Fruitcake Cookies are easy festive cookies you need to try! Buttery brown sugar cookies with candied cherries, golden raisins and pecans.
If you’ve tried Fruit Cake and Fruit Cake Bark recipes, you know how delicious this vintage Christmas dessert can be! Giving classic Christmas Recipes a twist makes holiday baking so much fun and these soft, fruity Cookies will bring a smile to everyone’s face.
What do you get when you take all the best parts of a traditional traditional fruitcake and combine it with a buttery sugar cookie? These amazing, sweet Fruit Cake Cookies that will convert even the most skeptical of Fruit Cake.
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About our Fruit Cake Cookies Recipe
Fruit Cake Cookies are chewy, melt in your mouth buttery brown sugar cookies packed with fruit and nuts. These cookies have just the right amount of sugary candied cherries and pineapples, plus lots of delicious golden raisins and crunchy pecans. They are packed with classic holiday flavor that everyone will love.
This recipe is family friendly and doesn’t use rum or brandy like classic fruitcake. If you want to make these adult only cookies, you can add some spirits to the dough or soak the raisins in brandy or rum to get them nice and plump and boozy. For plump and juicy raisins without the alcohol, simmer them in juice to bring out the fruity goodness in the fruit mixture.
These fun and festive cookies are so easy to make and are perfect for cookie exchanges, holiday parties, or any of your winter festivities. Enjoy them with a boozy cup of Holiday Eggnog or a kid-friendly Peppermint Hot Cocoa. They are also a wonderful colorful holiday cookie to add an edible gift basket for friends and family.
Fruit Cake Cookies Ingredients
- Butter: These amazing chewy Fruitcake Cookies have a full cup of unsalted butter to make them incredibly soft and rich and melt-in-your-mouth addictive!
- Brown Sugar: The brown sugar makes the cookie dough base taste similar to a Chocolate Chip Cookie. It adds a little depth and warmth from the natural molasses in the sugar.
- Egg: These cookies get a lot of moisture from the fruit mix so you only need to add 1 egg. Bring the egg to room temperature so it whips up easily with the butter.
- Vanilla: Some warm vanilla adds depth to the cookies and helps balance out all the sugary fruit flavors. You can replace it with rum or brandy for a boozy kick or use almond extract to bring out the cherry flavor.
- Flour: Regular all-purpose flour works perfectly for your basic cookie dough base. It holds up well with the heavy fruit mix and full cup of butter.
- Baking Soda: To give these buttery, chewy cookies a little lift and make them melt-in-your-mouth, you need to add some baking soda.
- Candied Cherries: Candied cherries are super sweet cherries that are simmered in syrup until they soak up all the syrup. The brightly colored cherries are similar to maraschino cherries but way less moisture, more like a chewy candy texture.
- Candied Pineapple: Chewy candied pineapple adds a delicious sweet tropical flavor to the fruitcake mix. If you want your cookies a little less sweet, you can use regular dried pineapple.
- Golden Raisins: Golden raisins, or white raisins, are made from soaking the grapes in some kind of sugar solution before drying them so they are sweeter, softer, and more moist than regular raisins.
- Pecans: To give these sweet, chewy cookies some texture and a nutty flavor, there are some delicious pecans. Bring out even more flavor by toasting them first in a dry skillet until they are fragrant.
How to Make Fruit Cake Cookies
Time needed: 40 minutes
- Prep for Baking
Preheat the oven. Line your baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Cream the Butter Mixture
In a stand mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium high speed for about 2 minutes, until it’s light and fluffy. Mix the egg and vanilla into the butter-sugar mixture.
- Combine the Dry Ingredients
Sift the flour, baking soda and salt into a separate bowl. Turn your mixer to the lowest speed and add the flour mixture until just combined. Gently fold in the candied cherries, pineapple, raisins, and nuts.
- Bake the Cookies
Using a cookie scoop, scoop dough onto prepared baking sheets 2 inches apart. Bake the cookies for 13-15 minutes, until they are set around the edges and just barely golden brown around the bottom.
