One of my most cherished memories of Christmases past is savoring sweets at Granny’s house. She was famous for her beautiful holiday spice cakes, with pristine white frosting with perfect pecan halves and delicately cut and placed maraschino cherries in red and green to resemble Christmas flowers. I don’t recall liking the spice cake itself; it was too, well, spicy for a kid’s palate. But she also made awesome cookies. She made three kinds of cookies at Christmas: decorated sugar cutouts, black walnut cookies, and these… my personal favorite. I have her recipe. It is a perfect from-scratch recipe. But I tried this hack one year and never looked back. 

Hope you will try it and it’ll make you and your family smile Year after year. Granny would like that.