Spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites

Boozy and addictive spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites. These little aromatic shortbread bites are studded with plump raisins soaked in rum. White rum icing and colourful sprinkles make them look extra festive. Another very easy recipe that is eggless and vegetarian.

How to make spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites

Everybody is saying that making a good shortbread is easy. I disagree with this statement. Making a good shortbread may seem easy but actually it requires certain knowledge and understanding of ingredients.

Many recipes are saying just mix butter with sugar and then add flour and bake. Well, please read the below tips. They will help you to avoid all the issues while making a great shortbread.

TIPS:

1. BUTTER: In order to make the best shortbread you need to use the best butter. Not margarine, or any other butter substitute. Real butter at its best. I used salted butter in this recipe. If you can not find salted butter, you can use unsalted but add 1/4 tsp of table salt. The buttery indulgent taste comes from real butter, this is it.
2. SUGAR: Traditional Scottish shortbread is made with standard white granulated sugar. I also used this type of sugar in this recipe. It works like a charm and is easily available everywhere. Using white granulated sugar makes shortbread airy and light but not powdery. For this recipe I have substituted white sugar for brown soft sugar.
3. FLOUR: As simple as it may be in order to make a good shortbread, you need to use a soft flour. If you did not know flour can be soft, hard or medium.

• Hard flour has a high protein content and has a good ability to form gluten. It is perfect to make bread.
• Soft flour has a low protein content and lower ability to create strong gluten. This flour is also called pastry flour or cake flour. It makes baked goods more flaky than doughy. For any shortbread recipe soft flour is the best option.
• Medium flour, also called AP flour – it is a mix of soft and hard flour and is the most commonly available in supermarkets.

Fort his recipe, apart from the 3 standard shortbread ingredients I have also used :

4. CORN FLOUR: I have added corn flour as it it helps to absorb moisture from rum and makes shortbread lighter.

5. RAISINS: I used good quality raisins

6.RUM: Use any rum you want. I used white rum as this is what I had in my cupboard.

7.ICING SUGAR

8.GINGERBREAD SPICE: In order to spice things a little bit I have added homemade gingerbread spice. It goes beautifully with rum and raisins.

9. CHRISTMAS SPINKLES: these are optional but they make these bites look cute and Christmassy.

HANDLING THE DOUGH – This shortbread dough will be a little bit different as in includes some moisture from rum.

First I recommend adding raisins and rum to a flat and wide container. Raising need time to soak. If you have time, leave them soaking overnight. Next add butter and sugar in a medium bowl. Rub together for about 6 minutes. Next add flour, corn flour and gingerbread spice. using your fingers rub all the ingredients together until just combined. Next add soaked raisins. Gently stir them in. The whole secret is not to overwork the dough. Overworked dough means cakey and tough shortbread due to formation of gluten. We do not want it.

THICKESS AND SHAPING: I used mini cupcake pan for shaping these spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites. I have divided dough into small portions of 30 g each. I pressed each portion of dough into cavity and baked for 25-30 minutes. These shortbread bites need more time as they are quite thick.

What do spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites taste like?

These festive looking goodies taste phenomenal. Plump and boozy raisins go perfectly with buttery and spiced and aromatic shortbread dough. Rum icing on top adds more sweetness and booziness and makes these beauties irresistible.

How to store spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites

Store shortbread at room temperature in a cookie jar or a cookie tin. You can also freeze it for up to 6 months. In order to defrost shortbread, just take it out of the freezer and leave it at room temperature for an hour. It defrosts like a charm.

If you are looking for more shortbread recipes, I can recommend you the following:

Whisky and walnut shortbread

Miso and brown butter shortbread

Chocolate and chili shortbread

Gingerbread honey shortbread cookies

Click this link to see the best shortbread recipes

I hope you will make my recipe and if you do, please leave a comment below and let me know your feedback. You can also find me on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Gab and Gettr. Please say hi and do not forget to tag me in if you make my recipe. I love seeing your creations.

Recipe source – my own

Enjoy!

Spiced rum and raisin shortbread bites

If you like rum, raisin, gingerbread and shortbread you will love these shortbread bites. They have it all and taste absolutely fantastic.

Author: Anna K Cooking Method: Baking Cuisine: Scottish Courses: Dessert, Snack Recipe Keys: Easy Freezer friendly Vegetarian Wow

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Prep Time 5 hrs Cook Time 25 mins Rest Time 2 hrs Total Time 7 hrs 25 mins Difficulty: Beginner Cooking Temp: 180  °C Servings: 28 Best Season: Winter, Fall

Ingredients

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Servings

Shortbread bites

• 250 g butter (salted, room temperature)

• 120 g sugar (brown, soft)

• 250 g flour (ideally soft flour, also called pastry flour or cake flour, if you can not find it, you can also use AP flour)

• 60 g flour (corn, I mean powdery type, white, not yellow and coarse)

• 150 g raisins

• 100 ml rum (I used white)

• 10 g gingerbread spice (from this recipe https://kitchenbyannak.com/recipe/homemade-gingerbread-spice/)

Rum icing

• 10 ml rum (I used white)

• 50 g powdered sugar (or more if necessary)

• spinkles (optional)

Instructions

1. Please read post above it includes tips and useful information.

2. Prepare mini cupcake tin, with 24 holes, set aside.

3. In a shallow and wide dish add raisins and rum. Soak for at least 5 hours to rum has a chance to soak raisins. Ideally overnight. Store from time to time.

4. In a medium bowl add butter and sugar, using your fingers, rub them together.

5. In a separate bowl add flour, corn flour and gingerbread spice, mix.

6. Add flour to the butter mixture and using your hands rub together until just combined. Make sure you do not knead the dough and you do not overwork the dough. This is important. The longer you work the dough the more gluten develops. It will make shortbread doughy and this is not want you want.

7. Add soaked raisins and gently stir them in.

8. Using a kitchen scale, divide dough into small portions of 30g each.

9. Preheat your oven to 180C fan (356F).

10. Press each dough portion into a cupcake hole.

11. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

12. While shortbread bites are in oven, prepare rum icing.

13. In a small bowl mix rum and icing sugar until you get thick paste. Add more sugar or rum depending on the consistency you want but it should be quite thick.

14. When baking is done, remove shortbread from oven and let it cool completely in the tin.

15. When shortbread bites are cold, using a knife, remove each of them from the tin. 

16. Dip each shortbread bite in rum icing and decorate with sprinkles.

Keywords: boozy, Christmas, cookies, Christmas cookies, shortbread, eggless cookies

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