Several years ago I was in Virginia visiting my daughter. We stopped at a wonderful little bakery. They had sample cookies of the best cookies I'd ever eaten. She called the Preacher cookies and said they were popular in the South. She gave us the recipe and it is the same as the ones listed here. We asked why they were called Preacher cookies.
The story goes that when the woman of the house saw the preacher walked down the lane to her house, she would whip a patch of these cookies. By the time he got to her house they were ready to serve. I love the story behind the cookie