Fruit Cake Cookies

Somewhere along the line, fruit cake got a bad reputation—unfounded or not. And whatever you may think of this stalwart, we won’t argue with you. We’ll only invite you to consider this recipe. It takes what fruit cake does best and repackages it in the form of a soft and chewy cookie. What does fruit cake do best, you might ask? Let us tell you. Fruit cake combines sweet dried fruits (golden raisins and chopped dates), warm spices (nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves), citrus (orange zest), crunchy toasted almonds and brandy. In other words, all the flavors of the season are wrapped up in fruit cake. It’s a daring move and that’s exactly why it works. The bold flavors and colors—did we mention the sugar-sweet maraschino cherries and candied green cherries?—are as exuberant as Christmas itself. Forget what you thought you knew about fruit cake and let these fun, nostalgic cookies be your new—and much more delicious—definition.