Fruit Cake Cookies

I have been wishing to make fruit cake cookies for a long time now. But never really came across an easy recipe. Searching for an easy recipe in the web took me here. I actually followed this recipe with little changes. Mine is with egg instead of the eggless version. It was really nice and I was excited to bake cookies for the first time. Almost 36 cookies were finished by three of us in less than 2 days. And surprisingly it is not at all difficult to make. So, here you go.

Ingredients

Dried fruits - 1 cup (I used raisins, cashews, almonds, pistachios, coconut and apricots)

Orange juice - 2 tablespoon (You can definitely use rum/wine/vodka)

Lemon juice - 1 tablespoon

Honey - 1 tablespoon

Butter - 1/2 cup, soft (unsalted, omit salt if using salted butter)

Sugar - 1/3 cup

Egg - 1 medium

Powdered cardamom - 1/2 teaspoon

Orange zest - 1/2 teaspoon

Vanilla - 1/2 teaspoon

Salt - a pinch

All purpose flour - 1 & 1/2 cup

Mix together orange juice, lemon juice and honey and soak the fruits overnight in it. 

Cream together butter and sugar with a hand mixer for 3-4 minutes. Add salt, orange zest, cardamom powder and vanilla to it. Mix well.

Add flour to it and fold it well. 

Add the egg to it and mix well. Add the vanilla and mix it once more.

Add the fruits to it along with any residual liquid.

Roll the dough in log or any shape you like in a parchment/wax paper. I realized at the last moment that I am out of wax paper, so I wrapped in cling film and it worked. 

Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Okay, most of your work is done and you can relax. After few hours, take it out and cut it any shape you like. These cookies does not increase in size, so apparently you get almost the same size as you cut.

Now the baking part. My first batch actually was browned which is no good. These are delicate so be careful while baking.

Preheat oven to 170C. Bake them for 10 minutes and see if they are done. If not, bake for 2-3 minutes more but keep an eye all along this extra time. It should be done by 15 minutes.

They are ready and they are delight.

Enjoy them with afternoon tea/coffee or whenever you like.

Happy Holidays from my home to yours! You all have a wonderful, happy and prosperous New Year.