Cherry Icebox Cookies
I share a couple ideas for what I will do differently next time. This recipe is from a 2009 Taste of Home magazine. Jim says they are yummy. His favorite are the ones with chocolate. I want the cherries to be more dominant so I will add cherry extract next time.
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
¼ cup maraschino cherry juice
4 ½ teaspoons lemon juice
½ cup chopped walnuts
½ cup chopped maraschino cherries
(I added ½ cup chopped chocolate chips to one half of this)
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Beat in cherry and lemon juices. Stir in nuts and the cherries.
Shape into four 12 in. rolls: wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 4 hours or until firm.
Unwrap and cut into ¼-in. slices. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes – I did 12 minutes or until the edges begin to brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.
Makes more than 6 dozen
I filled the cookie sheet with over 30 of these and then I froze the other 4 1/2 logs for later baking.
Tip: After I mixed everything – I cut the dough ball in to 2 sections; I put one section back in the processor, and combined chopped chocolate chips with it. These were my favorite.
Next time I will add chocolate chips to the entire recipe. Adding chocolate makes these taste like chocolate covered cherries.
I don’t even taste the lemon and I was curious why it was in the recipe. The cherry seems to be more prevalent with the milk chocolate chips (to me) Jim says he definitely tastes the cherries He did not even know this called for lemon juice. I am thinking maybe cut back on the lemon juice as I am not sure why it is needed
I will also replace one tsp. of lemon juice with cherry flavoring. You cannot taste the lemon juice, and I want to add more cherry flavor to these. I have another idea; I have a bag of cherry chips, thinking I’ll add these to half the batch and chocolate to the other half, or mix.
The third row in the photo shows what the bottom of these look like even when the top does not show and brown. 12 minutes here in Indiana worked for me
Papas Cutting Board 