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Dark Fruitcake Cookies

Dark Fruitcake Cookies. The flavour of a traditional molasses and spice dark fruitcake, translated into a crispy, chewy cookie. Even self professed fruitcake haters loved these!

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

My dark fruitcake adoring spouse proclaims this the best cookie she has ever eaten.

Here is another great cookie twist to celebrate the traditional Christmas fruitcake. My own recipe for a dark , richly flavoured, warmly spiced fruitcake is one of my favourite things at the holiday season. See that Old English Fruitcake recipe here.

Old English Fruitcake image with title text

Old English Fruitcake image with title text

I’ve incorporated all of the ingredients that I love from that recipe into these amazing fruitcake cookies.

I like to use both red and green glacé cherries for a more festive look.

If you are a fruitcake lover, you will simply adore these cookies. I taste tested these on about 40 people and even people who said they were not fond of fruitcake loved these cookies!

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

If you liked this recipe you may also like to try our un-spiced version of this cookie; Chewy Light Fruitcake Cookies.

Light Fruitcake Cookies

Light Fruitcake Cookies

Like this Fruitcake Cookies recipe?

For over 200 more delectable cookie recipes browse through the photo links in our Cookie Gallery.

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

 
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Originally published December 2011. Updated December 2019 to include a new printable recipe page and to add nutritional information.

Dark Fruitcake Cookies
Yield: 24 cookies

Dark Fruitcake Cookies

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 27 minutes

Dark Fruitcake Cookies - the flavour of a traditional molasses and spice dark fruitcake, translated into a crispy, chewy cookie. Even fruitcake haters loved these!

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup soft room temperature butter
  • 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup white sugar
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1 egg
  • 2 cups flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1/2 cup chopped glace cherries
  • 1/2 cup chopped dates
  • 1/2 cup mixed glace citrus peel, or glace fruit mix
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped toasted pecans or walnuts, optional

Instructions

  1. In the bowl of an electric mixer, mix beat together the butter, brown sugar, white sugar and molasses until well blended.
  2. Beat in the egg for an additional minute
  3. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and ginger and fold into the molasses mixture. Fold in all of the fruit and nuts if you are using them. Cover, and chill dough for a couple of hours or overnight.
  4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
  5. Roll dough into 1 sized balls.. Place cookies 2 1/2 inches apart onto ungreased baking sheets, lined with parchment paper or silicone baking liners. press down slightly with the bottom of a water glass. you can dip the water glass in a little flour to prevent it form sticking to the dough.
  6. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow to rest on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before transferring them to wire racks to cool.
  7. This dough freezes well, so you can roll them into balls and freeze them, then take them out of the freezer, let thaw for a 1/2 hour and bake as usual. They make take an extra 1 or 2 minutes in the oven this way but you can make a many or as few as you like

Recommended Products

Rock Recipes a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. Our product recommendations are almost exclusively for those we currently use or have used in the past.

Nutrition Information

Yield

24

Serving Size

24 cookies

Amount Per Serving Calories 181Total Fat 11gSaturated Fat 5gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 5gCholesterol 28mgSodium 216mgCarbohydrates 23gFiber 1gSugar 14gProtein 2g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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Betty

Tuesday 25th of October 2022

Do those cookies keep well in freezer after they are baked?

Carol

Sunday 16th of October 2022

Perfect for Christmas this yr. Way cheaper than fruitcake with rising costs of everything. Will be making for sure Another winner

Stacey

Sunday 7th of November 2021

I want to make a mini version of this cookie. Can I just drop a smaller amount and cook less?

Lynn Parsons

Friday 19th of November 2021

Of course!

Fran Lewis

Sunday 7th of November 2021

Will the baked cookies freeze good or is it just better to freeze the dough and bake later?

Lynn Parsons

Friday 19th of November 2021

The baked cookies freeze well but you can certainly try freezing the dough

Elise

Thursday 19th of November 2020

These cookies are soooo darn good!!

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