Tips for choosing good apricots for your cookies; when looking at apricots in the store, look for a deep orange-gold color rather than those that are a pale orange or yellow color. They should be firm but still have a little softness to them.
I like nuts in my cookies, but I didn't want to overpower the apricot, so I chose thinly sliced almonds. They add a little crunch but not a big hunk of nuts with every bite.
Apricots have a slight tart taste, so I wanted to ensure I added something sweet to this cookie. So, I grabbed a container of white chocolate wafers for a bit of icing to balance the tartness of the apricots.
All About the Fresh Apricot
Apricots have a growing season from May to July. I wanted to redo this cookie recipe to get step-by-step pictures, but since it is near the end of July, the apricots are almost too ripe in the grocery stores.
After cutting them into small pieces, I had to compensate for the ripe apricots. A little trick is if you have apricots that are getting mushy when you are dicing them up, I put them in a mesh strainer and rinse them off. This way, you are just getting the apricot pieces.
Then get a plate, lay a paper towel on the plate, and dump the apricot pieces on the paper towel. I then take another paper towel and pat the tops of the apricots.
This helps soak up some of the apricot fruit juices. If you skip this step, your cookie batter may become too wet, and you will have difficulty baking the cookies. The big takeaway is if there is juice after you cut up the fresh apricots, you want to absorb as much liquid as possible before adding them to the cookie batter.
How to peel an apricot from eHow;
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- All-purpose flour
- Sugar white
- Baking powder
- Butter unsalted
- Kosher Salt
- Orange zest
- Orange juice fresh
- Vanilla Extract
- Fresh Apricots
- Almonds sliced
ICING
- White chocolate wafers
Blanch Your Fruit
First, you can take a sharp knife and cut the skin off. But if you want to have as much of the apricot's flesh as possible, you can blanch them and peel the skin.
Cut a cross at the top and bottom of your apricots. You need to score the skin, so don't go too deep.
Have a bowl of cold water with ice near the pan where you are boiling the water to blanch the apricots. Bring the water to a boil, turn off the burner, and add the apricots. You will want to leave them in hot water for about a minute before moving them to the ice water.
I take a knife and peel the skin away where you cut the cross at the top. If you run into an issue with it peeling nicely, you can always use your knife to simply peel the apricot.
Cut the peeled apricot in half and take out the pit. Next, cut the apricot into small pieces. You can rinse the cut-up piece in a strainer if there are mushy pieces. But whether you rinse the apricots or not, you want to lay the diced apricots onto a paper towel to help absorb the fruit juices.
Making Apricot Cookies
I think my recipe for apricot cookies is the best I have come across. These are easy to make, and you can't beat fresh apricots and white chocolate together. Throw in some sliced almonds, and you will become an apricot fan.
So you want to start by weighing the sugar and setting it aside. Next, weigh or measure the dry ingredients; flour, salt, and baking powder in a bowl. Finally, I run a whisk through to mix the dry ingredients, but you can also sift them together if you like.
The final step for prepping is to zest an orange into a bowl. Cut the orange in half, and either use a citrus juicer (OXO) or a Chef'n Citrus orange squeezer I prefer the juicer with a measuring cup.
Add the room temperature butter and sugar into a mixer bowl and mix on a medium speed for about 3 minutes. You want soft peaks on the side of the bowl.
Scrape down the bowl sides and add the vanilla extract, orange juice, and orange zest, mix for a minute. Turn the mixer down to a low speed and slowly incorporate the dry flour mixture. Scrape down the sides and add the fresh apricots and sliced almonds.
Take a solid spatula and ensure the apricots and almond slices look pretty even throughout the cookie batter. Cover loosely and refrigerate for about an hour.
Add twelve scoops to a cookie sheet pan using a medium cookie scooper and bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes. I leave the cookies on the sheet pan after they come out of the oven for a minute, then move them to a cooling rack.
White Chocolate Icing
Adding icing or glazes to a cookie requires a balance of sweetness. If you add too much that will be all you taste so, I use it sparingly to compliment the cookie.
