Dry Fruit Cookies

One of my friends brought a box of dates home when she visited me a month back. I already had a big bag of dates in the refrigerator. So, I have been trying to use up dates as much as I can. I tried date cake which came out very good, and when I was watching food network one day and Ina Garten made these cookies, I thought why not modify this recipe and use dates in it. I halved the main ingredients mostly and added my own touches. Here it is:



Ingredients
* 1/4 pound pitted dates. Chopped coarsely.
* 2 Ounces raisins - I used black ones, you can use golden or whatever you have on hand. If you are using jumbo raisins, chop them coarsely.
* 2 ounces sweetened dried cranberries.
* 1 ounces Tutti fruity bits
* 1 tablespoon honey
* 2 tablespoons red wine
* 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
* 3 ounces pecans chopped coarsely.
* a pinch salt
* 1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
* 1/4 cup superfine sugar
* 1/4 cup light brown sugar loosely packed
* 1/2 TBSP of ground flax seed or flax seed meal mixed with 1 TBSP + 1 tsp of warm water (See update below)
* 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour



I followed the method given in the original recipe and baked the cookies. I got 36 cookies for the above mentioned ingredients and the cookies tasted delicious. I baked them for about 14 minutes. You can see in the picture that they are a little dark on the bottom. I didn't use the parchment paper and if I had, it would've been nice golden brown. Next time, I probably will try cashews or almonds for the nuts part of the recipe to get a different variety, but all in all a great recipe.

Update: I made these for my kid's birthday party and instead of using flax seed as egg replacer, I used 1 TBSP of corn starch with dry mix and added 1 TBSP of water to the creamed butter sugar mixture. They came out very good without the nutty smell of flax seeds. I have made these with cashews and everyone loved them.

Happy Baking!! Pin It