Tropical Icebox Cookies with Malibu Rum Glaze

  • Tropical Icebox Cookies w Rum Glaze

    So I decided that one of the most classic holiday cookies I make needed to go on a vacation.  To the tropics.

    I bake icebox cookies every year, fondly chopping up the red and green candied cherries while humming songs about Santa.  But this year I just couldn’t do the same-old.  This year I wanted to shake it up, and was inspired by my Fruitcake Shortbread with Rum-Glaze from last year (holy cow- it’s been a whole year since then?).  I was also completely uninspired by the weather, which has been everything other than what things in Aruba are probably like right now.  So why not take things tropical?

    I recently found Paradise Fruit Co. which sells every candied fruit you could ever want, and some you don’t know you might want (candied lemon peel?  I am so going to figure out what to do with you, my new friend…).  Take the usual icebox cookie (stuffed with candied red and green cherries, and add in a few dried pineapples and a bit of coconut, and you’re immediately down south.  But the part that takes you to the tropics (instead of just down south U.S., like in Georgia somewhere) is the glaze.  A bit of Malibu rum makes all the difference.  I showed great restraint when making this glaze, by the way- I didn’t even make a separate bowl of it to lap up on my own.  Such discipline.  Santa should be proud, and reward me accordingly.

     

    Adapted from my Icebox Cookie recipe…

    COOKIE DOUGH:

    1 cup butter, softened to room temperature

    1 cup sugar

    1 egg

    2 teaspoons vanilla

    3/4 teaspoon rum flavoring (totally optional)

    2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour

    1/2 teaspoon baking powder

    1/2 teaspoon salt

    1/2 cup candied red &/or green cherries, roughly chopped

    1/3 cup candied pineapples, roughly chopped

    1/3 cup shredded sweetened coconut (I like Angel Flake)

    GLAZE:

    1 cup confectioners’ sugar

    2 teaspoons Malibu rum (or other tropical rum brand)

    1 teaspoon milk or cream

    1. In a large bowl, beat butter with sugar for 3 minutes (until light & fluffy).  Beat in egg, vanilla and rum flavoring (if using) for 1 minute, scraping sides of bowl.
    2. In a separate medium bowl, whisk flour, baking powder and salt together.  Stir into butter mixture in two additions, then stir in cherries, pineapple and coconut.
    3. If using mini tart pans, press dough up to about 2/3 up the edges of the pans.  If making cookies (to slice off a log), divide dough into thirds, and place one dough blob at a time on a large piece of waxed or parchment paper.  Using the paper to help you, roll each 1/3 blob into 8″ logs, wrap in plastic wrap.  Refrigerate dough for at least 3 hours or until firm.
    4. Preheat oven to 375°.  If baking in tart pans, bake for about 18 minutes (until light toasted brown on top).  If making sliced cookies, cut very cold dough logs into 1/3-inch thick slices.  Place about 2 inches apart on parchment-lined baking sheets, and bake for 10 – 12 minutes, until lightly browned.  Allow to cool for a few minutes on baking sheets, then transfer to cooling racks.
    5. GLAZE: in a small bowl or measuring cup, stir sugar, rum and milk together until smooth.  Add more sugar or rum/milk to achieve a glaze that’s runnier than the consistency of honey.  Spoon over tops of cookies and allow to set before serving.

    Tips:

    • Use any combination of dried fruit you’d like.  It might not be tropical to use candied orange peel, for example, but do it and then make your glaze with orange extract (just a few drops with milk) or Grand Marnier in place of the rum.  Just omit the rum flavoring in the recipe and the other candied fruits.
    • Prefer not to use rum?  Use a teaspoon of rum flavoring with water or milk stirred into the sugar.  Or just milk and no rum flavoring- whichever.
    • These totally freeze well, assuming you wrap them properly.
    • Enjoy!

     

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    December 24th, 2014 | More Sweets Please | No Comments | Tags: , , ,

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