Fruit(cake) Cookies

Bite-sized nuggets of fruity goodness

Here’s a cookie recipe to use up all the leftover dried fruits and nuts from your other holiday recipes. I included shredded apple and cream cheese to give the cookies a moist and dense texture. I left the choice of spices and flavouring up to you and what’s in your pantry.

The cookies pictured include walnuts, raisins, dates and figs because that’s what I had in the cupboard. I mixed cinnamon and cloves for my spicing, and for the flavouring, I used one tablespoon each of freshly squeezed mandarin juice and a sweet-spicy digestif called Managlore.

Fruit(cake) Cookies
makes 4-5 dozen

1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 cup dried fruit, chopped
1/2 cup shredded apple
2 Tbsp flavouring (juice, liqueur, etc)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup cream cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp spice (cinnamon, cloves, etc)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups flour
(optional) glace cherries

Cream the butter and cream cheese. Stir in the sugar. Add the eggs and mix until smooth. Stir in the “flavouring liquid” and vanilla. Mix in the apple. Add the spices, baking powder and salt, mixing thoroughly. Stir in half of the flour, then all of the nuts and dried fruits. Add the remaining flour to form a soft slightly sticky dough. Be careful not to overmix the flour, or you you will have baked cookie-rocks.

Drop by rounded teaspoons onto a baking sheet. Top with bits of glace fruits, if desired. Bake at 180/350 for 10 minutes.

Posted by kuri at December 14, 2006 07:21 PM