Time to start baking Christmas Cookies!

This is a recipe my grandma used to make every Christmas...They are SO good.  The whole while I was making them, I was reliving Christmases past...we always used to spend Christmas Eve at her house, lots of food, and tons of homemade cookies, candies and treats....us kids were always so excited to open our gifts, and after the frenzy of flying wrapping paper, bows and ribbons, "thank you!'s" being yelled across the room (we were a LOT of people, and it got noisy!), and the cleanup of the aftermath of the gifts...we'd go into the kitchen, sit around the table and play board games.  We'd have the best time ever...it is one of my favorite memories of growing up.  I miss my grandma, especially at this time of the year.  I honor her memory every Christmas with her recipes...I hope you like them as much as I do....I'll probably be updating the page daily with the various goodies for the Christmas trays, so check in and maybe you'd like to join me in my Christmas baking.

Grandma's Old Fashioned Date Balls

grandma's old fashioned date balls

The Recipe:

Ingredients:

4  tablespoons butter 

10 ounces pitted dates, chopped 

3/4 cup sugar 

2 cups Rice Krispies cereal  

4 ounces coconut, plus more for rolling

Preparation: 

Melt butter over medium low heat in a larger sauce pan.

Add sugar and dates, stirring constantly until well combined, and sugar is dissolved.

Remove from heat and add cereal and coconut, and stir to thoroughly combine.

Allow to cool just enough so that the mixture doesn't burn your fingers when forming balls.

The mixture is very sticky, so I like to butter my hands first, then roll each ball, immediately rolling in coconut, and place on plate.

This recipe makes about 2-3 dozen balls, depending on the size you roll them.