This is one of those desperate attempts of sunday improvisation. The stores are closed and I am craving something sweet. So I start to raid my pantry and see what I can come up with. In this case: Walnuts and Apples… all wrapped up in a cookie.
Those experiments sometimes end bad, but this time I’m quite pleased with the result. The cookies are crumbly and soft and taste amazing. I even went the extramile and caramelized the walnuts. That was a first for me. I never caramelized anything before… well not intentionally. I caramelized my hot plate before but that doesn’t really count, does it? Caramelizing stuff falls under the big scary field of “candy making” for me and so I always avoided it. Not sure why though. The walnuts turned out amazing and I had to refrain myself from eating them all before I even started making the cookies.
Apple Walnut Cookies
Ingredients
For the caramelized walnuts
- 1/2 cup of walnuts
- 1/8 cup of sugar
- 1 tsp butter
For the dough
- 120 g butter
- 50 g brown sugar
- 30 g white sugar
- 1 egg
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp vanilla
- 150 g flour
- 1/2 cup of caramelized walnuts chopped
- 1 small apple diced
Optional
- Some melted chocolate for decoration
Instructions
Walnuts
- Heat a shallow non-stick pan over medium heat. Add the walnuts, sugar and butter and start stirring. When the sugar starts to get to a light brown and every walnut is coated, pour everything onto a sheet of baking paper and seperate the nuts quickly before they all stick together.
Cookie Dough
- In a bowl cream together the butter and the sugar.
- Add the egg, salt and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the flour and baking powder.
- Finally work the walnuts and the apples into your dough.
- Chill for 20min in the fridge and heat your oven to 180°C / 356°F.
- Roll the cookie dough into little balls and place on a baking sheet. Leave some room, because the dough will spread. Bake for 10-15 min or until golden brown.