Apricots are an excellent fruit for cookies. I buy them packaged, and they are soft and dices very quickly. The ones at my store sell Turkish Apricots #4. Well, of course, I am no expert on the different apricot varieties. I had to go digging on the Internet to get the scoop on these little yellow-orange pieces of fruit. 
On my quest to find info on Turkish Apricots, I found a web site with great information. Nutritional Value of Turkish Apricots
All I know is that they are great for putting in cookies, and they seem to be a great snack to munch on if you are looking for a fruit fix. Don't get me wrong you can use any kind of apricot, but for this type of cookie, the dried works better with the powdered sugar in the cookie dough. They hold their shape, flavor and do not make your cookie dough a wet mess.
Because apricot and vanilla go so well together, I wanted the cookie dough to have a fabulous presence to match the apricot. I choose half of my vanilla flavor to be vanilla bean paste. The economic side of my brain said you know how expensive vanilla bean paste is, and I nodded yes to myself (I promise I am of sound mind most of the time). So the other half is vanilla extract. Another reason was I was afraid it would have too strong a vanilla taste. Either way, vanilla and apricots are perfect for each other. Please enjoy!
Apricot with Vanilla Bean Cookies
Barbara HallIngredients
- 1 cup Melted butter unsalted 2 sticks room temperature
- ⅔ cup Powdered sugar 83 g
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla bean paste
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 2 cups All purpose flour 240 g
- ½ teaspoon Baking powder
- ¼ teaspoon Ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
- ½ cup Almonds blanched
- 1 cup Lightly dried Apricots rough chopped
Instructions
- I purchased my apricot halves in a container at my grocery store. Chop the apricots into small pieces (they do not have to be the same size). Weigh or measure the powdered sugar and set it aside. In a separate bowl, weigh or measure the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt running a whisk through to blend.
- In a stand or hand-held mixer beat the butter on medium speed till it is creamy and light in color, about 3 minutes. Turn your mixer down to a low setting and gradually add the powdered sugar. Once incorporated, turn the speed back to medium and mix for about 2 minutes. I like to scrape down the side and just blend for about 30 more seconds. Add the vanilla bean and the vanilla extract and mix through the cookie dough. Turn the mixer to low and slowly add the flour mixture till incorporated. I turn off the mixer and scrape down the sides and across the bottom and blend for another 30 seconds. Add the apricots and almonds and just mix on low for 30 seconds. You just want the apricots and almonds to be incorporated through the cookie dough and not mashed.
- I put the cookie dough straight from the mixer bowl onto a pastry mat. Then divide the cookie dough in half and roll into 2 logs. My logs were about 10" long and about 2" in diameter. You can adjust the length based on the size cookies you want. Wrap each log in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 to 40 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 350°, and line 2 cookie sheet pans with parchment paper. Take a cookie dough log from the refrigerator and slice ½" thick slices and lay on the cookie sheet pan. A secret I do is score the cookie dough log the whole way to the end and adjust the slices if you need to, so they are about the same size.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes. When removing from the oven, I only let them sit on the sheet pan for about a minute before gently moving them to a cooling rack.
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