Fruitcake Cookies

I saw a lady make a similar version of these on a Food Network holiday special. However, when I checked out the recipe, it appeared to have some major errors in it. I did some research and came up with my own version of these yummy, very rich, very buttery cookies. You will want some milk with these for sure!

• Ready In: 45 mins
• Serves: 36

Ingredients

• 1 (18 1/2ounce) 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

Directions

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.