Nutritional Facts
Fruit Cake Cookies Tips & Tricks
- Soak the Fruit
- Simmer raisins (or other dried fruit) in brandy, apple juice, or fresh orange juice. Bring to a simmer and let sit for 15 minutes before draining. Soaking the dried fruit will plump and soften them up as well as add extra flavor to your Fruit Cake Cookies.
- Toast the Nuts
- Give your pecans even more flavor and depth by toasting the nuts before chopping and adding them to your cookie dough mixture. To toast, spread nuts in a shallow pan and bake for 7-10 minutes at 350 degrees, or until fragrant and browned.
- Don’t Handle the Dough Too Much
- Use a cookie scoop for even cookies every time. Plus not handling them with your hands will keep the dough cool and your hands free from sticky dough.
Ideas to Serve Fruit Cake Cookies
Chocolate Dipped: To make your cookies even sweeter and really stand out at a cookie exchange, dip them halfway into melted white chocolate chips. Give them a sprinkle of ground cinnamon before the chocolate sets.
Gift the Cookies: These fun cookies are an ultimate holiday gifting cookie because they don’t need to be eaten right away. Whoever you gift them to gets to enjoy them at their peak flavor with slightly softer fruit pieces.
How to Store Fruit Cake Cookies
Serve: These cookies can be stored at room temperature in a sealed container for up to a week.
Store: Keep Fruitcake Cookies in the refrigerator in an airtight container for about 2 weeks.
Freeze: Freeze cookies on baking sheet for one hour before transferring to a freezer safe bag. Freeze up to 3 months. You can also freeze the dough for up to 3 months.
FAQ for Fruit Cake Cookies
Making Fruit Cake Cookie dough ahead of time allows the candied fruit and spices absorb for maximum flavor. To freeze dough, scoop on to a cookie sheet and place in freezer for 1 hour. Transfer to a freezer safe bag or container and freeze for up to 3 months. Bake directly from the freezer, no need to thaw!
Candied cherries are cherries that are simmered in syrup so long that the natural juices are replaced completely with the syrup. They are usually bright red or green, very sweet and have a dry, chewy texture.
Recipe Card
Ingredients
- 1 cup unsalted butter , softened
- 3/4 cup brown sugar , packed
- 1 large egg , room temperature
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 2/3 cups flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 4 ounces candied red cherries , chopped
- 4 ounces candied green cherries , chopped
- 4 ounces candied pineapple , chopped
- 3/4 cup golden raisins
- 1 cup pecans , chopped
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- To your stand mixer add the butter and brown sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
- Add in the egg and vanilla extract.
- Sift together flour, baking soda and salt.
- On the lowest speed setting add in the flour mixture until just combined.
- Add in the candied fruits, raisins and pecans.
- Scoop 1 tablespoon sized scoops of dough 2 inches apart on your baking sheets.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, until just barely browning on the bottom.
Nutrition
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Fruit Cake Cookies Variations
Cake Mix Cookies: To make Fruit Cake Cookies with cake mix, you will need one box of yellow cake mix to replace dry ingredients (flour, salt, baking soda). Adjust your butter and brown sugar to ½ cup each and add 2 tablespoons water to your wet ingredients. All the other remaining ingredients in the recipe will stay the same. Bake Cake Mix Fruitcake Cookies at 350 degrees for 11-13 minutes
Fruit: You can switch up the fruit mix by swapping in other dried fruits like dates, apricots, cranberries, dried cherries (not candied). You can also cut back on the candied fruit if you don’t like your cookies as sweet.
Spices: Fill your cookies with holiday spices like ground cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg or use a tablespoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice.
Spirits: Make boozy Fruitcake Cookies by adding up to 2 teaspoons Brandy or Dark Rum to your cookie dough when you add in the vanilla and eggs. You don’t want to add more than 2 teaspoons or it will overwhelm the other flavors.
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Wonderful recipe, I will make these for a friend. Thank you for the recipe.
You’re welcome and thanks for the 5 star rating