Coconut Rum Celebration Cookies #CreativeCookieExchange

These buttery shortbread cookies are flavored with fresh grated coconut and golden rum, then drizzled with rum glaze and more coconut. When the wind is whipping around you and it’s cold as cold can be outside, pour yourself a cup of steaming hot tea and bite into this luxuriously rich cookie.

This month’s Creative Cookie Exchange theme is Comfort Cookies and we were supposed to create a favorite cookie for someone in our lives. But this week I am feeling especially generous since my mom and mother-in-law arrive on Thursday to help me celebrate my own birthday on Friday. So this cookie is for ALL of you in the North Hemisphere who might be experiencing freezing temperatures and unpleasantly moist conditions. As the rich shortbread crumbles between your chattering teeth, the rum and coconut should evoke a beach vacation where you can imagine cabana boys serving fruity drinks under palm trees swaying gently in the tropical breeze, with the warm sunshine working its way to your chilled bones. If you want to add a tot of rum to your hot lemon tea to go along with, no one will judge you.

This recipe is adapted from one on The Café Sucré Farine.

Ingredients 

You could use desiccated coconut but don't use
the sweetened stuff. 

For the cookie dough:
1 cup or 225g butter, room temperature
3/4 cup or 95g powdered or icing sugar
1 1/3 cups or 165g flour
1/2 cup or 40g freshly grated coconut plus a little extra for decorating, if desired
1/2 cup or 75g cornstarch
2 teaspoons golden or dark rum
1/2 teaspoon salt

For the glaze:
1 cup powdered or icing sugar
1 tablespoon golden or dark rum
1-2 teaspoons milk
Pinch salt

For decoration: freshly grated coconut, pearl nonpareils http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nonpareils  or shiny sprinkles

Method
Preheat your oven to 325°F or °C and prepare your 8x8in or 20x20cm baking pan by lining it with parchment paper.

In the bowl of your stand mixer or with handheld beaters, beat the butter briefly until it is smooth, then add the powdered sugar and beat again for about one minute.

Add in the flour, cornstarch, coconut, rum and salt and beat until just mixed.

Yay! I remembered the flour this time! 

Tip the dough into your prepared pan and cover it with cling film. Use your hands to spread out the dough evenly in the pan, making sure to get all the way into the corners.

Remove the cling film and draw lines on the dough with a sharp knife where you plan to cut the cookies apart.

Bake in your preheated oven about 18-22 minutes or until lightly golden on the sides but still pale on top.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for about 10 minutes.

Transfer the parchment with cookies to a cutting board and carefully cut them apart while still warm, using a very large knife that will let you cut the whole way, or almost the whole way across, with one downward motion. These cookies, like all shortbread, are crumbly so you don’t want to break them while sawing at them.

Make the glaze by mixing the powdered sugar and rum with the pinch of salt. Add the milk a little at a time, stirring well between, until you get a good dripping consistency, then stop. You may not need all the milk.

Once the cookies are cool, separate them slightly on the parchment paper and drizzle the glaze back and forth over them till it’s all used.

Sprinkle them immediately with a little extra grated coconut and a couple of teaspoons of shiny decorations, if desired.

Allow the glaze to set before trying to move them or stack them.

Enjoy!

Do you need some comfort cookies? We've got something for everyone and even one for Man's Best Friend! Who would you bake a comfort cookie for?

• Almond Butter Cookies from Ninja Baker
• Alphabet Letter Cookies from A Baker's House
• Apple Peanut Butter Doggie Cookies from Cookie Dough & Oven Mitt
• Cherry Pie Cookies from It's Yummi
• Chocolate Chunk Shortbread from Baking in Pyjamas
• Chocolatey Chocolate Chip Cookies from Indian Curries/Stew
• Classic Shortbread with Fleur de Sel from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Coconut Rum Celebration Cookies from Food Lust People Love
• Cookie Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies from Noshing With The Nolands
• Double Chocolate Chip Cookies from Spice Roots
• Dulce de Leche Madeleines from The Spiced Life
• Four Ingredient Peanut Butter Blossom Cookies from Rhubarb and Honey
• Frosted Lemon Cookies from Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Jam Filled Butter Cookies from Magnolia Days
• Lemon Thyme Shortbread Cookies from Sweet Cinnamon & Honey
• Soft Sugar Cookies from Dessert Stalking Blog

Creative Cookie Exchange is a great group of bloggers who love to bake cookies. We get together once a month (the first Tuesday after the 15th of each month) to post cookie recipes with a common theme or ingredient.

If you are a blogger and want to join in the fun, contact Laura at thespicedlife AT gmail DOT com and she will get you added to our Facebook group, where we discuss our cookies and share links.

You can also just use us as a great resource for cookie recipes--be sure to check out our Pinterest Board and our monthly posts (you can find all of them here at The Spiced Life).