Fruitcake Cookies

I used a pre-mix of candied fruit (orange peel, lemon peel, pinapple, red and green cherries), very tasty cookies. I used Trucia Brown Sugar blend, (half of the 3/4 c). I will make these again, for sure.

These cookies are fabulous. I love the Barefoot Contessa and love all her recipes. I did, however, make some changes due to what I had on hand. I actually used GF flour since I have Celiac and enjoy cookies too, but that did not stop this recipe one bit. I used Cointreau as the liquer, since I did not have sherry. I also used, believe it or not, that bane of fruit, the fruitcake mix sold during the season at grocery stores. What can I say? I’m Southern. We don’t hate it always. Since that is so icky sweet alone, I eliminated the honey. Just didn’t think it needed it. I had a pound on hand so I subbed that for the fruit in Ina’s recipe. Then, except for the change to GF flour and using the lovely Cointreau, that was the limit of my changes. They baked up beautifully. Smelled heavenly while baking and best of all, they passed the neighbor’s test and no one guessed they were GF. I usually make a fruitcake bar recipe every Christmas, but I think these made be used now instead of the bar recipe. I will make at least one more recipe before the holiday. Enjoy!

These were soooo yummy…the only difference is I used the ultimate fruitcake fruit mix…I won second place in a cookie contest at work…only missing it by one vote..(it was biased lol )…I had to make them three times this holiday season…once for Thanksgiving…one for Christmas cookie exchange…and again for Christmas..they are actually better if you make them a few days ahead of time and store them in a tight container..its like the juice from the candied fruit sinks in and gives it an incredible taste…definitely a keeper

Hazelnuts are also called Filberts. I’ve seen both names in the supermarket. These cookies are absolutely delicious. I make them every year during Christmas.

I used fresh dates which were hard to cut up and made a gooey mess in the dough. wished they had more candied pineapple but tasted good. should I used a different kind of dates? also only used walnuts and pecans. think hazel nuts have another name so couldn’t find them.

Ingredients:
1 1/3 C. all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 C. butter, room temp.
1/2 C. packed brown sugar
1/2 C. sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 C. chopped mixed fruit (fruitcake mix)

Directions:
Sift the flour, salt, baking powder and spices into a bowl, set aside. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy (about 3-4 minutes).
Beat in the egg and vanilla and blend well.
Begin stirring in the flour mixture, it will become hard to stir together so just use your hand to pull the dough together.
Add the chopped fruit and again, by hand work it into the dough.
Once combined, pinch off pieces of dough and roll into a 1″ ball and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
Bake in a 350 degree oven for 14 minutes. Allow to cool on the pan for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

source :chefs-collaborative.blogspot.com