This time tested recipe comes from my Aunt's Mother's Mother's Mother, more simply put, my Aunt's Great Grandmother. I love looking at the neat penmanship old recipes come in, with the slightly discolored, slightly stained, unlined paper. Part of the great part of recipe hunting through your family is not only finding great recipes, but getting to know parts of your family, and developing a connection to them. The original holder of this recipe was Elizabeth Vaughn Johnson, and she was a stunner. Here is the hard copy of the Butterball recipe.

This is Elizabeth prior to marriage, and in her wedding picture. She is completely gorgeous.

ButterBalls

Ingredients:
1 cup butter
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup chopped pecan, toasted almonds, or brazil nuts


Directions:

Cream butter until fluffy. Add sugar and beat until light. Stir in vanilla. Add sifted flour and mix well. Stir in chopped nuts.
Shape dough into small balls about 3/4 to 1 inch in diameter. Place on a greased baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven, 350 degrees, 15 - 18 minutes. Roll in sifted confectioner sugar while hot.

Recipe formatted with the Cook'n Recipe Software from DVO Enterprises.

Help on downloading recipes

The recipe search has made me realize the need to hold on to generational recipes. After talking with several family members, I realized how few actually had recipes, and even fewer of those recipes were written down. With the Cook'n software you can import your own recipes, and organize them into cookbooks that you can share with your family, extended family and friends. Now is a great time to start compiling recipes, and give those to family for Christmas.

Special thanks to Diane and Jana Fortune for assisting me in researching this article.