Modernized Butter Drop Do Cookie

Whatcha Need:
1/2 cup butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 egg
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
About 18 whole nuts
Whatcha Do:
- Preheat oven to 400 F; grease a cookie sheet.
- Cream butter and sugar.
- Beat in egg, then beat in flour, then add vanilla.
- Drop by spoonfuls on to cookie sheet, and top each cookie with a nut.
- Bake 10 minutes.
Please Note: This recipe was furnished courtesy of Mary Gage, New England Recipes. org. She writes: "The only reference to this recipe (Butter Drop Do Cookies) I know of is Amelia Simmons’ American Cookery, published in 1796, page 36: Butter Drop Do No. 3 Rub one quarter pound of butter, one pound sugar, sprinkle with mace, into one pound and a quarter flour, add four eggs, one glass rose water, bake as No. 1. [Bake 15 Minutes]
Apparently, there are several versions of this recipe, this being number three… I wonder whether recipe number one or number two included chocolate? Or if, like the recipe below, it used nuts instead."