Fruitcake Cookies (Old Fashioned)

Old Fashioned Fruitcake Cookies are a fun, easy, and delicious twist on the traditional fruitcake. This recipe is perfect for your holiday dessert menu and the best Christmas cookies. Admittedly, fruitcake isn’t always at the top of everyone’s holiday baking list. And honestly, I think the stuff gets a bad rap. Is there bad fruitcake out there? You bet there is. But, there’s some great fruitcake out there, too. Despite all of the fruitcake hate, a recipe for fruitcake cookies is something that I get requests for pretty frequently. In fact, I get about 10 or 12 requests per week during the holiday season for these treats. So, when I set out to create a recipe for fruitcake cookies, I knew I didn’t want to put a recipe out there that I wasn’t 100% behind. I’ve tried a handful of different recipes but was just never bowled over by any of them. That is until I made one simple change.

½ cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ tsp. pure almond extract
¼ tsp. pure lemon extract
1½ cups all-purpose flour, unbleached
½ tsp. sea salt
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup candied pineapple, diced
1 cup candied red cherries, diced
1 cup candied green cherries, diced
1 cup pecans, coarsely chopped

Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C/130°C fan, Gas Mark 2) and line a cookie sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper. Set aside.

Use a mixer to cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg, vanilla extract, almond extract, and lemon extract and mix well.

In another bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix well. Fold in the candied fruit and pecans.

Drop the dough by heaping tablespoonsful onto the prepared cookie sheet about 3-4" apart. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until just golden brown. Allow to cool for about 5 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container for a few days or in the refrigerator for longer. Cookies can be wrapped tightly and frozen for a few months.

Makes 48 cookies.

Cook's Notes: If you find the cookies spread too much for your liking, a 30 minute rest in the fridge will help. Just keep the dough chilled until you scoop it out onto the cookie sheet.