Cherry Nut Cookies

These Delicious Cherry Nut Cookies are a Christmas favorite! They have a thick chewy bite, with the added crunch of nuts, and a sweet cherry on top. The perfect balance of flavors!

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These Cherry Nut Cookies originally called "Bird Nest Cookies" because the Cherry in the center resembles an egg in a nest; were a Recipe I found in a Cookie Book years ago, but I changed the recipe quite a bit. The original recipe called for rolling the cookies in an egg wash then in chopped Walnuts, which I quickly changed to chopped Pecans and later on instead of rolling them in the nuts I actually incorporated the nut pieces in the batter, which I find better. I also as usual, changed the All purpose flour for Bisquick...Yes I love Bisquick, someone get them to sponsor me! lol

Like i've stated in many other recipes, I love the texture that Bisquick gives a lot of the things I bake especially Cookies. But you can most definitely use All purpose Flour for this recipe.

Ingredients:

-2-1/2 cups Bisquick Baking Mix

-1/2 cup Vegetable Shortening

-1/2 cup Brown Sugar

-1 Egg

-1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

-3/4 cups chopped Nuts (Pecans, Pistachios, Almonds, Walnuts, any kind you want)

-1 jar Maraschino Cherries

*NOTE: If you want to use All purpose Flour for this Recipe in place of Bisquick, the original Recipe calls for 1 cup of All purpose Flour; but since I altered the recipe by adding a whole egg, you might need more flour, start with 1 cup of All purpose flour and add more if the dough is too sticky, you want it to be tacky but still be able to form it into balls without it sticking to your hands.

Directions:

To get started add the shortening, brown sugar, vanilla extract, and egg into a mixing bowl and mix until thick and creamy (About 1-2 minutes.)

Then add in the Bisquick or Flour 1 cup at a time until it's all incorporated and forms into a dough.

Next add in the chopped nuts and mix well until everything is incorporated. Make sure the nuts are chopped well, you don't want really big chunks in these cookies.

I'm using a mix of Pistachios, Pecans, and Almonds. I usually use just Pecans but I didn't have enough so I added Pistachios and Almonds, and I actually like it much better with the mixed nuts. You can use whatever kind of chopped nuts you prefer.

Now that the dough is ready, it's time to form the cookies into about 1-1/2 inch balls. These cookies don't spread out much, but you still want to leave a little space in-between them because we are going to press them down in the center.

*I place these on a Baking sheet lined with Parchment Paper.

Using your thumb, you want to press each cookie down in the middle, and leave a little cavity for the cherry in the center of each cookie. Then Place a maraschino cherry in the center of each cookie.

Bake these cookies at 350 degrees Farenheit for 9-10 minutes, no more than 10 minutes. They bake quickly since they are small, and tend to burn in the bottom if you leave them longer than 10 minutes.

Let them cool at room temp for a few minutes after taking them out of the oven and ENJOY!

FULL RECIPE VIDEO