Foodie Friday! - Grandma Swenson's Mystery Cookies

I was going through some older recipes my Mom had in a binder and found this one in my grandmother's handwriting.

It was simply labeled "Cookies."  My grandmother wrote it in pencil, so the writing is faint.  I could read it all except for the last ingredient listed.

The "3 cut up _________" had me stumped.  I e-mailed a friend who is similar in age to what my mom would have been, and asked her if she had any idea what the ingredient might be.  She guessed dates, as dates were commonly used in cookies back then.   I thought that made sense combined with the walnuts.   I suppose it could be "Mounds" as in Mounds candy bars - I didn't even think of that until I put the picture on my blog.  I looked online and the candy bars have been around almost 100 years, so that is a possibility too, just not sure I can imagine that in a cookie.

So I decided I needed to make these cookies (minus the mystery ingredient) to see what they were like.

Grandma Swenson's Mystery Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 egg, well beaten

1 cup + 2 T. sifted flour (that dates the recipe!)

1/2 tsp soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup walnuts

3 cut up ???? 

There were no instructions, just "drop, 375 degrees, 10 minutes."

Here's a batch...

I know the bowl is messy, but I had to show you this. Yes, this was considered a "batch" of cookies 50 years ago.  Pretty amazing isn't it?  I think the mystery ingredient likely added sweetness to the original cookie, so I added about 1/2 cup of chocolate chips.

I didn't want those walnuts to be too lonely.

And this was the end result:

They weren't done at 10 minutes, so I baked 12 minutes as I do with most cookies in my oven.

I'm sure you are wondering what they tasted like.  They were AWESOME!  They were soft, yet crisp. They were lighter in taste than what we know as a traditional chocolate chip cookie.  The flavor was wonderful, and I loved that I got about 22 cookies from a batch. Seriously, we do not need 4 dozen cookies sitting around the house calling our names, and I get tired of making pan after pan.  So this is the perfect size batch for us. Michael tried them as soon as he was home from work and loved them!

I will definitely be making Grandma Swenson's Mystery Cookies again! Sometimes the nicest surprises are the simplest ones.

Happy Friday!