Grandma Ruth's Fruity Oatmeal Cookies

Each year as the fall months begin and the holidays are nearing, I begin to have a very distinct craving of something very special. Cookies! But, not any ordinary cookies. These cookies are the best of the best in oatmeal cookies. They are so very special that I get a warm and cozy feeling just thinking about them. It is said that certain smells and tastes can trigger emotions and memories. Well, these cookies do just that. For me, they represent a special kind of love that only a mother can have for her child. When I eat them, they give me a special kind of comfort of home, tradition and love. Who knew a cookie could bring so much emotion?

My mother loved to bake fruitcakes for Christmas. She would start in November and spend a whole day mixing the batter with a huge wooden spoon in a large metal bowl with all of the ingredients. The mix was so thick and heavy that as a child I could not stir it even though I wanted to help. I would watch in fascination the whole process from the mix to the baking. Then she would take the baked cake and pour rum all over it and wrap it in parchment paper then in foil to store in the back of the refrigerator. Each week she would open each cake and pour more rum on them, wrap them up and repeat this every other week until Christmas. By the time Christmas rolled around, the cakes were super heavy and full of rum. Sometimes there would be a cake left over from the previous Christmas in the back of the refrigerator which was even heavier. I was the one in the family that didn't like the taste of the fruitcake and refused to eat it.

So one year she decided to alter an oatmeal cookie recipe and created these oatmeal cookies just for me. I loved these soft, warm, chewy cookies and tried to beat off my siblings to no avail because they loved them too. She would only bake them for the holidays even if we asked for them at other times. So now, each year, I crave them for the winter holidays as a warm reminder of my Mother and her special love for me. These holiday cookies are very rich and a filling desert. I have found that they make a wonderful breakfast of hot tea, cookies and veggie bacon strips. I would make them for my son as a snack after school and he loved them. Every time we went to visit my Mother, she would have these baked and ready for our visit and both my son and I would look forward to them. Now, many years later, my son lives with his family in Colorado and carries on the fall tradition of baking these cookies for his wife and daughter. I began a tradition to make them to carry on a plane as a snack or as a snack in the car on a long drive. I turns out that my husband loves them too and looks forward to the times I bake them for our trips. One time, I even carried them to Mexico on vacation, popped them into the microwave to warm up a bit and enjoyed them as an early morning snack before walking on the beach. I must warn you to be careful because these cookies can put on the pounds if over indulged, and I know from experience! It took a lot of walking on the beach to work out those extra pounds, but it was well worth it.

Ingredients:

1 stick of butter

1 ¼ cup sugar

2 eggs

6 tablespoons molasses

1¾ cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

2 cups old fashioned oats

½ cup nuts

1 ½ cup fruit cake mix cut fruit

Mix butter, sugar, molasses and eggs together until fluffy. Slowly add flour and other dry ingredients until well mixed. Mix by hand the nuts and glaced fruit until well blended. Place the mix in the refrigerator for about an hour to stiffen up for easier spooning onto cookie sheet.

Heat oven to 400 degrees and drop onto greased cookie sheet 2” apart. Bake for 8 – 10 minutes.

Makes 5 dozen cookies

* Can add a variety of dried fruits like raisins, cherries, apricots, blueberries and cranberries.