In the Hoch family, Noel Nutballs are a Christmas tradition. When I quizzed my mother on the origins of this delicacy, she began to reminisce about collecting bushels of English Walnuts with her dad each Saturday morning. Apparently their tree was particularly fruitful and my grandmother, a young woman shaped by the Great Depression, was determined to find a use for the bountiful walnut crop. With the yearly debut of autumn, my mother (better known as "Tude") and my grandfather would don in dark cotton gloves to protect their hands from the pungent staining resin that would leak from the cracked hulls of these tasty nuts, and go foraging in the back yard. My great-grandfather Goodwin, who lived with my mother and her family, took on the task of shelling the walnuts and my grandmother created this little recipe to showcase the fruit of his labors.
Sometime after my grandmother died, my mother lost her sacred family recipe. She breathlessly called my aunt who (praise be) had a copy. When I moved south with my little family, I lost my copy during the move and made the same sort of call home to my mother. This Thanksgiving, having traveled home, I was amused to hear a frantic phone message from the very same aunt who had supplied the copy all those years ago. She had lost her copy. Being half Hoch, I knew I was going to have to veganize this lovely cookie; a rich shortbread cookie, chock full of crunchy rich walnuts, and liberally doused in powdered sugar. Enjoy!
1 cup butter flavored Crisco
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon almond
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 chopped walnuts
Cream the first five ingredients. Mix in the flour. Stir in the walnuts. The mixture will be very crumbly and slightly moist. If the mixture will not form balls when molded by hand, add another teaspoon of vanilla or almond. Roll into 1 inch balls. Bake at 400. Check at 8 mins. The cookies should be lightly browned on the bottoms but the rest of the cookie appears white. Cool slightly and roll in powdered sugar while still warm until completely covered. Roll in powdered sugar a second time.
