White Chocolate Apricot Chunk Cookies

These are cookie nirvana. This recipe is based off a Martha Stewart recipe, but as per usual, I have made of it my own special cookie concoction. Not that the original is lacking. Martha, as we know, is not a woman to whiff a batch of cookies. And I respect that. I honor it.

For example, I haven’t messed with the underlying butter-sugar-egg ratio, which is unusual for me.

Martha calls for white raisins, and though I love white raisins, I can’t imagine combining them with white chocolate and liking the result. I feel the same way about a few other food pairings that others seem to love. Orange and dark chocolate. Pumpkin and chocolate. These are so very “meh.” Apricot and white chocolate, on the other hand, are dreamy and wonderful, and why don’t other people combine them more often?

Perhaps after sampling this recipe, they shall.

Martha’s version also calls for walnuts. I find that toasted almonds work even better – especially because I tart up the flavor profile by throwing amaretto in the cookie batter. This time, I had an additional flash of inspiration and added the zest of one orange. It really complements the other flavors, so if you have any citrus lying about, you should definitely include it.

Be forewarned that I doubled the cookie recipe in the pictures shown. Unless you have larger mixing bowls than me, you might want to stick with a single batch. I knew I might run into problems, because I’ve made a recipe-and-a-half of this before and it nearly overflowed the bowl, but what can I say? I’m stubborn. These cookies were worth the hassle of repeatedly scooping blobs of overflowing dough from the counter back into the bowl until I finally got all the chips, apricot pieces, and almonds evenly distributed throughout the batter.

White Chocolate Apricot Chunk Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 eggs
1 tablespoon amaretto liqueur (or ¼ tsp. almond extract)
zest of one orange (optional but strongly recommended)

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup sweetened flaked coconut
1 ½ bags white chocolate chips (I find 1 bag insufficiently chip-y, but 1 bag is still tasty if that’s all you have on hand)
1 cup dried apricots, diced into ½ cm chunks
1 cup toasted almond pieces

Preheat oven to 350. In large bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla, amaretto, and orange zest. Stir in eggs.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Stir in coconut and oats, making sure break up any clumps of coconut that are stuck together.

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and stir until blended. Stir in white chocolate chips, apricots, and almonds.

Drop by heaping tablespoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets – feel free to line it with parchment paper or a silpat, but these seem to come off a regular cookie sheet okay.

Bake for 12-18 minutes (12 in my oven, probably longer in yours).

One nice thing about these cookies is that they’re relatively good-for-you. They’ve got plenty of fat, but they’re comparatively low-sugar, and the nuts, dried apricots, and oats are nutritious additions.

I’m not saying they’re health food. I’m just saying that having 1-2 of these for dessert is probably a better choice than scarfing down a slice of chocolate chip cheesecake or Mississippi Mud pie.

That’s what I tell myself, anyway.  Printable recipe here.