Cherry Pecan Cookies.

A local bakery in Mobile, which is really an institution around here, makes an unbelievably delicious cookie that has finely chopped cookies & cherries in it. It's my most favorite cookie in the world. I would love to have the recipe, but they do not offer a cookbook. I ran across this recipe, and will try it soon to see how close it approximates the perfection that slides of out the Pollman's ovens every day.

Cherry Pecan Cookies

• 2/3 cup butter
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup diced maraschino cherries
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Dice the cherries and chop the pecans. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the vanilla, cherry juice, and egg, beat until thoroughly blended. Stir the flour, baking powder, and salt together to mix evenly. Fold the cherries and pecans together so that the cherries share their juice with the nuts. Stir the cherry/pecan mixture into the dry ingredients to mix evenly. Add the flour/cherry/nut mixture to the butter & sugar mixture, 1/2 at a time, mix thoroughly. Drop onto a non-stick baking sheet by the rounded tablespoonful. Bake in 350 degree oven for 12 minutes.

*A 10-oz. jar of maraschino cherries yields a generous 1/2 cup - use them all! I get the chunk size and appearance I like by cutting each cherry into 8 pieces. The cookie bakes up pretty high. For a flatter cookie, flatten the dough to about 1/4 inch thickness after dropping it onto the pan.