I was flipping through the new Penzy’s catalog the other day, and I stopped at a refrigerator cookie recipe by a woman named Mary Jackson. Actually it was Mary’s Grandma Estelle Steger’s recipe. I love recipes like this, passed down, and well loved through generations, with wonderful memories attached.

Recently, I was given a gift of a recipe box, and book  full of family recipes that I flip through frequently, and will always treasure. They are well worn with time, and love. While I am trying to decipher some of the beautiful handwriting, I picture the family members making these recipes for their loved ones, and getting so many compliments, they deem the recipe a keeper. They then sit down and handwrite the recipe in their finest handwriting and file it away to be made in the near future, or to bestow as a gift to their daughters or daughter in laws.  Eventually these recipes will be copied and passed on to different generations of family and friends, and that is how this beloved box and book came to me, through family, with love.

I have never made a refrigerator cookie before. I remember when I was in my twentys, going over to friend’s apartments, and they would sometimes make the pillsbury sugar cookies that come in the roll, that you just slice and bake. These are similar, except made from scratch.

I used parchment paper and  shaped the dough into a long circular log. You do not have to limit yourself to a round shaped cookie, if you don’t want to. You can make the round log into a long triangle log, or square log, or anything other shape, so when you slice the dough, you can have them be shape cookies.

I froze them for one hour, and then sliced them 1/4 inch thick with a very sharp knife, and they were perfect.

These cookies are so easy to make, and my girls gobbled them up. I keep a log in the freezer, and bake them up anytime we want cookies. I changed the recipe a bit and added cinnamon, because I really like the combination of walnuts and cinnamon. My tastebuds usually prefer chocolate in a cookie, but these slice and bake cookies are really yummy and addicting.

Enjoy these cookies with a cup of your favorite tea or coffee.

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