Please fix this cherry almond oat sugar cookie recipe for me

[Anonymous]

Years ago now at a bake sale, I had the most delicious cherry almond cookie. I searched the internet and figured out it was this: Betty Crocker Cherry Almond Oat cookie
https://www.bettycrocker.com/recipes/cherry-almond-oat-breakfast-cookies/29bcdf8f-703c-4f42-bed7-662cca2f8ed2

I made them once and they were very crumbly. I couldn't form them into a cookie, it was like making meatballs, I was pressing together with all my might and they still didn't stay together. Which is exactly what the comments to the recipe say. The result was OK. But the cookies I had eaten before were perfect, so what modifications can I make for this dough to come together?

Here's a portable way to enjoy cereal for breakfast, made easy with Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix and Honey Nut Cheerios Medley Crunch cereal.
by Stephanie Wise Updated May 26, 2020
Ingredients

1
pouch (17.5 oz) Betty Crocker™ Sugar Cookie Mix
1
tablespoon Gold Medal™ unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2
cup butter, softened
1
egg
1
cup Honey Nut Cheerios™ Medley Crunch cereal
1
cup old-fashioned oats
3/4
cup dried cherries
1/2
cup sliced almonds

Make With
Betty Crocker Cookie Mix

Steps
1
Heat oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with silicone baking mats or cooking parchment paper.
2
In large bowl, stir together sugar cookie mix, flour, butter and egg until combined. Add remaining ingredients; stir just until combined.
3
With hands, roll tablespoonfuls of dough into balls; place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets.
4
Bake 10 to 15 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove from oven; cool on cookie sheets 2 minutes. Remove from cookie sheets to cooling racks.

[Anonymous]

I’m not a baker, so please feel free to ignore this if it doesn’t seem helpful.

Looking at the recipe, it seems as though only the egg and the butter are holding things together— including the cheerios.
I would try softening the butter at room temperature, and use it when it’s just soft enough to mix. Then do step 2.

The dough then has to hold together the cherries, the oats, the cherries and the nuts. Before changing the recipe, try refrigerating the dough. Chilled dough might hold together better when you make the balls.

[Anonymous]

Stir together flour, cookie mix, and oats. Melt room temperature butter to where it’s almost completely melted- abt 20-30s in microwave, then stir until it’s entirely melted- it should be slightly warm but not hot. Add 2 (not 1) room temperature eggs to the butter and whip the entire mixture for about 30s, just long enough to slightly beat the eggs. Pour over first 3 dry indigents and stir until all ingredients are completely saturated. Then add cereal, nuts and cherries one at a time, mixing each just long enough that they stick to the batter. Don’t over mix.

[Anonymous]

It might also need a touch more sugar, which you would want to cream with the butter, and then let those things sit on the cookie sheet after coming out of the oven for longer than two minutes. You want to sugar/butter mixture to harden back up. You could probably throw in another half stick of butter. You simply don’t have enough moisture for all of those dry ingredients.

[Anonymous]

I will try all these things— and report back. Thank you so much! It’s a very beautiful, Christmasy-looking cookie (when it works) if you can get over that it starts with a mix.

[Anonymous]

Add an egg yolk