OMG they are my favorite cookies at Christmas time. My mom only makes them for Christmas. She made 4 batches of them this year. Here in Pennsylvania Dutch country we call those "Kisses". There is a wooded area behind my house full of Shellbark Hickory trees that I gather the nuts from in fall. They make the best kisses of all. On years there are no shellbarks to gather and crack my mom uses English walnuts but they aren't nearly as good. I can remember when I was about 7-8 years old my grandmother would make them and she would beat the egg whites by hand with a whisk ... I am sure you can appreciate what kind of time and effort that took