Holiday Fruitcake Cookies

Who loves Fruitcake? This holiday cookie recipe offers all the wonderful elements of a fruitcake without the heavy texture. Fruitcake Cookies are my new favorite cookie this year.

I’ve been working on many new holiday cookie recipes, but this one is the supreme winner, in my opinion.

Why?

I love everything in traditional fruitcake, but not the cake itself.

Rum, zippy winter spices, citrus zest, cherries and other fruit, nuts… I adore all those flavors.

Yet I can’t get over the density of a classic fruitcake, and those horrible green cherries.

So I took all the elements in a fruitcake and made light and bright Fruitcake Cookies.

Smart, right? I’m feeling pretty smart today.

It’s a unique holiday cookie recipe that tastes like heaven.

Fruitcake cookies are this week’s McCormick Seasonal Seven holiday cookie recipe featuring: Vanilla Extract, Cinnamon and Ginger, and Allspice.

Flavors that I believe resonate in our minds as holiday favorites.

The spices definitely give the dough that little extra something, every cookie needs.

As with all roll-out holiday cookie recipes, make sure to chill the dough before rolling and cutting into rings.

Then bake, cool and glaze.

While the glaze is still wet, press small chunks of dried fruit, nuts, and seeds on the top of the Fruitcake Cookies.

Beautiful!

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Fruitcake Cookies

Prep Time: 1 hour hour

Cook Time: 8 minutes minutes

Total Time: 1 hour hour 8 minutes minutes

A holiday cookie recipe loaded with all the flavors of a fruitcake.

Servings: 70 cookies

Ingredients

US Customary - Metric

For the Fruit Cake Cookies:

• 1 cup unsalted butter softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon McCormick vanilla extract
• 1/2 teaspoon McCormick ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon McCormick ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon McCormick ground allspice
• Zest of 1 orange
• 1 large egg + 1 yolk
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

For the Rum Glaze:

• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon spiced rum
• 3-4 tablespoons heavy cream

For the Top:

• 1 3/4 cup mixed dried fruit cut into small 1/4-inch pieces
• 1 1/4 cups chopped nuts/seeds I used pecans and pumpkin seeds

Instructions

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line cookies sheets with parchment paper.
• Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy—3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla, spices, orange zest and egg + extra yolk, beat together. Slowly add the flour until just combined. Don't over mix.
• Dump the dough onto plastic wrap and wrap the dough well. Refrigerate for at least an hour before rolling out. Once the dough had chilled, flour a clean work surface, and break off a quarter of the dough, leaving the rest in the fridge. Roll the dough out evenly until 1/4-inch thick.
• Using a 2 to 2 1/2-inch round cookie cutter, cut out the cookies. Use a small 1/2- to 3/4-inch cutter, or small bottle cap to cut out the centers. Collect the leftover dough re-roll and cut. Place on prepared cookie sheets, and repeat with the rest of the dough.
• Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes, then allow them to cool on the cookies sheets another 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Cool completely before glazing.
• For the Rum Glaze: Whisk the powdered sugar, rum and cream together until smooth. Dip the tops of the cookies in glaze (or spread with a small spatula) and place back on the cooling rack.
• Mix the dried fruit and nuts together and press a small amount of the top of each cookie.
• Allow the glaze to dry thoroughly before moving.

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie, Calories: 78kcal, Carbohydrates: 9g, Protein: 1g, Fat: 4g, Saturated Fat: 2g, Cholesterol: 10mg, Sodium: 2mg, Potassium: 22mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 5g, Vitamin A: 95IU, Vitamin C: 0.1mg, Calcium: 6mg, Iron: 0.3mg

Course: Cookies

Cuisine: American

Author: Sommer Collier

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