Buttered Rum Meltaways (Pg 138)

I was excited to make this cookie. Mostly because it has rum in it. There's nothing better than baking with rum. The cookie dough gets some rum, the baker gets some rum.

I was also excited because I'd always wanted to make a cookie dough log. Strange thing to be excited about, I know. It just seemed like a cool way to deal with cookie dough - roll it into a log, freeze it, slice it into cookies. What I did not anticipate was how difficult it would be to slice the log. The cookie dough itself was pretty dense before being frozen, and then it was frozen for about 12 hours. Make sure you have a sharp knife.

Another word of caution is that you should clearly label your cookie dough log before you put it in the freezer. Once you wrap it in parchment and cinch the edges, it bears a strong resemblance to sausage. You can actually keep the dough in the freezer for up to a month before baking, and you never know when a member of your household might have a hankering for sausage for breakfast and throw your cookie dough into a hot frying pan.

I clearly labeled mine so as not to be confused with sausage. Better safe than sorry.

The fun just never ends with this cookie. After baking them and cooling them for a few minutes comes the coating of powdered sugar. It's a lot like that Shake 'N' Bake stuff except with the baking first. Put some powdered sugar in a ziploc bag and throw a couple cookies in and shake. Such fun.

All in all this is a really great cookie. A little bit challenging with the rolling of the log and the slicing of the frozen log, but there's fun along the way.

And oh yes, how can I forgot to mention how delicious they are. I actually tried one before coating them in the powdered sugar and they were alright but not quite sweet enough as there really isn't a lot of sugar in the dough itself. So once the sugar coating is in place it adds the perfect amount of sweetness to the rich flavor of the rum combined with the spices of clove, nutmeg and cinammon. Sweet, spicy, with a nice bite, and as the name suggests, it really melts in your mouth.

How I didn't find this recipe in time to make them for Christmas is beyond me, but they are definitely on the list for next Christmas.

Yield:
Recipe predicts: About 4 dozen

Actual: 3 dozen :(

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