Nana's Scotch Cake

Nana's Scotch Cakes


These little gems have been in my family for generations.  My Grandmother's Mother taught her and so on.  My Nana (Grammy) used to make these especially for Christmas, but would ocasionally make them for church socials etc.  She would freeze some of them without icing and take them out for bridge parties - you would never know they came out of the freezer as long as they are wrapped well in wax paper and sealed in tupperware or a cookie tin.  Nana's claim to fame with these yummy mouthfuls of buttery love, was that they simply do not contain cornstarch.  My family have stamped them with a big seal of approval.  I have doubled the original recipe - feel free to cut it back to 1/2.
1 lb (2 cups) butter (room temperature & creamed)
1 cup icing sugar
2 egg yolks (try not to get even a drop of egg white in the mixture)
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
3 cups flour
(plus about 3 Tbsp flour and 2 Tbsp icing sugar for method - see below note)

Method:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees  (these cookies are chaulk full of butter - there is no need to grease your cookie sheets).

Cream butter and icing sugar together and add egg yolks and extracts, slowly beat in flour.  Freeze mixture for about 5 minutes (this was not part of the original recipe, but if your hands are naturally warm like mine - you won't have "the touch" that's needed without freezing for 5 minutes).

This recipe is not very forgiving, you must handle the dough as little as possible!

Use a little extra flour and icing sugar to dust rolling pin and rolling surface (as per note above).  Roll dough out 1/2 to 3/4" thickness.

Important *** DIP small cookie cutters between EACH cut in a mixture of flour and icing sugar.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 15 minutes.  Let cool on wire cookie racks and ice if desired.

Icing:
1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
2 cups icing sugar
1 tsp cream (or milk)
1 tsp almond extract

Method (Icing):
Blend with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Dab each cooled cookie.
*Option - use 1/8 marachino cherry slices ontop of icing for decoration.