The best cookies in the whole wide world may just be the date cookies made from time to time by Kathleen. These cookies are legendary; Kathleen has shared them with co-workers in lunch rooms; friends and relatives, and even made them as a guest baker in a south Minneapolis coffee shop (below). The warm, vanilla-date-filled cookies are old fashioned and delicious -- anything that starts with a cup of sugar, a cup of butter, two egg yolks and half a cup of whipping cream (don't whip) -- has to be great!
Kathleen doesn't bake them that often, but when she does, it's an occasion. She got the urge today and made a small batch. She took five across the way to Mina and Joe. They're quite familiar with the product. Mina has already put one away to give to her sister when she comes.
It was in the late 50s when Kathleen befriended a neighbor lady, Mrs. Murphy, a great baker and cook. The two became quite attached. Mrs. Murphy had no daughters, just a son, so before she died she entrusted her legacy to Kathleen and no one else: two recipes, one for a sour cream coffee cake and the other for date cookies.
Mrs. Murphy made a good choice. Her smudged and tattered recipe card still comes out of the old wooden box again and again, bringing sweet smiles and happy memories.
