Fruitcake Cookies

Total Time: 45 mins Preparation Time: 15 mins Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients

• Servings: 36
• 1 (18 1/2 ounce) package yellow cake mix
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• 4 ounces unsalted butter, at room temperature (1 stick)
• 1/4 cup butter flavor shortening
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
• 1/4-1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
• 3/4 cup unsalted pecans, chopped (or mix of pecans,walnuts, and pistachios or any you prefer)
• 1/4 cup dried cherries or 1/4 cup cranberries, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried apricot, chopped
• 1/4 cup raisins or 1/4 cup sultana

Recipe

• 1 preheat oven to 350 f and have ready some ungreased baking sheets.
• 2 cream together the butter, shortening, brown sugar.
• 3 add egg, vanilla, almond extract and beat to combine.
• 4 add cake mix (and if you like, a bit of cinnamon), beating on lowest setting just enough to blend together with no dry bits (overmixing will toughen the dough); dough will be stiff.
• 5 using a wooden spoon, stir in the nuts and dried fruits to blend well.
• 6 using a small meatball scoop, drop blobs of dough onto cookie sheets, spacing them out a bit as they will spread; i get 12 blobs per cookie sheet.
• 7 bake in preheated oven for about 12-14 minutes or until slightly golden; do not overbake.
• 8 let cool 1 minute on baking sheets, then remove carefully to wire racks to cool completely.
• 9 store in cookie tins; these won't keep terribly long, only a few days and no longer than 1 week, so if making in advance you might want to freeze them.