Fruit Rocks

This past Sunday was a day of baking, baking, and more BAKING! Mom and I baked at least 8 different types of cookies for a grand total of over 300 cookies... I know, we're nuts. You see, every year my mom bakes cookies for her department at work and this year two sub department were added to her departments adding a lot more people to bake for. Anyway, one of the types of cookie we decided to make was my (actually Mommom's aunt, actually my mom's mom's mom's brother's wife if you really want to get specific) Aunt Wilma's Fruit Rocks. 

some of the other recipes below :)

Okay, let's get down to business (to defeat the Huns). I had a Red Bull this morning, can you tell? That was a Mulan reference for those who are Disney illiterate. Dang, not sure someone with ADHD that drank a Red Bull should be writing a blog post. *Deep breathe* Okay, I halved this recipe because it makes A LOT! It still made maybe around 4 dozen? halved. It's pretty great. My mom's huge standing mixer almost couldn't handle it. Mom and I made this recipe before maybe 2 years ago and I guess we mixed it too long and the fruit "rocks" became fruit "gravel". The pecans got too crunched and the cherries were smashed and turned the whole cookie a pink color. They were still good. They were better this time though.

You may notice that in the directions there's not a point in time where it tells you to put in the "syrup" (which I assumed was corn syrup) or the optional wine. Got to love recipes that were handed down several times (that's for real, not sarcasm, they really are the best...). I put both those ingredients in after the eggs. Perhaps Aunt Wilma will comment on when it's actually supposed to be done. If not, your guess is as good as mine. I did put the wine in. I hosted a "Friends-mas" party the night before and there was some leftover wine (Thanks Dwayne!), so I went for it. 

These cookies scream Christmas to me! They're amazing. I have such happy memories of Mommom making them. They're not the most attractive cookie, but they sure are good! They're one of Matt's favorites which still shocks me. 

Fruit Rocks (Aunt Wilma's Recipe)

Ingredients:

5 sticks butter
1.5 cups sugar
12 eggs
6 cups flour, sift with spices
1 t. cloves
1 t. allspice
1 t. cinnamon
2 lbs candied pineapple
2 lbs candied cherries
2 T. syrup
5 quarts pecans
3 t. wine (optional)

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time beating after each addition. Flour fruit and nuts as you add to batter. Add remaining flour. Drop by spoonful on greased baking sheet and bake in slow oven 325 degrees about 10 minutes.

Chocolate Crackled Cookies

No Bake Caramel Cookies

Christmas Cookie Bark

Peanut Butter Christmas Cookies

White Chocolate Dipped Ginger Cookies

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't posted in awhile. Matt and I have been doing Whole30 (look for post next week on it!) and Mommom's recipes are not Whole30 compliant (at all). BUT, Matt's co-workers have been missing home baked goodness, so for his paramedic's (Randy) birthday I said I would make him cookies. Oatmeal raisin is his favorite, so I looked in Mommom's cookbook for a recipe. 

Mommom got this recipe from Barbara Johnson who is one of my mom's cousins.Turns out that this recipe was one of my granddad's (Daddad) favorites, so I was pretty sure this was going to be a hit. I wasn't able to taste them, so I was counting on Daddad's taste buds for this. Randy loved them and so did the rest of the crew. Success! I was pretty jealous that I didn't get to try one myself though.

When baking, I ALWAYS forget to put butter out to soften. It's a horrible habit that causes me to take a really long time to bake anything. Just as I was noticing that I didn't put any butter out to soften, I looked at the recipe to find that this recipe called for NO butter. Thank goodness! It calls for vegetable oil instead. Is this a common thing in oatmeal cookies? I wouldn't know. I'm not a huge fan of them and therefore don't make them a lot (poor Matt). Also, when I was getting ready to start mixing, I noticed that the recipe was written in all caps which meant that I had no idea if "T." stood for tablespoons or teaspoons. I made an educated guess and went for teaspoons. It worked. 

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

Ingredients:
1.5 cups flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 cup light brown sugar
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
2 cups raw quick-cooking oats
1 cup raisins
1/2 cup nuts (optional)

Directions:

Sift flour , soda, and salt - set aside
Mix oil, sugars, egg, and vanilla
Stir in flour mixture and oats until well combined. Stir in raisins.
Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet
Bake 10 to 12 minutes at 375 degrees.

Peanut Butter Cookies

The week was running out and I still hadn't made something from Mommom's cookbook, so decided on making these peanut butter cookies. I've made them before and was pretty sure I had all the ingredients at home. I was wrong, I still hadn't bought any baking soda after realizing I didn't have any while making the Morning Glory Muffins a couple weeks ago. Since it worked for those muffins, I wasn't too worried about it. Nope. Nope. Nope. Something went wrong and I'm blaming the lack of baking soda and the surplus of baking powder. 

While I was baking, my cousin Timothy showed up. Where there is food, there is Timothy. Actually, he had no idea I was baking (or making dinner, which he stayed for). He was nice enough to eat a good amount of the batch. Matt ate some too. Both agreed that there was something off though.

I wasn't satisfied with funky cookies, so the next day Matt bought be some fresh baking soda on his way home from work and I remade the whole thing. They turned out way better! They were just like I remembered. I'm so glad that I started over and did it again. It was well worth it! Orange County Fire Rescue station 66 B shift got that batch. 

The recipe is pretty straight forward and easy, especially if your best friends gave you a standing mixer as a wedding present (thanks Ashleigh and Shannon!). As always when baking, make sure your butter is softened. You shouldn't need to worry about that with the shortening though. The only problem I had was with flour being flung out of the mixing bowl before it could be mixed in. Next time I would add the dry ingredients a quarter at a time. 

Peanut Butter Cookies

Ingredients:

3 cups flour

1 t. baking soda

1 t. baking powder

2 eggs

1 cup shortening, half butter

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

1 cup chunky peanut butter

1 t. vanilla

Directions:

Cream butter and sugar until smooth, add peanut butter and blend, add eggs and vanilla and blend until smooth. Add dry ingredients in half at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Scoop out small balls of dough the size of a walnuts and place on cookie sheet. Use back of fork and press dough flat.

Bake 7 to 8 minutes at 350 degrees.