Fruitcake Shortbread Squares with Rum Glaze

These Fruitcake Shortbread Squares are like little bites of fruitcake but without all the work!  Top them off with a delicious and rich rum glaze.

Welcome back to day 3 of my Christmas Cookie Week!  Over the last couple of days I have shared 2 delicious Christmas cookie recipes that you can make this holiday season.  And I will be sharing 2 more before the week is over.  All recipes are simple, use straightforward ingredients and can be frozen to enjoy later.  Just what you need during this busy time of year!

So far I have made Christmas Oat Drops and The Most Chocolatey Hot Chocolate Cookie, and today I’m sharing the recipe for these Fruitcake Shortbread Squares.  I call them squares because of the way they are baked, but really, they’re cookies.

These squares taste just like fruitcake, especially with the rum glaze.  But they’re much, much easier to make!  So if you’re a fruitcake lover like I am, you’re sure to love these little bites of deliciousness.

I find it easiest to bake this shortbread recipe in a pan, then cut it up into bite sized pieces.  Really, it’s just a different way of baking cookies, and a little easier since you bake the whole batch at once. But I also like this baking method for this particular recipe because these squares are so rich, they need to be cut into small pieces.  It’s also the easiest way to add the rum glaze, you just spread it over the top of the baked cookie, and let it soak in all over the square.

The result is a rich and buttery shortbread filled with flavourful chopped glazed fruit and topped with a rum glaze. The combination makes for a delicious little bite of fruitcake.  So festive and so good.

Fruitcake Shortbread Squares with Rum Glaze

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These Fruitcake Shortbread Squares are like little bites of fruitcake but without all the work!  Top them off with a delicious and rich rum glaze.

• Author: Jo-Anna Rooney
• Prep Time: 15 minutes
• Cook Time: 40 minutes
• Total Time: 55 minutes
• Yield: 36 small squares 1x

Ingredients

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Shortbread Cookie Base:

• 1 cup butter
• 3/4 cup icing (confectioner’s sugar)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup mixed glazed fruit (chopped)

Rum Glaze:

• 3/4 cup icing sugar
• 1 tsp milk or cream
• 1 – 2 tbsp rum
• If you want a strong rum flavour use 2 tbsp.
• If you want the rum flavour to be more subtle (use 1 tbsp rum and 1 tbsp milk or cream.)
• See notes for alternatives to rum.

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Instructions

Shortbread Cookie Base:

1. Cream together the butter, sugar and vanilla until light and fluffy.
2. Mix in the flour.
3. Add the chopped glazed fruit, and using your hands, knead it into the dough.
4. Press the dough into an 8×8 baking pan.
5. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
6. After the dough has been refrigerated, preheat your oven to 325 degrees
7. Bake for 35 – 40 minutes, or until the edges are light brown, and the centre is slightly puffed up.
8. While the square is baking, make the rum glaze.

Rum Glaze:

1. In a bowl, whisk together the rum and icing sugar until smooth.

Putting it all together:

1. Once the square has baked, let it cool for about 5 minutes.
2. Then spread the rum glaze all over the top of the square, then let it cool completely.
3. Cut into 1 inch bites.

Notes

If you don’t want to use rum, you can substitute it with 1 1/2 tsp rum extract or even vanilla or almond extract, and top off with 1 1/2 tbsp milk or cream.

Recipe adapted from Chatelaine Magazine

More delicious cookies from my Christmas Cookie week!

Snowball Cookies  //  Fruitcake Shortbread Squares  //  Christmas Oat Drops  //  German Chocolate Cookies  //  Cranberry Orange Brown Sugar Shortbread  //  Hot Chocolate Cookies

Merry Christmas!