Fruit & Nut Cookies

Recipe by Cook's Hideout

This is a recipe that has been on my to-make list for a very long time. I watched Ina Garten make them on her Barefoot Contessa show and when Priya (@ Akshayapaatram) made them egg-less and vegan on her blog, I had to absolutely had to make them. I even bought all the ingredients, but couldn’t find the much needed time to make them. As the old saying goes, it’s better late than never, so this past weekend, I finally MADE these yummy cookies. I followed the original recipe to the T, I’m giving the same recipe here. Adapted from...

Ingredients

• 2 – 2 ½ cups Dried fruit ((I used a combination of raisins, dried cherries/pineapple/papaya/prunes/apricots/figs & cashews))
• 1 tbsp honey
• 2 tbsps sherry (Dry)
• 2 tbsps lemon juice (– freshly squeezed)
• pinch salt
• 2⅔ cups all-purpose flour
• frozen peas
• ⅓ cup brown sugar (Light)
• 2 butter (sticks of , unsalted and @ room temperature (I leave it out the night before))
• 1 egg (Extra large)
• frozen peas (Ground)

Method

1. Add honey, sherry, salt & lemon juice to dried fruit and nuts; cover with plastic wrap and allow to sit overnight at room temperature.
2. Cream butter along with both sugars, ground cloves with hand mixer on medium speed, for about 3 minutes.
3. Add egg and mix until incorporated.
4. Slowly add the flour and ¼ tsp salt and mix until just combined; do not overmix.
5. Add the fruits and nuts, along with any liquid in the bowl.
6. Divide the dough in half and place each half on a parchment paper. This dough is very easy to work with and the recipe makes about 5-dozen cookies, so if you want to divide it into more than 2 logs for future use, go ahead and make 4 smaller logs. Roll each log in the parchment and refrigerate for 2 hours. Place all the logs that are not being used right away in a Ziploc bag and stow in the freezer (right now I’ve 3 logs waiting to be used).
7. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cut the log into ½” thick slices. Place them on a ungreased cookie pa ½” apart. Bake for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden. My cookies were ready in 16-17 minutes, but the bottoms were slightly browned, so keep checking after 15 minutes.

View the recipe instructions at Cook's Hideout