Apricot Cookies

On one of our lazy post dinner evenings on the couch ,we caught Carrie & Miranda eating Oreo cookies with milk at midnight on Sex and the City.Damn, it was so tempting!!! Now,strangely enough ,both me and the husband are not big fans of chocolate in baked goods (one of those few taste which match ),so the idea of eating Oreo cookies was straightaway kicked out of the window and we settled in for some caramel raisin cookies that night.Next day,I baked these apricot cookies to cater to such late night binges and they tasted great with a cuppa cold milk.

I like dried apricots more than the fresh ones.These cookies were a result of an impulsive idea to introduce some tangy, fruity bite into otherwise good ol plain cookies.I like to add a lot of spices, dried nuts & fruits while baking,so I am always on a look out for new ingredients! Now,while baking something inside me said that whole wheat flour [atta] would not be a good combo with apricots and I did not want to use pure AP flour either. With a lot of apprehensions I decided to use chickpea flour [besan] to make the dough.

The result…yum yum yum..it tasted like our Indian classic nankhatai and the apricot bite was just out of this world.The use of cinnamon was warm and gave the cookies a gourmet fervour.Feel fee to use dried cranberries/blueberries or anything you like.Hope you like these.

What I needed:

Make 2 dozen/24 nos medium cookies

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature but not melted
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp dark brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt [recommended]
2 /3 cup chickpea flour [besan]
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
2 tbsp silvered almonds, toasted [optional]
Pinch of baking soda [less than 1/8th tsp]

How I did it:

Set your oven to pre heat at 375 F /180 C degrees.
In a bowl, thoroughly mix the all-purpose flour, chickpea  flour, baking soda , salt and cinnamon.Set aside.
Add butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and whisk for two to three minutes until light and fluffy using your egg beater.Do not over whisk.
Add the flour mix to butter and sugar mixture and fold softly just to bring everything together.Do not  knead.

Divide the dough into about 24 equal parts and make them into balls.
Line your cookie sheet with wax paper/aluminium foil and lay the cookies on the sheet about 1/2″ apart from each other.Lightly press each ball to about 1/2? thk. Put few almonds [if using] press them on to the balls gently.

Bake at 375 degrees for about 10 to 14 minutes or until cookies are lightly gold brown.Mine took 11 minutes sharp.
Remove the sheet from the oven.  Let the cookies cool down for two to three minutes before taking them off the cookie sheet.

Enjoy with a glass of chilled milk!

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