Recipe: Grandma’s Icebox Cookies (Made with Lard!)

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Tomorrow on Good Food, Evan interviews Hank Will, Editor in Chief of Grit Magazine which recently released their collaborative cookbook Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient. Hank says that lard isn’t just for making great flakey pie dough, he also remembers his mother using the bacon drippings in her ginger snap recipe when he was growing up. This take on Icebox Cookies also uses lard in addition to butter. Keep reading for the complete Grandma Stover’s Icebox Cookies recipe…

Grandma’s Icebox Cookies

(From Lard: The Lost Art of Cooking with Your Grandmother’s Secret Ingredient from the Editors of GRIT Magazine/Andrews McMeel Publishing)

Grandma Stover’s house was a welcoming place for kids to stop after school because she always had a roll of her famous icebox cookies in the refrigerator and she needed no excuse to bake. She’d slice off two cookies per kid (three for her grandkids), and they’d be ready to eat in just under 15 minutes.

Makes 5 dozen

1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter, softened
½ cup lard, softened, plus more for greasing the pan
3 eggs
4½ cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup finely chopped nuts of your choice

In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on low speed, cream together the sugars, butter, and lard until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition; set aside.
In a separate bowl, sift the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon; add to the creamed mixture and beat until well combined. Stir in the nuts. With lightly floured hands, divide the dough in half. Shape each half into a 2-inch-diameter log. Wrap each log in wax paper, followed by plastic, and freeze overnight.
To bake the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and thaw while the oven is heating. Grease 2 baking sheets with lard.
Slice the logs into ¼-inch-thick slices and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the cookies are set and the edges are just golden brown. Transfer to wire racks to cool.