Method

1. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla essence until light and fluffy
2. Mix into the butter mixture the flour, nuts and dried fruit
3. Once well combined, turn out onto grease proof paper and shape to form a log.
4. The length and height of your log will depend on how many cookies you want and how big you want them. Imanaged to get 24 cookies from this mixture.
5. Wrap the cookie log in the grease proof paper and chill in the fridge for an hour; this will allow the mixture to tighten up and will make it easier to handle.
6. Once the hour is up, remove from the fridge and slice into individual cookies
7. Line a baking sheet, place the cookies on to the baking sheet, spaced evenly apart and back in a preheated over at 180 deg C for 12-15 minutes
8. If you can resist the temptation, allow to cool before eating - enjoy!

Tip

With the nuts and dried fruit the dough isn't the easiest to slice, if you find the cookies crumbling while you are slicing them patch them back together and they will be fine. The cookies don't spread too much so you should be able to fit a fair few on each baking tray. It is worth experimenting with various nut/fruit combinations so try a different combination each time - enjoy!