Cranberry Cherry Ribbon Cookies

You need to try these fun to make cookies!  I got this recipe from a book I bought several years ago called The All American Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett.  This book has been one of my favorites and I have a TON of cookbooks!  Her recipes are all perfect, you seriously can’t go wrong whatever you choose to bake from it and her photos are gorgeous, but what I love the most is the history of each recipe and where it comes from.  She also has the most entertaining excerpts from very old cookbooks when they were using wood burning stoves to get their baking done!  For instance some of the kitchen wisdom that comes from Estelle Woods Wilcox from the book Buckeye Cookery and Practical Housekeeping, 1880 is this; “Many test their ovens in this way: if the hand can be held in the oven from twenty to thirty-five seconds (while counting twenty or thirty-five), it is a ‘quick’ oven, from thirty-five to forty-five seconds is ‘moderate,’ and for forty-five to sixty seconds is ‘slow.’ ”  Can you imagine cooking like that?!  I LOVE little glimpses into the past like this though! 

This recipe involves placing alternating layers of cranberry-cherry filling and vanilla dough in a loaf pan and freezing the stack until firm.  The frozen loaf is cut crosswise into three long blocks, which are than cut lengthwise into pretty red and white striped ribbons and then baked. 

 These cookies have a great chewy-crispy texture and an exceptional fruit flavor and keep very well.  The tart-sweet flavors are perfect together!