12 Days of Cookies: Day 10, Grandma Rose's raisin-filled cookies

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It's time again for our 12 Days of Cookies series, this year sponsored by Roberts Dairy Foods. Bakers submitted their family favorites and online visitors voted on which cookies they wanted to see in the series.

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To see all the 12 Days of Cookies series so far, click HERE.

Anna Schott of Osceola, Neb., entered her Grandma Rose's raisin-filled cookies. "Grandma Rose was one of the best bakers and cooks who taught me everything I know. She ran a coffee shop for 20 years and has many recipes that have been passed down from generation to generation. I am lucky I even got a recipe that was 100% correct because sometimes she left out ingredients purposely so that nobody exactly replicated her renowned recipes."

Ingredients for the dough:

1 cup sugar

½ cup lard

1 egg

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup evaporated milk

3½ cups flour

Ingredients for the filling:

2/3 cup raisins

½ cup sugar

1 cup water

½ teaspoon vanilla

2 tablespoons corn starch

Directions:

Mix all cookie dough ingredients together. Roll dough out ¼-inch thick. Use a circle cookie cutter.

For the raisin filling, put raisins, sugar and vanilla in a pan. Dissolve the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch in the water and add to mixture. Boil all ingredients together until the mixture is a thick consistency.

Place one circle cut out on cookie sheet and fill the middle with about a tablespoon of filling. Then cover the filling with a second circle cut out and place it on top. Seal the edges with fingers while making indentions so the edges look more attractive. Brush the tops of the cookies with milk and dust with granulated sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 12-14 minutes or until the bottom of the cookies just turn light brown.

Makes: about 20 cookies.

— Nancy Gaarder

Test kitchen notes: This recipe from Grandma Rose is indeed a throwback to older times, when grandpas favored raisin filling over chocolate chips! The dough was stiff but very workable, so my cookie turned out like a shortbread. Next time I bake these, I'll replace some of the lard with butter, add flour gradually and roll the cookie thinner — with a goal of getting a more delicate cookie. That may necessitate chilling the dough, too. (If you are like me and don't cook with lard, you can purchase a pound, unrefrigerated, in the baking aisle). It's a good idea to let the raisin filling cool before spooning it onto the dough, this allows it to thicken so that it doesn't run off the cookie dough and onto the baking tray. In terms of cookie cutters, I used a standard water glass.

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