christmas, when my sisters and I would busy ourselves in the kitchen baking dozen after dozen of cookies, and scarfing down dough with a spoon some say even the dough tastes good . This recipe yields loads of cookies! (If you actually bake the dough, that is!)

Ingredients:

- 1C shortening (margarine, lard or butter)
- 1/4 C peanut butter
- 1/2 C sugar
- 1/2 C brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 1/2 C flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 C rolled oats
- 1-2 C chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. I use two cups.
- 1 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 190 C/ 375 F
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl and beat until light. Add peanut butter and blend well. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Add vanilla and stir.

In another bowl, combine flour, soda and salt, mixing well. Add to the creamed mixture and mix until well blended.

Add rolled oats and stir, making sure all oats are well moistened and mixed into the dough.

Add chocolate chips and nuts (if using) and fold in.

Using two teaspoons, form mounds and place on a greased or parchment paper lined cookie sheet or oven tray, about 2 inches apart from each other.

Bake in preheated oven for 10 minutes.

When cookies are done, let them cool on the tray for a few minutes and then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

Enjoy with a mug of coffee or tea, or with a glass of milk. They are still my favorite cookies! ( with a few others…)