Ice Box Cookies

At the end of October I went home to Colorado for the first time since I was married there last September. It is the only time I can remember a whole year passing in between visits, and I will not let it happen again. I need my Colorado time!

Even if the weather throws a curveball…you see within 30 minutes of landing at the Denver airport it started to snow. And it didn’t stop for 48 hours. This all would have been fine and good had I not been talking weather smack to my husband and touting Colorado’s 300+ days of sunshine. I extolled the virtues of a state with abundant sunshine and warm days thrown in for good measure in the middle of January. I reminisced about Christmas vacations spent sitting outside on my mother’s patio because it was 65 degrees. So two feet of snow at the end of October may be the meteorological equivalent of getting my due.

I did not mind the snow at all. It was lovely, fluffy dry snow. It gave me time to enjoy cable TV without excuse or guilt, bond with the dog, and peruse my mother’s treasure trove of a recipe file.

She handed me a badly damaged index card, water-stained and brown from age. I had to decipher the amounts of ingredients and experiment a little, but it was worth it for these:


These are ice box cookies. Mom tells me the recipe came from Mrs. Jarvis whose family was and still is prominent in Durango, Colorado. Well, all I can say is I am grateful she shared this recipe, which is perfect for holiday baking as you can make the dough ahead of time, freeze it, and then bake it when time permits. Not only are they easy, but they are absolutely charming. They hail from a different era as they are thin, delicate and crispy. They are not steroid-induced cake masking as a cookie that we encounter all too frequently today. They have a nice touch of spice that seems to be the perfume of holiday baking and would be a nice addition to any cookie tray. These cookies would also make a nice homemade gift.

Keys to success:

• All ingredients should be room temperature, including and especially the butter.
• Don’t overmix. Once you add flour to the dough, mix just until incorporated. Stop. Scrape the mixer, including the bottom of the bowl, Mix just a couple more seconds and stop.
• If you have a warm kitchen, and the dough has gotten warm while mixing, stick in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes before shaping it into a log/cylinder.
• To shape into a log take one fourth of the dough and roughly shape it like a log in the middle of a piece of parchment. Fold the parchment over the dough and grab a cookie sheet. Using the edge of the cookie sheet pressed against the log, pull firmly on the top piece of parchment and the dough will roll itself into a more uniform log. Like this:

It’s snowing here. The first real snow of the holiday season. It’s time. Let’s bake!

ICE BOX COOKIES
By Mrs. Jarvis of Durango, CO

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter, at room temp

2 each eggs, beaten
1 t vanilla
½ t salt

2 ½ to 3 cups all-purpose flour
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t nutmeg
1 t baking soda

1 cup pecans, chopped

Oven: 325 F

Cream together the sugars and butter until fluffy (scrape!). Add the eggs and mix until incorporated, scraping the bowl as needed. Add vanilla and salt. Mix until incorporated.

In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, spices and baking soda. Add all at once to dough and mix just until incorporated. Add nuts and mix. Stop.

Roll one-fourth of the dough into a cylinder on parchment paper. Repeat until all the dough is in cylinder form (see "Keys to Success" above for instructions on how to successfully roll a log). Refrigerate at least 12 hours or overnight. Or freeze, then wrap in plastic wrap and freeze.

If dough has been frozen, let sit at room temperature for 20-30 minutes until sliceable.

Slice dough into ¼” cookies and place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Bake at 325 F for 12 minutes or until the bottoms are lightly golden brown.