Ingredients
Method
Cream the base mixture
- Cream together the eggs, sugar, salt, Crisco, and your chosen flavoring until smooth and well combined.
- Add baking powder + half the flour
- Mix in the baking powder and about half of the flour until incorporated.
Fold in remaining flour
- Add the rest of the flour and fold gently. Do not over‑mix — the dough should be soft and workable.
Shape the cookies
- Use the dough to create your preferred cookie types:
- Roll into balls and press flat for rounds
- Shape into S‑cookies
- Roll into short “fingers” and press into sesame seeds
- Press sliced almonds onto rounds
- Roll out dough for filled cookies (lemon, strawberry, raspberry, mince meat)
- Shape into diamonds or other traditional forms
Bake
- Bake at 350°F for 10–15 minutes, or until lightly golden.
- (Family note: Nana’s original card says 325°F for 10 minutes — adjust based on your oven.)
- Cool and glaze
- Cool completely before glazing.
- For lemon glaze, whisk powdered sugar with fresh lemon juice and zest until smooth.
- Dip or drizzle cookies, then add sprinkles or toppings as desired.
Nutrition
Notes
- Freshly squeezed lemon juice is non‑negotiable - store bought juice simply doesn’t taste the same.
- Start with 3 tablespoons lemon juice and add more until the glaze is pourable but not runny.
- Almond‑pressed cookies are traditionally not glazed - just press sliced almonds on top before baking.
- Do not chill the dough. It needs to stay pliable or it will crack and make it unexpectedly tough, especially when shaping S‑cookies.
- Cookies freeze well and keep beautifully for months.
Family Variations
Use the base dough to create the full traditional assortment:- S Cookies
- Lemon‑filled cookies
- Strawberry‑filled cookies
- Raspberry‑filled cookies
- Mince meat‑filled cookies
- Maraschino Cherry cookies
- Sesame fingers
- Almond‑pressed rounds
- Round cookies
- Diamond cookies
