Fruit Cake Cookies

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add the vanilla, spices, orange zest and eggs and beat together. Slowly add the flour until just combined. Don’t over mix.

Dump the dough onto a sheet of 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 2-2 1/2 inch round cookie cutter cut out the cookies. Use a small 1/2-3/4 inch cutter, or small bottle cap to cut out the center of each cookie. Collect the leftover dough re-roll it and cut in a similar fashion. Place on prepared cookie sheets, and repeat with the rest of the dough.

Bake the cookies for 6-8 minutes. Then remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the cookie sheets another 2-3 minutes before moving to a cooling rack. Cool completely before glazing.

For the rum glaze: In a medium sized bowl 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 in a bowl and press a small amount into the top of each cookie.

Allow the glaze to dry thoroughly before moving.

Number of servings (yield): 60-70 cookies