Fruitcake cookies



Z

zxcvbob

Guest
I forgot how much trouble these are to make. Cutting up all that sticky
fruit (cutting up the dates was the worst.) Making a real fruitcake
would have been a lot easier. But then after I was done, DD grabbed a
couple of cookies and told me how much better they are than fruitcake.
(They are really good, but I think I like fruit *cake* better.) I got
this recipe from my MIL last year:

Jo's Fruitcake Cookies

1 stick margarine [1/2 cup]
1 3/4 Cup sugar
3 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp soda
3 eggs
1 tsp. sherry flavoring
1 tsp. almond flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring
1/4 to 1/2 cup water
1 lb. dates, chopped
1 lb candies cherries, chopped
1 lb. candied pineapple, chopped
1 lb. shelled pecans, chopped

Cream sugar and margarine. Sift and measure flour. Sift again with dry
ingredients. Add eggs and flavoring to creamed mixture. Add dry
ingredients alternately with water. Mix in fruits and nuts. Drop by
teaspoonful on a slightly greased cookie sheet. Bake 15-20 minutes at
325 degrees.

Substitutions: I used 3 pounds of fruit and almost a pound of mixed
walnuts and pecans. For fruit, I used about 6 ounces each: dried
apricots, dates, raisins, waxy citrus peel "fruitcake mix"; a half a
pound of mixed red and green glacé cherries; and a pound of yellow glacé
pineapple. I didn't have sherry flavoring, so I left it out (also left
out the almond extract) and I used vermouth instead the water to make up
for it.

Best regards,
Bob
 
On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:37:44 -0600, zxcvbob <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I forgot how much trouble these are to make. Cutting up all that sticky
>fruit (cutting up the dates was the worst.) Making a real fruitcake
>would have been a lot easier. But then after I was done, DD grabbed a
>couple of cookies and told me how much better they are than fruitcake.
>(They are really good, but I think I like fruit *cake* better.) I got
>this recipe from my MIL last year:
>
>Jo's Fruitcake Cookies
>

Bob, I assume it's okay to use real sherry instead of flavouring, and
to leave out almond extract which I hate?
 
Kathy in NZ wrote:
> On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:37:44 -0600, zxcvbob <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>
>>I forgot how much trouble these are to make. Cutting up all that sticky
>>fruit (cutting up the dates was the worst.) Making a real fruitcake
>>would have been a lot easier. But then after I was done, DD grabbed a
>>couple of cookies and told me how much better they are than fruitcake.
>>(They are really good, but I think I like fruit *cake* better.) I got
>>this recipe from my MIL last year:
>>
>>Jo's Fruitcake Cookies
>>
>
>
> Bob, I assume it's okay to use real sherry instead of flavouring, and
> to leave out almond extract which I hate?
>
>


Yes. (did you read the substitutions that I made, at the end of the
recipe?) I used vermouth instead of water, and left out the sherry
flavoring and the almond extract. You could do the same thing with real
sherry. HTH :)

Bob
 
On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:37:44 -0600, zxcvbob <[email protected]>
wrote:

>I forgot how much trouble these are to make. Cutting up all that sticky
>fruit (cutting up the dates was the worst.)

Next time, use kitchen shears dipped in flour. Makes things a whole
lot easier. And if you coat the fruit with a dusting of flour, it
won't stick together in big clumps. If you already did those things,
just ignore me. <G>

Carol, saving this recipe!
--

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/head_trollop/my_photos
 
Damsel in dis Dress <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Sun, 04 Dec 2005 23:37:44 -0600, zxcvbob <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
>>I forgot how much trouble these are to make. Cutting up all that sticky
>>fruit (cutting up the dates was the worst.)
>
> Next time, use kitchen shears dipped in flour. Makes things a whole
> lot easier. And if you coat the fruit with a dusting of flour, it
> won't stick together in big clumps. If you already did those things,
> just ignore me. <G>
>
> Carol, saving this recipe!

My big discovery, (which I'm sure everyone else was already doing) was
rinsing the excess sugar syrup off glace cherries. Made chopping 600 or so
grams of them into quarters a lot less messy <g>

Rhonda Anderson
Cranebrook, NSW, Australia
 
On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:01:14 GMT, Rhonda Anderson
<[email protected]> wrote:

>My big discovery, (which I'm sure everyone else was already doing) was
>rinsing the excess sugar syrup off glace cherries. Made chopping 600 or so
>grams of them into quarters a lot less messy <g>

Nope, that one is news to me! Thank you so much for sharing it!

Carol
--

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/head_trollop/my_photos
 
Damsel in dis Dress <[email protected]> wrote in
news:[email protected]:

> On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:01:14 GMT, Rhonda Anderson
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>My big discovery, (which I'm sure everyone else was already doing) was
>>rinsing the excess sugar syrup off glace cherries. Made chopping 600
>>or so grams of them into quarters a lot less messy <g>
>
> Nope, that one is news to me! Thank you so much for sharing it!
>
> Carol

You're welcome. I'm sure I must have read about it somewhere and filed it
away in my head - I don't think I came up with it completely on my own. I
put them all into a sieve, rinsed them, then patted them dry with a clean
teatowel. They were a lot less messy to work with.

Rhonda Anderson
Cranebrook, NSW, Australia
 
On Mon 05 Dec 2005 05:53:38a, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it Rhonda
Anderson?

> Damsel in dis Dress <[email protected]> wrote in
> news:[email protected]:
>
>> On Mon, 05 Dec 2005 10:01:14 GMT, Rhonda Anderson
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>>My big discovery, (which I'm sure everyone else was already doing) was
>>>rinsing the excess sugar syrup off glace cherries. Made chopping 600
>>>or so grams of them into quarters a lot less messy <g>
>>
>> Nope, that one is news to me! Thank you so much for sharing it!
>>
>> Carol
>
> You're welcome. I'm sure I must have read about it somewhere and filed it
> away in my head - I don't think I came up with it completely on my own. I
> put them all into a sieve, rinsed them, then patted them dry with a clean
> teatowel. They were a lot less messy to work with.
>
> Rhonda Anderson
> Cranebrook, NSW, Australia
>

I do that with the glace pineapple and citrus peels, as well. However, for
fruitcake, I use the cherries whole and the pineapple in wedges about the
size of the cherries. Makes a nice "stained glass window pane" effect when
you slice it. The peel I cut in 1/4" dice. Of course, for fruitcake
cookies they all need to be chopped. I have found it easy to chop the
fruit in the food processor, with the addition of some of sugar from the
recipe. The sugar keeps it separated. I chop each type of fruit
separately, since they all have different density and the results are more
uniform if done separately.

--
Wayne Boatwright *¿*
_____________________________________________

A chicken in every pot is a *LOT* of chicken!
 
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