Dried Cherry and Almond Cookies with Vanilla Icing

I will never claim to be a baker, but I will fully admit my desire to create baked goods.  There is something so comforting about making a fresh batch of cookies.  I was excited to find Giada's recipe for Dried Cherry and Almond Cookies with Vanilla Icing since I had everything on hand.  I've been making a real effort to clean out my fridge and pantry to not let things go to waste, and this recipe fit the bill.  I didn't have enough dried cherries to quite make the 3/4 cup that it called for, but it was close.  Luckily in baking, you can cheat on those "add ins" a bit, whereas the dry and wet ingredients, you can't!

This simple recipe starts with making a dough that is close to a sugar cookie dough, but with added almond extract and cinnamon.  Then you stir in the chopped dried cherries and the toasted slivered almonds.  Toasting the nuts here is key since it brings out such a wonderful flavor in the almond.  For the next step, you plop the dough onto a piece of plastic wrap and roll it as best as you can into a 12-inch long log.  Remember, I never claimed to be a baker, so no laughing at my pictures!

How people get cookie logs to be perfectly round, I will never know.  If anyone has any great tips (besides patience, which I'm a bit limited with), please let me know!  The cookie log can be kept in the refrigerate for up to 3 days, but has to stay in for at least 2 hours.  The cookies are then sliced and baked until golden on the edges and puffy in the middle.  Finally, after they are cooled, you drizzle them with an icing, made of powdered sugar, water, and vanilla extract.  Now that's the fun part.  Just drizzle them on the same parchment paper that they were cooked on and you can make as much of a mess as you want!  I hope you enjoy this buttery sugar cookie with crunchy toasted almonds and tart cherry morsels as much as I did.