Fruitcake Cookies are chewy sugar cookies stuffed full of candied fruits, raisins and toasted pecans for a unique twist on the classic Christmas fruitcake! Topped with a brandy cream cheese frosting, these little cookies are irresistible!
12 Days of Christmas Cookies
And we’re back with Day 11 of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies!
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Don’t you hate when you have a batch of adorable cookies and the sun just refuses to cooperate?! #foodbloggerproblems.
I have been dying to share these sweet, unique treats with you for days. DAYS!
Oh, the agony!
These soft, chewy fruitcake cookies are everything you love about their cake cousins without the dry cake and months of soaking in brandy.
Each bite is packed with candied fruit, toasted pecans and sweet chewy sugar cookie! And if that weren’t enough, I topped them off with a dollop of Brandy Cream Cheese Frosting, because it wouldn’t be fruitcake without booze. Amiright?
Of course I’m right.
The silky, smooth tangy brandy cream cheese frosting rounds out the flavors of the sweet cookies.
There will be no re-gifting of these cookies. And that is a promise.
Fast, easy, soft cookies with just the right amount of grown-up tang and a pinch of nostalgia.
Like all good cookies, these little guys have a story…
[Did you think you were going to get out of here without a story today? Come on, you know me better than that by now!]
When I left Washington DC after Thanksgiving, I planned to make Nana’s fruitcake in addition to her Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, but her friend heard about my fruitcake baking intentions and sent Nana the recipe for these fruitcake cookies!
Fruitcake cookies!? Why didn’t I think of that?
The ubiquitous red and green candied cherries are apparently not so ubiquitous in NYC, so Nana mailed me a package with everything I would need to make her fruitcake. I saved half for the fruitcake (I know you will be on the edge of your seat in anticipation…) and used half for these cookies. A good call if ever there was one.
The ingredients for these cookies and Nana’s fruitcake are strikingly similar, so I added the only ingredient that wasn’t in the cookies but was in the fruitcake: golden raisins. I figured if they are good in the cake, they should be in the cookies!
Right again!
I also toasted my pecans before chopping and folding them into the batter, because I LOVE toasted pecans. There is something magical that happens to the flavor when those little nuts are in the oven. Toasting them gives the cookies a deeper flavor and a little bit of crunch!
These Fruitcake Cookies are for the eleventh day of my 12 Days of Christmas Cookies! You won't want to miss the Cranberry Cinnamon Jam Bars, Rum Refrigerator Cookies, or Cardamom Walnut Snowballs, Spiced Crinkle Cookies, Coconut Peppermint Pretzel Bark, Old Fashioned Date Pinwheels, Cranberry Thumbprint Cookies, Nana's Oatmeal Raisin Cookies, Moravian Christmas Cookies, Orange Pecan Milk Chocolate Chip Cookies !!
Fruitcake Cookies with Brandy Cream Cheese Frosting
Ingredients
For the Cookies:
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ cup sugar
- ¼ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 2 eggs
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon lemon juice
- ½ cup candied red cherries
- ½ cup candied green cherries
- 1 cup dried pineapple pieces (chopped)
- ¼ cup golden raisins
- 2 cups pecans (toasted, roughly chopped)
For the Brandy Cream Cheese Frosting:
- ¼ cup brandy
- 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
- 8 ounces cream cheese (not low fat, not whipped)
- 1¼ cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ¼ half and half (or more as needed)
Instructions
For the Cookies:
- Pre-heat oven to 300° and line baking sheets with parchment or silpat.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon and salt; set aside.
- In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. (You can do this with a hand mixer but it will take longer. I did this and my hand fell asleep before the butter was creamed properly. Just sayin.)
- Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each addition. The batter should look nice and fluffy. Add the vanilla and lemon juice and beat to combine.
- Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just to combine.
- Add the nuts and dried fruit and mix just to combine. If you are using the hand mixer, do this last step with a sturdy wooden spoon.
- Using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop or a spoon, scoop cookies and drop on prepared baking sheets about an inch apart. They don’t spread at all.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the bottom edges are a golden brown and you don’t see any raw, shiny cookie dough through the cracks in the tops. Cool 5 minutes on the baking sheet and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.
For the Brandy Cream Cheese Frosting:
- Dissolve the brown sugar in the brandy.
- In a large bowl or in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese, brandy/sugar mixture, powdered sugar, and lemon juice until light and fluffy. Add the half and half until it reaches your desired consistency. The half and half also mellows out the brandy flavor.
- Using a small offset spatula or butter knife, spread a dollop of the frosting on each cookie. Top with candied cherries, pecans or both!
- After frosting, store cookies in an airtight container in the refrigerator. Bring to room temperature before serving (ideally).
These cookies are so pretty! I always loved the fruit that is put into fruit cake because it is so pretty! Love this!
Thanks, Shelby!
I am going to try and make the fruitcake cookies what if I cannot find dried pineapple????
Hi Irene! Candied pineapple is different than dried pineapple and it comes in a little container with the simple syrup it is cook in. I can only find it around Christmas and it is usually next to the green and red candied cherries. If you can't find it just use more candied cherries and raisins! It will still be delicious. Happy baking!
What a cool cookie flavor!