Add the white chocolate wafers to a microwave-safe bowl and heat on high for 30 seconds. Take the bowl out of the microwave and stir and then heat for another 15 seconds. Stir one more time, and if the wafers are not melted completely, you can heat them for another 10 to 15 seconds. You don't want to continue too many times, or the white chocolate will get hard and unusable.
I decided to use the Wilton #3 tip along with a small piping bag to add the white chocolate icing onto the tops of the cookie.
Going back and forth over the top of the cookie ensures that there will be a little white chocolate with every bite. I leave the cookies on the rack for about half an hour to make sure the icing has set.
Hope you enjoy these cookies!!!
Storage
I store these in a loosely covered container, and they will last 5-7 days. Just remember these cookies have fresh fruit so there will be juice from the fruit. Take care not to store the cookies in an air-tight container. If they get too soft, leave the lid off for a while.
Other Fruit Cookies
Fresh Apricot with Almonds Cookies
Barbara HallIngredients
Cookie Dough
- 1 cup (227 g) Butter unsalted
- ¾ cup (150 g) Sugar white
- 1 teaspoon (1 teaspoon) Vanilla Extract
- 1 Tablespoon (1 Tablespoon) Orange zest
- 2 Tablespoon (2 Tablespoon) Orange juice fresh
- 3 cups (375 g) All-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon (1.5 teaspoon) Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (0.5 teaspoon) Kosher Salt
- 1 ¼ cups (193.75 g) Fresh Apricots
- ¾ cup (107.25 g) Almonds sliced
ICING
- 1 cup (236.59 g) White chocolate wafers
Instructions
- To prepare the apricots, cut a small X in the bottom and the top of the apricot. Bring water to a boil and turn the burner off before adding the apricots. Blanch for 1 minute, then move the apricots to the ice water. Then take a section where scored and peel each section. Cut the apricots in half and remove the pit. Cut into small bite-size pieces until you get 1 ¼ cups (depending on the size 4 to 5 apricots).
- Zest 1 orange into a bowl and set it aside. Next, cut the orange in half, and in another bowl, juice the orange until you have two tablespoons of orange juice.
- Weigh or measure your flour, baking powder, and salt in a bowl and set aside. I also run a whisk through the dry ingredients to blend them. Next, weigh or measure your sugar in a separate bowl and set that aside.
- In a stand (I love my KitchenAid) or hand-held mixer cream, the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy for about 3 minutes. Add the orange zest, vanilla extract, and fresh orange juice and blend. Turn the mixer down and slowly add the dry ingredient mixture to the wet ingredients.
- Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and add the almond slices and the fresh apricots. Only blend on low speed until the almonds and the apricots are through the dough. Don't mix for very long, or the apricots will start to break up. Take a spatula, blend in any flour at the bottom of the bowl and try and distribute the apricots evenly throughout the batter.
- Loosely cover and put the cookie dough into the refrigerator for at least an hour. Any time you use fresh fruit in a cookie, you need the cookie dough cold before baking — a good time to preheat your oven and line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Pull the cookie dough from the refrigerator and using a medium cookie scooper, I add 12 mounds to a cookie sheet pan. I put the cookie dough back in the fridge between bakings. Bake at 350° for 12-14 minutes mine were good at 13 minutes, but every oven is just a little different. They should start to get golden brown on the top and the sides.
- Take the white chocolate wafers and microwave for 30 seconds and stir, then heat for another 15 seconds and stir. If it has not all melted, only do for another 15 seconds. Don't microwave for too long, or the chocolate will seize. It will be hard and lumpy looking.
- Put melted white chocolate into a small piping bag with a small Wilton #3 tip. Going back and forth over the top of each cookie this will give just enough sweetness to each cookie. I love white chocolate and apricots; they compliment each other nicely.
Linda Salcido
There is no heating measurement.
Barbara
Hi Linda, I am so sorry I have added that to the instructions but here it is 350°.