French Cookies

French cookies are the easy, elegant rum-and-raisin drop cookies that prove a short ingredient list can punch well above its weight. The whole project rests on one preparatory move: soaking the raisins in rum for two to three hours so they plump and absorb the spirit.

Do not rush this step. Dry raisins go into a cookie tough and chewy in a bad way, plumped raisins soaked in rum stay tender and burst with flavor when you bite in.

Cream the butter and sugar until visibly light and fluffy, this is where the airy crumb comes from. Adding the eggs one at a time, fully incorporated between additions, keeps the batter from breaking.

The dough is a wet drop dough, not a roll-and-cut. Use a teaspoon and leave proper spacing, an inch between cookies, since these spread thin and crisp at the edges.

Seven minutes is short for a cookie bake, that is because thin drop cookies finish fast. Watch the edges, when they turn golden the centers are done even if they look soft.

Serve with espresso or a glass of port for a true French petit four feel.

Pro Tips

• Use dark or aged rum for the deepest flavor, white rum reads flat in baking.
• Drain the raisins lightly before folding in, too much rum liquid loosens the dough.
• Transfer immediately to a cooling rack so the cookies do not over-bake from sheet residual heat.
• Store in an airtight tin, the rum aroma deepens overnight.

Variations

• Substitute dried cranberries or chopped dried apricots for raisins for a fruit variation.
• Add a quarter teaspoon of vanilla or a pinch of cinnamon to the dough for additional warmth.
• Drizzle the cooled cookies with a thin sugar-and-rum glaze for an even more grown-up version.