I love to make a variety of cookies each year for the holidays. It’s probably no real surprise that my favorites are the ones that I get to decorate. It’s just not Christmas unless I do some cookie decorating!
I am a fan of the standard sugar cookies and gingerbread cookies, and I make them every year (including this year). But, last week I decided to spruce up my sugar cookie recipe a bit with some fun holiday flavors. I was thinking about eggnog, which naturally led to thinking about rum, which, of course, meant that I had to add some butter rum flavor to the cookies I was already in the process of mixing up. While I was at it, I threw in some spices, too.
The resulting cookies may look like a typical sugar cookie (though, slightly darker in color), but they are packing some serious festive flavor. They can be decorated with royal icing (and I’d suggest adding a few drops of the butter rum flavor to your royal for an extra punch of flavor), of course, but I found that they were also equally pretty and much more delicious prepared as cookie sandwiches with frosting in the middle. I used some leftover cream cheese frosting, but buttercream or brown butter frosting would both be fabulous. To jazz up the cookie sandwiches a bit, roll the edges in some colored sanding sugar!
Spiced Butter Rum Cookies
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar, lightly packed
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon butter rum extract
- 3 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
Cream together the butter, sugar, and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until well incorporated. Stir in the vanilla extract and butter rum extract.
Meanwhile, in a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Gradually add the dry ingredients to the creamed mixture, mixing just until the dough comes together.
Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and shape into two disks. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.
While the dough chills, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Roll the dough out to approximately 1/4-inch thickness, and use cookie cutters to cut shapes out of the dough. Place the cookies on a lightly greased baking sheet (or lined with parchment, if you prefer) and bake for about 10 minutes, until slightly golden.
Let the cookies cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet. Then, cool completely on a wire rack. Frost or decorate as desired.
At first I thought there was real rum in these cookies! Butter rum flavoring is still delicious. :)
These sound yummy!
These are pretty and look so delicious!
So cute! I love the mittens.
they look so tastey
Jen! You have some serious cookie decorating creativity. You did an awesome job with the designs. I wish I could do that too – mine always end up looking the same or I copy someone else’s designs.
Mmm, butter rum cookies! I’ve never seen butter rum extract before. I’ll be on the lookout!
Absolutely gorgeous!
They are so elegant and I’m certain just as tasty!
my goodness, your precision in icing is phenomenal! they look too pretty to eat! hehe. happy holidays!!
Oh my, i love how intricately designed these cookies are. Very pretty!
Ohhh I am loving this cookie.
Your cookie decorating is amazing! I have NO patience for it and I don’t have a steady hand either, so it’s not easy for me! I LOVE butter rum anything… and as cookies? Brilliant!