On Play Me a Recipe, your favorite cooks will walk you through their most treasured recipes, offering all the insider tips, stories, and tricks you won't get from a written recipe—and you'll be right alongside them, every step of the way. Feel free to pause, jump back, or navigate the steps via the podcast chapters (if you're in Apple Podcasts, swipe up on the episode player page—the podcast chapters will be at the bottom).  

If you're cooking along, here's the recipe we're making today. Go ahead and grab the ingredients below (Jillian starts listing them at me-a-recipe.simplecast.com/episodes/jillian-atkinson-jamaican-black-cake-cookie-recipe?t=0m52s">:52) before starting the episode.

Black Cake Cookie Makes about 3 dozen chewy 2-3 inch cookies

For the fruit mixture:

• 1 cup (180g) black raisins, divided
• ½ cup (90g) pitted prunes
• ½ cup (90g) dried currants¾ cup tawny or ruby port wine
• 2 tablespoons Wray and Nephew (or your favorite) white rum

For the cookie dough:

• 1 ½ sticks (170g) unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 (260g) cups brown sugar lightly packed
• ½ cup (100g) white sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 tbsp store-bought burnt sugar browning (optional; see note)
• 2tsp vanilla extract/paste
• 1 tsp white rum (or rum extract)
• 1 tbsp port wine
• 3 1/2 cups (420g) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• ½ tsp kosher salt
• 1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp freshly ground or grated nutmeg
• ¾ cup (75g) coarsely chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Make the fruit mixture: Pulse ½ cup (90g) raisins, pitted prunes, and currants in a food processor to make a coarse chop. If you don’t have a food processor, chop by hand until everything is about the size of whole dried currants.
2. Add chopped dried fruit to a medium pot along with the remaining whole raisins,  port wine and rum. Bring the pot to a boil for about 1 minute, then cover and turn down to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes. Stir occasionally and reduce the heat as necessary to keep from scorching. You’re looking for a moist near-paste, with all of the liquid absorbed.Transfer to a small bowl, then to the refrigerator to cool completely, about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Alternatively, whisk over an ice bath or transfer to the freezer to speed up the process.)
3. When the fruit is cool, make the cookie dough: Melt butter slowly on the stovetop over medium heat or in a microwave-safe bowl in 30-second increments, tipping or swirling the bowl at each interval. Do not allow the butter to sputter or brown. Transfer melted butter to a large mixing bowl and set aside.
4. Combine flour, baking soda, and spices in a medium bowl, mix well, and set aside.
5. Using a hand mixer, in a mixing bowl with butter, now cooled slightly, beat in brown and white sugar until crumbly and combined. Beat in eggs one at a time and beat until mixture is fluffy and lighter in color, 1 minute.
6. Add vanilla, port, rum, and burnt sugar browning to the mixture and beat until mixed well, scraping down the sides of the bowl to evenly combine.
7. Add dry mixture in 3 additions, alternating the flour mixture with fruit mixture, folding to combine without overmixing and ending with the last flour. Fold in the walnuts, if using. Cover the cookie mixture with plastic wrap and rest in the fridge for at least 2 hours up to overnight.
8. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Using cold cookie dough and using a medium cookie scoop, scoop 3-tbsp-sized (1.5 oz, or a little larger than a golf ball) balls of dough, onto cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake for 14 to 16 minutes, until puffed and dry-looking.
9. Allow cookies to cool for 3-4 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. Repeat steps 8-9 using a cold cookie sheet for remaining cookie dough and allow cookies to cool completely before storage in an airtight container.

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Lobby Time Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com)Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/