Pistachio Peanut Butter White Chocolate Chunk Cookies

Sometimes, my urge to experiment in the kitchen takes me to strange places. I’ve been on a bit of a healthy eating kick lately. I don’t know if it’s the warm weather and the more flesh-baring clothes that such weather demands or just a passing intellectual fad. It’s been difficult to reconcile my love of baking with my new desire, which may well prove fleeting, to consume more nutritious food.

I’m not a total killjoy; I think there’s room for the occasional decadent dessert in most diets. When I bake cookies, however, I tend to nosh on them for snacks in between meals instead of fresh fruit. And um, I feel kind of guilty about that. But I love cookies, and I’m not about to give them up altogether.

Basically, I decided that a nut butter-based cookie must, by virtue of all its good fats, be slightly healthier than your average cookie. I may be completely off base, but the power of self-delusion is a wonderful thing. I also had a mad hankering for pistachios. And this is where I start to sound a bit odd, shall we say, but I’ve always found pistachio and peanut to be complementary flavors …

Apple Pie Cookies

Apple pie is a baked good for which husband constantly clamors. Alas! For peeling, coring, and slicing apples are among my most-dreaded kitchen tasks. He doesn’t get pie often, yet it seems cruel of me to remain deaf to such oft-repeated pleas.

I thought he might be placated if I devised a simple cookie that had all of the lovely flavors of apple pie but took half – nay, a quarter, if that – of the effort to prepare. And I came up with these. If you’re looking for an approximation of apple pie in cookie form, then look no further.

I used dried apples in place of fresh, because seriously: fresh apples would have made these nearly as much a chore as pie. I waffled on whether to throw in a bag of white chocolate chips and ultimately decided not to, as I was going for unadulterated apple pie taste. However, they would be really good in these. You know, if you’re not such a purist.