These cookies are like shortbread and matrimonial cake (date squares) all in one. Yummy! I don’t make these very often because the batter is dangerously delicious.  I can’t honestly say how many cookies this makes because I ate far too much cookie dough and made two different sized cookies. Being “sandwich” cookies, you need two cookies for each one. I ended up with 30  1 1/2″ cookies and 40 1″ cookies . The cookies do  not “rise”, so the size you cut is what you end up with and they can be placed quite close on the baking sheet.

Oatmeal Shortbread Cookies:

Ingredients:
1 lb. softened butter
1 cup brown sugar
2 cups of flour
4 cups of oatmeal

Instructions:

Use your hands to mix the ingredients in a large bowl. Flour your counter well and knead the dough until it is rollable. (I sandwich a lump of dough between two sheets of parchment paper and use the rolling-pin on top of the parchment paper. This really helps to avoid the dough/cookies getting stuck on the counter or gooping up the rolling-pin.) Use a cookie cutter to cut the cookies into about 1 1/2″ circles and cook at 350 degrees for 8 to 12 minutes. (I like mine slightly under-cooked so I baked mine for 8 minutes.)

Date Filling:

1/2 lb. dates
3/4 cup of water
1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Boil and stir until thick with most of the lumps gone. Cool the mixture a little and fill the cookies.

As an alternative, you can fill the cookies with butter icing or jam. I have never used jam, but icing is always a hit!