White Chocolate Chip & Dried Apricot Cookies

I love cookies but I have never appreciated oatmeal raisin cookies. That’s why I was delighted to see The Silver Platter cookbook agreed with me and placed white chocolate chips and apricots in these oatmeal cookies instead. I made these to bring to work on my birthday, together with the Chocolate Chunk Cranberry Cookies on the next page.

Ingredients: vegetable oil, brown sugar, sugar, egg, vanilla, flour, rolled oats, baking soda, salt, dried apricot, white chocolate chips

The Process: I preheated the oven to 350 and lined some baking sheets with silicone baking mats. The recipe suggests parchment paper but I find I get better results with the silicone mats and they are reusable and therefore better for the planet. I then mixed the oil, sugars, egg and vanilla until blended. I then took the dry ingredients and mixed them into the wet ones until combined into a ball. The apricots and chips were folded in.

I used a cookie scoop to place golf sized balls onto the baking trays and pressed each to slightly flatten it. They were then baked for 12-15 minutes.

Results: Delicious! They flew off the plate. I brought some to work and they too flew off the plate. Apricot is definitely a much pairing with oatmeal than raising for me. The only mildly time consuming part was cutting the dried apricots and even that took only 2-3 minutes.

Chocolate Chip-Apricot Bars

Jam and Chocolate Spread

Bar cookies are my favorite type of cookie. More substantial than your standard round cookie, with increased fillings and topping possibilities. This Apricot Jam bar from The Spice and Spirit was therefore an easy pick for me to try.

Ingredients: margarine, sugar, egg yolks, flour, vanilla, apricot jam, chocolate chips, egg whites, salt, walnuts

Substitutions: I use Earth Balance instead of margarine

The Process: 

Raw Cookie Base

First I preheated the oven to 350 and used that Earth Balance wrapper to grease the pan. I used my hand mixer to cream the butter, sugar and egg yolks. The flour and vanilla were added in and kneaded by hand as per the instructions. This was helpful as I then had no trouble using my hands to pat the dough into the bottom of a baking pan. Then I slid it into the oven for 15 minutes until slightly browned.

When removed from the oven I spread the jam on top followed by the chocolate chips. I beat the egg whites into a white stiff foam that I used to call “snow” when I used to bake with my mother as a kid. Then I folded in some sugar that had been set aside and the nuts. This was spread over the chips and everything was slid back into the oven for 25 minutes.

Raw “Snow” on Apricot Bars

The Results:

The bars were slightly unmanageable when trying to cut them into neat squares (probably would have been easier if they were frozen). I also did not necessarily enjoy the combination of chocolate and apricot. However others did. So I’d rate this cookie as a partial success.

Chocolate Chip Apricot Bar