I'm Going to be Making 120 of These: White Chocolate Apricot & Almond Cookies

It’s a good thing they are damn tasty. I’m participating in a “cookie exchange” at work for Friday and there are nine bakers involved. That means 10 dozen cookies — one for each person making cookies and one for the “table”. When I signed up, I was told six to seven people typically participate. Riiiight. Oh well, it’ll be fun.

To get a jump start, I’ve measured out all of my dry ingredients and have that stored in freezer bags, as well as my chopped white chocolate, diced apricots and almonds. I’m all ready to go except for the eggs, vanilla, butter and almond extract.

I found this recipe on the Food Network site, easily influenced by the promise of an easy recipe. Well, aside from being easy these are absolutely delicious. I’m even going to make a few extra so that we have some at home. I kept it pretty much the same, except for adding the almonds. I also decreased the apricots a bit, (now there are equal ratios of fruit to chocolate). The recipe says this makes around 24 cookies but they’d have to be pretty small cookies. I’d say it’s more around 15 – 18 cookies.

White Chocolate, Apricot & Almond Cookies
1/2 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 oz dried apricots, coarsely chopped
4 oz white chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 oz slivered almonds, toasted and coarsely chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a mixer, beat the butter and brown sugar until blended. Beat in the egg and vanilla and almond extracts until combined. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt, and mix until combined.

Next, mix in the apricots and white chocolate. Drop the batter by heaping tablespoons onto parchment lined cookie sheets, spacing 2 inches apart.

Bake until the edges are lightly brown, about 10 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

The plan is to make four dozen tomorrow night, three dozen Wednesday night and the last three dozen Thursday night. Then I just have to wrap them up all pretty-like and I’ll be ready to go on Friday morning!