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Christmas Rocks are a vintage cookie recipe filled with nuts and dried and candied fruit. Soft, sweet and delicious!
This Christmas Rocks cookie recipe is another vintage recipe from my mother’s old recipe box. And – as has been the case with so many of the recipes from my mom that we’ve shared earlier on A Family Feast – Jack and I both get such a kick out of the recipe name!
I really have no idea why these cookies are called Christmas Rocks – because they are soft, sweet, and absolutely delicious.
They are very festive and perfect for the holidays – with the colorful dried cranberries and candied cherries and pineapple chunks peeking out through the batter. These cookies are also loaded up with nuts – walnuts, almonds and pecans – so they have a great crunchy texture as well!
My mom loved baked goods filled with dried fruits and nuts (she even liked fruit cake!) – so I can totally see why this Christmas Rocks cookie recipe was in her collection.
These easy cookies bake up in about 20 minutes, and I think they are the absolute best served warm right out of the oven. But you can also make them up to a day or two ahead of time. Just store them in an airtight container before serving.
And one last note – although the recipe called for candied cherries and pineapple, (plus a mix of walnuts, almonds and pecans) we think any combination of candied fruit and nuts will work well in this recipe. Enjoy!
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Christmas Rocks
Christmas Rocks cookies are a vintage cookie recipe filled with nuts and dried and candied fruit. Soft, sweet and delicious!
Ingredients
- 1 cup walnuts
- 1/2 cup almonds
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1 cup pitted dates
- 1 cup candied cherries
- 2 cups candied pineapple
- 1 cup dried cranberries
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour, divided
- 1/4 cup butter, softened
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 whole egg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- Non-stick pan spray
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place rack in top one third of oven.
- In a food processor, pulse each nut one at a time until pea sized and place in a large bowl.
- Pulse the four fruits one at a time to same size and add to nuts in bowl.
- Add ½ cup of the flour to the fruit and nuts and toss and mix until combined. Set aside.
- In a separate bowl, mix butter and brown sugar until creamed. (I used a stand mixer with a paddle attachment but this could be done by hand)
- Add the egg and combine.
- Add remaining flour, cinnamon, baking soda and vanilla and combine.
- Pour this mixture over the fruit and nuts and combine by hand.
- Line four cookie sheets with parchment paper and lightly spray with non stick pan spray.
- Divide mixture into 48 one ounce drops using a small scoop placing 12 per pan.
- Bake two pans at a time in top third of oven for 20 minutes but watch that bottoms don’t get too browned. Rotate pans after ten minutes.
- Remove to a rack to cool.
- Seal and an airtight container.
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One of my favorite new christmas cookies! Chock full of nuts and dried fruits!
Thanks Lisa!
Es una receta fabulosa, quedaron deliciosas. Gracias por proporcionar la receta. Saludos.
Thank you!
I have this exact recipe (well almost) from my Grandmother. Her recipe is so old it does not have “baker’s” measurements. The DIFFERENCE, and it is a game changer…her has orange juice in it! A glass (those tiny glass ones) of juice. It gives the cookies an extra citrus punch AND makes them moist. These do not taste like bought fruit cake, they are delicious! Enjoy!!
Thanks Sarah!
Good recipe we love these cookies!
Thanks Robin!
These cookies are very good
Thanks Lois!
Yum! I was afraid there wasn’t going to be enough batter to stick it all together, but it was the perfect amount.
Thanks Cecilia!