Cherry Spice Cookies

I have a few dried cherries left from a bag of dried Michigan cherries we bought.  I wanted to make some sort of cookies with them, and this recipe is what I ended up with.  I found a recipe online that sounded about right and then altered it to suit what I was going for, which included adding rum-soaked cherries.  Below is the final recipe.  These cookies are lightly spiced, and if you want lots of spice, you can double the amounts of cinnamon and ginger.  Another option is to use some other type of dried fruit, such as cranberries, or even some chopped up dried apricots.

Cherry Spice Cookies

2 T rum (or other liquor)
1/4 c dried cherries, roughly chopped (or other dried fruit)
2/3 c canola oil (or other neutral veggie oil)
1/2 c sugar, plus extra
1/2 c brown sugar
2 T honey
1 egg
2 c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt

Pour rum over dried cherries in small bowl and allow to soak at least 10 minutes (up to a few hours for stronger flavor).  In large bowl, beat oil, sugars, honey, and egg until well mixed.  In separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, and seasonings.  Sift flour mixture ove wet ingredients.  Add cherries.  Stir batter until just combined.

Add extra sugar to shallow bowl or plate.  Make balls of batter about an inch to inch and a half wide, and roll balls in sugar.  Place on baking sheet (sprayed with nonstick spray) about 2 inches apart.  Bake at 375 for 14-16 minutes or until edges just barely start to get golden.  Allow to cool a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a cooling rack.

I hope you like my cookie recipe.  Happy holiday baking!