Date Sandwich

Date Cookies (Nora McC)

These are, apparently, my great-great Aunt Nora’s famous (?) date cookies. So far as I understand, this woman lived in a rustic shack in the wilderness for many years of her life, which makes it understandable that this recipe reads the way it does.

3 cups rolled oats 2 1/2 cups flour 3 tsp baking powder 1/4 tsp salt 1 cup brown sugar 1/2 cup lard 1/2 cup butter 1/2 cup milk

Put rolled oats into a bowl; sift flour, baking powder and salt together; add to oats; then sugar. Melt butter and lard, add to dry mixture with milk. Mix all together; roll, cut with round cutter and bake in moderate oven.

For how long? Moderate is what temperature, now? Well, I settled for 350F and checking every 5 minutes until they looked not-raw. I’m guessing moderate probably means 3 maple logs and a pine log, vs. all pine all the time or something.

Fill with the following mixture:

1 lb chopped dates 1 cup brown sugar 1 cup hot water

Cook well. Well, that looks like the bog of eternal stench. Delish.

The result is this:

A gargantuan mound of oats and dates, suitable for a sizeable breakfast were it not for the half pound of baking fat included in the recipe. Oh well…I guess I’ll just have to eat them anyway. You know, in Aunt Nora’s memory.