Beth & Dot's Chocolate Drops

*My Mom (Dot) and I used to bake, bake, bake for an entire day each year. She'd drive in from LI the night before, with cookie sheets and recipes with ladies' names (Mrs. Brozac's Stollen). I'd supply the ingredients, from Atlantic Ave. We'd strategize our baking with as much detail as the Invasion of Normandy. One year I noticed that after baking stollen and all sorts of cookies, we had fantastic ingredients left on the table. I couldn't let them go to waste. Here's the result: A moist, fruit-filled cookie redolent of nuts and chocolate.

3 cups flour, sifted
4 Tbs unsweetened cocoa
3 1/2 cups nuts, ground fine (halzelnuts, almonds, pecans, are what I use)
1 1/4 cups white vanilla sugar
1 cup butter
1 1/2 tsp allspice, ground
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
2 Tbs high quality vanilla extract
3 Tbs dark rum, Goslings preferred
1 1/2 cups dried/glazed fruits, chopped into small dice (I use apricots, cherries, citron, raisins)
-white, raw or red sugar, for rolling cookies in

Sift together flour, cocoa, sugar, spices. Add vanilla, rum, butter. Blend with spoon until well combined.Add nuts. Mix well with HANDS - no mixer! Add fruit, mix well with hands again, making sure fruit and nuts are evenly distributed through cookie dough. Roll into small balls, 1 inch in diameter. Roll in white, raw, or red sugar -- green looks icky. Bake for 12 minutes at F350.

Beth Fleisher
Brooklyn