We were at Al and Cathy's when she opened her fridge and said 'oh my gosh you have to try these cookies, they are my all time favorite, Al's mom used to make them...' and handed me what appeared to be a fruitcake cookie. Um...no thanks? But she insisted and I bit into it and immediately took another cookie before finishing the first one hahaha. These are great! Not fruitcake, and great.
Cathy says lots of people ask for the recipe but then get intimidated because you have to beat egg whites and fold in other ingredients so it seems hard - I'm here to tell you this is not hard at all! I made 2 single batches and 1 double batch in two days, gave them out as neighbor gifts and took some to dance class (and yes, squirreled some away for myself!).
One batch I omitted the pecans so Dave could try them, the cookies turned out good but don't have as much flavor or density. One batch I didn't want to wait for them to chill overnight, so I cooled on the counter and popped them in the fridge for a couple hours, then froze them for about an hour. No difference to the ones I left in the fridge overnight.
- 3 egg whites
- 3/4 cup sugar (plus more for rolling after they're baked)
- 1 t. salt
- 1 t. vanilla
- 3/4 cup flour
- 1/2 cup butter, melted and cooled
- 3/4 cup pecans, chopped
- 3/4 cup candied red and green cherries, chopped
Directions:
Beat egg whites with sugar, salt and vanilla adding a little at a time until it holds a firm peak. Fold in flour and the cooled melted butter. Mix until batter is smooth. Fold in nuts and cherries. Turn into a well greased 9x9x2 pan. Bake at 350' for 30-35 minutes or until done. Cool and cover with foil, let set overnight in refrigerator. Cut into 1x2" bars and roll in granulated sugar.
my notes: It takes quite a while for the egg whites to form firm peaks, I beat them in my standing mixer with the whisk attachment and it took at least 10 minutes, probably longer. I melted the butter in a glass measuring cup in the microwave when I started the egg whites and then set it aside on the counter; by the time the egg whites were firm the butter was cool. I had a hard time removing the baked bars from the pan, after the first batch I lined the pan with parchment so I could lift them out using the paper. The recipe says to cut into 1x2 bars but Cathy does 1x1 instead so that's what I did.
For neighbor gifts: I lined small paper boxes with waxed paper, filled with cookies and wrapped wax paper over top. I made simple little tags I designed at avery.com and printed front and back on 3x5 index cards. Put the card on top of the wax paper wrapped cookies, closed the box and tied with a big white ribbon.
12.18.20: candy bows by B
12.18.19: how to make gift bows
12.18.18: melting snowman chocolate bark
12.18.17: stabilized whipped cream
12.18.16: cocoa snowballs
12.18.15: gift paper wrapping bag
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