Apricot raisin walnut cookie boats: a simple cookie with a complicated name. Apricots and raisins ground in a meat grinder, combined with sugar and chocolate, then topped off with a walnut.
I'll be straight with you. The last couple of dessert recipes were made and photographed around the holidays. This one too. Generally I don't make this many cookies and desserts in a row (although, why not?.), so we can thank the holidays for the onslaught of sweets.
Today's recipe, the apricot raisin walnut cookies, is something my mom picked up a few years ago. Since then it's been in our regular holiday rotation.
We call them little boats.
These are traditional cookies in a sense that the apricot, the raisin, and the (omnipresent) walnut are the kind of ingredients you'll often find in cookies here. Although the combination of the same may be a little bit more contemporary.
For one, this is the first dessert in a while where a whole walnut is used (well, half of it), rather than ground. And the difference isn't subtle at all.
Dried Fruit & Walnut Cookie Boats
Ingredients
- 5 ounces dry apricots pitted
- 3.5 ounces raisins
- 3.5 ounces prunes pitted
- 1.5 ounce cocoa powder
- 1.5 ounce corn starch
- 9 ounces powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons lemon or orange juice fresh
- 1 egg white
- Optional 1 teaspoon sour cherry brandy or rum
- 35 walnut halves de-shelled
- 2-3 ounces granulated sugar
Instructions
- In a meat grinder, grind apricots, raisins and prunes together.
- Wet (or oil) your hands to prevent sticking and transfer ground fruit into a deeper bowl. Add cocoa powder, starch, powdered sugar, juice and egg white. Mix until completely integrated.
- Transfer granulated sugar into a smaller bowl.
- Make small rolls (½ size of a golf ball) out of the mixture. After forming each ball, flatten it a little bit between your palms, and press a walnut half into it. Afterwards roll in granulated sugar and set on a flat pan or baking sheet.
- Leave in a dark, cool place to dry. Later when they toughen, transfer into a container or a cookie jar, and keep up to two weeks.
Video
Notes
Take note that raw egg white was used to congeal the ingredients together. Raw eggs may cause unwanted reactions. Some use apple sauce or sugar syrup as a binding agent instead.
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