Frosted Eggnog Cookies

Hello, everyone!  Happy New Year, and happy first Thursday of the month!  You know what that means....it's time for a new cookie of the month!  I figured most of us would have some leftover eggnog after the holidays, so I thought to make a delicate, eggnog flavored cookie for this month!  My daughter and I made these for Santa this year, and, I must say, they were a big hit!

It always amazes me what you can get when you combine some flour, salt, eggs (or, in this case, egg yolks).  You can mix it up one way, and get fresh bread, an amazing cake (chocolate lavender cake), fresh pasta or even cookies!  These are no exception.  I was so excited to have everything on hand, except the rum extract.  I thought for a second about just not using the extract, but I'm so glad I didn't.

The rum extract really makes these cookies something special!  

Here's your grocery list for this one:

Cookies:

2 1/4 C All purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt (I used Kosher)

1/2 tsp grated nutmeg (plus more for topping, if you want)

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1 1/2 sticks of butter, softened (3/4 C)

1/2 C granulated sugar

1/2 C light brown sugar*

2 large egg yolks

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp rum extract

1/2 C eggnog

Frosting:

1 stick of butter, softened (1/2 C)

3-5 TBS eggnog

1/2 tsp rum extract

3 C powdered sugar, sifted

*Normally, for my cookies, I'm not picky if my brown sugar is light or dark, since the only difference is the amount of molasses that has been added to the sugar.  Brown sugar has a stronger flavor, and will make your baked goods come out a little darker, which is why I highly recommend using only light brown sugar for this recipe.  You want your cookies to be pale, and taste more like eggnog than like the brown sugar you used.

Anyhoo, back to our regularly scheduled post!

To start off with, preheat your oven to 350*, and sift together all of the dry ingredients into a medium sized mixing bowl, then set the bowl aside.

In the bowl of your mixer, place your butter and sugars, then mix until well combined, and light and fluffy.

Mix in your egg yolks, one at a time, beating well between each addition.  One of my yolks broke while I was separating my eggs, but that's no big deal.  I just added in the whole yolk first, then scrapped my bowl out into my mixing bowl.   

Once your egg yolks are well mixed in, add your vanilla and rum extracts, and, again, mix well.

Now the fun part comes in!  Add in your eggnog, and mix well (don't worry, the mixture will look very lumpy, almost curdled, but its fine!); after your eggnog has been well mixed, slowly add in your sifted dry ingredients, and mix until just combined.  

This dough is very soft, but very easy to work with.  Scoop your dough out onto a cookie sheet that has been lined with parchment paper.  I like to use a small ice cream scoop (same one I used in my Nutella truffles post), because it gives me cookies that are the same size, ensuring that they bake up the same, in the same amount of time.  Once you have a sheet full of cookies, put them in the oven for 11-13 minutes.  

After they come out of the oven, let them sit on the sheet for about 6-7 minutes, before moving them (carefully) to a cooling rack.  These are pretty delicate cookies, so be careful.  As they cool, they become more firm, so don't worry about that.

After the cookies have cooled completely, you can frost the cookies.  This frosting is very easy to make, and really sets these cookie apart from any other!  It's so good!  To start off with, put your butter into your mixing bowl, and whip it until it is a light yellow color.

Slowly sift in your powered sugar, 1 C at a time, mixing well between each addition.  

Once all of your sugar has been added, the butter and sugar will have formed a very paste.  Add in the eggnog, 1 TBS at a time, until you have the consistency you like.  I ended up using 5, but I wanted a pretty spreadable frosting, personally.

These look great as-is, but add a light dusting of freshly grated nutmeg, and these cookies really pop!  To set up the frosting, just set them in the fridge for a bit, and then these are stackable, without sticking to each other.  These are a lot of fun to make, and are sure to be snapped up quickly at any gathering you may go to (or, even around your house!), so I really hope you give 'em a go and make some!  Yum!