ar_wahan | Delicate, spicy cookie recipe (x-posted from over

A recipe that my mother clipped out of a magazine in the 60s or even earlier. These are the cookies I made on Sunday (well, I made the dough Sunday, baked some Monday.).

Dutch Refrigerator Cookies
(they should turn out about this color)

1 cup butter or margarine     (2 sticks, or 228.57 grams)
1/2 cup granulated sugar   (114.28 grams)
1/2 cup brown sugar   (114.28 grams)
1 egg     (1 egg ... ;-) )
2 1/4 cups sifted enriched flour   (514 grams)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda   (2.38 grams)
1/2 teaspoon salt   (2.38 grams)
2 teaspoons cinnamon   (9.52 grams)
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg     (1.19 grams)
1/4 teaspoon cloves      (1.19 grams) -- I actually used a little more; 1960's spicy can be 2007's almost bland)
1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts     (114.28 grams)

Cream together shortening and sugars; add egg and beat well. Sift together dry ingredients (except nuts); stir into creamed mixture. Add nuts. Shape in rolls about 2 1/2 inches (6 cm) across. Wrap in waxed paper and chill thoroughly. Slice very thin, 1/8 inch or less *** . Bake 1 inch (2 1/2 cm) apart on lightly greased cooky (sic! :P) sheet in moderate oven (375 degrees F, 190 degrees C) 5 to 7 minutes or till delicately browned. Remove at once to rack. Makes 5 to 6 dozen.

*** Draconian Method: I found it very difficult to slice the dough this thin, even when it had been chilled overnight. The first batch was too thick and failed to brown. As a result, the cookies did not have the almost wafer-like crunch that makes them them so appealing. Then I remembered how I used to do it as a kid. I'd slice off the dough as thin as I could get it, roll the slice up into a ball in my palm, and then smoosh it with the heel of my hand into a flat circle onto the cookie sheet.