14 September 2008

Fresh Apple Cookies

I decided to make cookies yesterday, kind of on a whim (as opposed to a crumble from a couple of weeks ago that I considered a chore, since I had to make it that night or the peaches would have gone off.) I looked through a few cookbooks - really just looking for a recipe that I had all the ingredients for.

James Beard's Fresh Apple Cookies fit the bill. (From American Cookery, which Lysne kindly sent me, since she knows how much I love Beard on Bread.) I was thinking I wanted crisp and spicy and these are more tender and cake-y than crisp, but still delicious. Plus since they are crammed full of apples and raisins and pecans, I have been pretending that they are health food. Yeah fucking right - the recipe calls for a stick of butter. At least the KitchenAid makes creaming butter super easy even if you haven't bothered to let the butter sit out and soften. Next time I might mix up the spices a little with some cardamom and fresh ground black pepper, but these are pretty good as is. I'm bringing some into the office tomorrow as part of my quest to win friends and influence people.

fresh apple cookies 002
They won't be winning any beauty pageants any time soon.

Fresh Apple Cookies

1/2 c. butter
1 1/3 c. firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 c. sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1/4 tsp cloves
1/4 c. apple juice, pineapple juice, orange juice, or milk
1 c. chopped, unpeeled raw apple
1/2 - 1 c. chopped walnuts, filberts, or pecans
1 c. raisins

Cream the butter, cream in the sugar, and beat in the egg. Sift the dry ingredients (I totally didn't bother, just combined the dry ingredients in a bowl and stirred 'em with a fork) and add to the creamed mixture along with the juice or milk. Stir in the apples, nuts and raisins. Push the dough from the tip of a teaspoon with the back of another onto a buttered cookie sheet (I used nonstick), leaving about 1 1/2 inches between each cookie. (I found that they didn't spread very much.) Bake in a preheated 375F degree oven for 10-12 minutes or until a light brown. Yields about 4 dozen cookies. (I had exactly 4 dozen.)

7 comments:

Zak said...

Oh man—I got so excited when I read you would be bringing those sublime cookies into the office tomorrow. Until I realized you meant your new office, and that you don't work with me anymore. :-(

Katharine Weber said...

That looks like a bowl of dachshund fetuses, but I am sure they were delicious.

seppaku said...

I would try to make them, but my oven has reverted to a binary state; cold as stone, or hot as hell. There is no middle ground!

I bet they're yummy dachshund feces though. ;)

Katharine Weber said...

Fetuses!

Cara dB said...

So now I am really dying to know how Katharine knows what a bowl of dachshund fetuses would look like ... but the good news is my new camera arrived today and as soon as I get a memory card into it, it'll be goodbye forever to Dachshund Fetus Food Photography Syndrome.

Also, Zak, you only missed out on some stale-ish cookies, since I forgot to take them in yesterday and today.

seppaku said...

See, I felt like fetuses would be more translucent, less opaque.

Now I feel compelled to render some fetuses in 1950s style jello-fruit molds.

...

Mm, maybe not that compelled. But I sure could go for some apple pie!

Cara dB said...

passionfruit seeds suspended in raspberry jello...