Brown Eyed Susans

When I put together my cookbook a year or so ago, I knew this recipe would have to be part of it. So old is this recipe, I can remember coming home from school and seeing a batch of these on the countertop. As busy as my mother was with four children, she somehow found the time.  If you own the book, you know that I featured this recipe in the dessert section by putting a picture of the original recipe from the back of a Parkay Margarine box. It was so stained and tattered, it tells a big tale, and a happy one too, of those little things that my mother did for us.  Today I went to visit her at her new "home" and brought her some of these cookies so she could decide which lucky resident would get one of them. I wonder if my mother realizes how this silly little recipe that has stuck with me for many years longer than I care to mention has had such an impact on me.  Try the recipe and see for yourself if you think this isn't one of the best shortbread cookies you've ever eaten.  Of course, Parkay Margarine is a thing of the past, so I've used butter here instead, and what's not to like about that?

BROWN EYED SUSANS

1 cup softened butter
3 Tbs. sugar
1 tsp. pure almond extract
2 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt

Cream the butter. Add the sugar, almond extract, flour and salt.  Roll this mixture into small balls the size of a walnut. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet. With your thumb or finger, make a deep indentation in the center of the dough. Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven on the middle rack for about ten minutes until lightly browned on the bottoms. When cool, frost with:

1 cup of confectioners sugar
2 Tbs. cocoa
2 Tbs. hot water
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Sift together the sugar and the cocoa. Add the hot water and vanilla and beat well. Make sure the cookies are completely cooled, then top each cookie with a small amount of frosting. If the frosting becomes thick or hardened while waiting for the batches to cool, add a drop of water and mix it up again. Don't overdo it with the frosting, as you want to end up with a nice little round blob of frosting atop each cookie!

The original recipe called for a blanched almond half to be placed in the center of the frosting, but Mom never did it this way, and we thought they were awesome. I did, however, have sliced almonds on hand and thought the addition of a small thin slice of almond on top would make the perfect decoration for these delicious shortbread cookies.

Makes about 2 1/2 dozen.

Buttery, melt-in-your-mouth Brown Eyed Susans