Fruit Cake Shortbread Cookies
Fruit Cake Shortbread Cookies ~ these buttery slice and bake cookies take their cue from the holiday treat everybody loves to hate.
Servings: 20 cookies
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature It is important that your butter be soft, you cannot use cold butter.
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1 tsp rum extract (substitute vanilla or almond extract)
- 2 cups all purpose flour (measure with the fluff/scoop/level method)
- 1 cup finely diced fruitcake mix
- coarse or sanding sugar for decorating, optional
Instructions
- Cream the butter and sugar together until wll combined and light and fluffy, scrape down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Beat in the extract.
- Slowly add in the flour with the mixer on low, until the dough comes together, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. If your dough is extremely dry you can add a little milk, a teaspoon at a time, to bring it together. Note: don't be tempted to add too much milk, the dough should come together fine as long as your butter is soft.
- Add the fruit to the bowl and continue to mix until the fruit is incorporated. You can use your hands for the last part if you like.
- Turn the dough out onto a sheet of parchment paper or plastic wrap and form it into a log, about 9 or 10 inches long. Wrap it in the plastic and smooth it into a uniform smooth round shape, twisting the ends tightly to secure. Chill for at least 2 hours, or overnight.Tip: I like to wrap the log in a thick towel so that as it chills to keeps a perfectly round shape.
- Preheat oven to 350F Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Slice the log of dough into 1/3 inch slices. Roll edges in sugar, if desired, and then place on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for about 10 minutes. Longer baking will create a crisper cookie, shorter time makes a soft buttery cookie, my preference. They may seem soft as they come out of the oven but they will firm up as they cool. Let them cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Sprinkle the cookies with sanding sugar, if using, while they are warm.
Notes
If you prefer you can roll the dough and cut out with cookie cutters.