Grandma's No Bake Fruit Roll Cookies (Gluten Free and Dairy Free Options!)

Ever since I can remember my mother has been making these fruit roll cookies every Christmas. Interestingly, the recipe comes from my fathers side of the family though, so why does she make them? Well, because they are absolutely delicious!

Other than tasting great, a benefit of these Christmas cookies is that they are easy to make and will quite literally last you the whole season, because you keep them in the freezer. I hope that these cookies will become a staple in your home just as they have been in mine since the recipe was passed from my grandparents.

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Cool Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1h 30m

Ingredients

1. Holiday Music (they will turn out better if there is holiday music playing!)
2. 1.5 Cups chopped pitted dates
3. 8 oz Green candied cherries
4. 8 oz Red candied cherries
5. 1.5 Cups pecans (walnuts work great too!)
6. 18-20 oz Vanilla wafers
7. 18 oz Sweetened condensed milk
8. about 16 oz powdered sugar
9. Aluminum foil

Notes

I used 3 boxes of Kinnikinnick vanilla wafers (18.9 oz), which are gluten free and sweetened condensed coconut milk to make it dairy free. These substitutions work great and your cookies will last just as long!

Chop the pecans, dates, and cherries. I find that the easiest way to do this is by using a food processer, but you can also chop them up with a knife. Chop, blend, or crush the wafers into a more fine powder with some chunks. Make sure that the ingredients are finely chopped so they form the cookies without large chunks.

In the large mixing bowl add your chopped items: pecans, dates, cherries, and wafers.

Next, add the sweetened condensed milk and mix with a rubber spatula.

Fold the ingredients over themselves until the mixture is smooth and uniformly mixed. There should be no dry spots left and the mixture should be sticky throughout.

Now the fun part, forming the cookies!

1. Lay out a few pan sized pieces of foil and lay a line of powdered sugar over each one so it looks sort of like a mountain range.
2. Then, with clean hands, pick up the mixture from the bowl and form a log shape over your mounds of powdered sugar. Tip: having you hands slightly damp can help when you pick up the mixture, but you need them dry for the next step!
3. Lastly, take the powdered sugar and lift it up and around the cookie log so it covers it completely, try to leave no spots without powdered sugar.

Once covered, you may leave the cookie log on a light bed of powdered sugar, but if there is a large mound I recommend moving some over to make your next cookie log with.

Once your cookie logs are made use the foil to wrap over each one and close the edges so that no powdered sugar can escape out the sides.

Place your cookies on a pan and put in the freezer for at least 1 hour before serving.

Once cooled the cookies can be cut and served. Make sure to use a plate as they can be a little messy!

You can store these cookies for up to 3 months in the freezer.

My family and I really love these cookies and I hope that they can be enjoyed in a few more homes and you will like them just as much!