Day 11 of my 12 days of Christmas Cookies/Treats! This has been absolutely fun and festive, to share all my creations with you! It has been a complete BLAST and I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did sharing it with YOU! 🙂
Fruit Cake is a big part of my family. My grandma, mom and aunts had been making fruit cake for many many years. My grandma and aunts live in the UK, where fruit cake is a huge part of their culture. They make an eggless version, with a ton of fruit, and it absolutely delicious! The color of the fruit cake is also very pretty! They make it just not for Christmas. It is a regular affair in their homes and they have fruit cake on the table practically every week! They put candied orange peel in their fruit cake, which I simply love! Mom would make fruit cake for us as well growing up, and we all loved it! It was very much rave worthy! Super moist and delicious! She would use brandy to plump up the dried fruit before putting it in the cake batter. She would make it during Diwali actually, along with the Indian goodies.Everyone loved her fruit cake!
Hence I love making fruit cake too! I make it every year. I have modified my family recipe and used almond flour in it. I love the texture and taste almond flour gives to any baked goods. I use rum extract, almond extract and vanilla extract in my cake. It is really flavorful and loved my all my friends and family! This year, I decided to make fruit cake shortbread cookies! I marinate the dried fruit in brandy. You can use any kind of 1 cup of dried fruit that you fancy. I wanted to put candied orange peel but I did not have it at the time I made the cookie, so I added orange zest instead to flavor it. The shortbread has flour, butter, sugar and salt in it. The fruit marinates for about 4 hours up to 8 hours, and is put into the shortbread dough, along with rum extract and vanilla extract. I add slivered almonds as well for a slight crunch factor. These cookie are slice and bake cookies, so you simply roll it up into a log and put it in the refrigerator for a few hours. You can even freeze the dough, and bake it later. This is a flexible cookie, and that is what I love about slice and bake cookies.
I roll the cookie in red sanding sugar to give it a wow factor! They look so pretty like little jewels once they are baked! The smells in the kitchen from the oven with all of the fruit, orange zest, butter, and sugar is DIVINE! These cookie are highly addictive! I kid you not! I will be making these cookies more often and not just for the month of December!
Hope you get a chance to make this cookie! XO
Cheers,
Amisha
Ingredients
- 1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup almond flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 sticks(1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2/3 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon rum extract
- ¼ cup dried bing cherries chopped
- ¼ cup dried apricots chopped
- ¼ cup dried golden raisins
- ¼ cup dried cranberries
- 1 tbsp orange zest
- ½ cup brandy
- ½ cup sliced almonds
- Garnish:
- 1 cup Red sanding sugar
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, add in all the dried fruit with brandy, mix it, and let it sit, covered with a plastic wrap for atleast 4 hours upto 8 hours. The dried fruit will plump up.
- In a medium bowl, add in the all purpose flour, almond flour, cinnamon, salt and whisk well.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar, and whisk for 3-4 minutes, at high speed until the mixture is pale yellow and fluffy. Add in the orange zest and vanilla and rum extract and mix well. Scrap the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula, to gather the mixture in the middle of the bowl.
- Now add in the flour mixture slowly in 2 batches at low speed until well combined. Add in the dried fruit mixture and whisk until well blended for 30 seconds. Use a rubber spatula to scoop out from under the bowl and mix it a couple times. Let the dough rest in the mixer bowl, in the fridge, for 10-15 minutes to firm up slightly.
- Use extra flour to handle the sticky dough.Now divide the mixture into 2 portions. Add one portion onto a plastic wrap, laid on the counter. Shape it like a log about 1 ½ inches in diameter and 12 inches long. Wrap it tight in the plastic wrap and roll it to form a round log. Do the same with the second portion of the dough. Put it in the refrigerator for minimum 3 hours.
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a small jell roll pan, add in the red sanding sugar, and spread it. Now roll one of the logs in the sugar, and make sure the entire log is coated with the sugar. Press the sugar into the log.Slice it on a cutting board, into 1/3 inch thick slices. Lay about 12-15 on a baking sheet, covered with parchment paper. Lay the remaining on another baking sheet. Put the first tray in the freezer for 10 minutes. Remove it and put the second tray in. Then bake it immediately in the oven for 15 minutes, rotating the pan half way through. Let it cool outside, on the baking sheet for 5-7 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool with an offset spatula. Repeat till all the cookies are done. Store in an air tight container up to a week.
This is such a creative and delicious shortbread recipe, dear! Love the sanding sugar!