Spiced Apple Fritter Cookies

Directions

• Start by reducing your apple cider. Pour 1 1/2 cups of apple cider into a small saucepan and heat over medium heat, stirring constantly. I like to bring it to a gentle simmer and it usually takes anywhere from 20-30 mins to reduce down to 1/2 cup. Be sure to stir all the way down to the bottom of the pan to prevent the cider from burning to the bottom. I find that a silicon spatula works best so that I can stir and scrape the sides and bottom of my saucepan. Once it looks to be about 1/2 cup, I pour it into a liquid measuring cup to check. If it is over 1/2 cup, pour the cider back into the pan and continue to reduce it. If you end up with slightly under 1/2 cup, you’re fine. Set it aside to cool to room temperature.
• Core, peel and chop your apples. I used two small gingergold apples, but you can use any firm apple that you like. A rough chop is fine for this. You don’t need perfect pieces.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F, set a rack in the upper third, and line a full size baking sheet with parchment paper.
• In a large mixing bowl, combine your dry ingredients: flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and salt. Whisk until evenly incorporated.
• Cut in the cold butter using either a fork, a pastry cutter, or your hands. Mix ingredients together until they start to form little balls the size of peas. Your ingredients should look like this:
• Set the dry ingredients aside and in a small mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, egg, and vanilla extract.
• Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir a few times. You don’t need to fully incorporate them yet.
• Pour in the reduced and cooled apple cider. Now you can mix until fully incorporated, but don’t overmix.
• Fold in the chopped apples.
• Drop large spoonfuls of batter onto the parchment-lined full size baking sheet. If you don’t have a full sheet (usually about 18 in x 26 in), you can use two half sheets and bake them separately. Be sure to space the cookies out so that they can expand while baking. I put about 1/4-1/3 cup of batter down for each cookie and it made twelve large cookies. Eight cookies are pictured here because I didn’t get my large sheet out (and immediately regretted it), so I baked the other four cookies on a separate sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes. The cookies will be golden brown when done, but won’t be firm or crispy. These are soft cookies, so if you want to be sure, you can stick a toothpick into the center of one and if it comes out clean, they are done.
• While the cookies are baking, whisk together your glaze. I used Whipzi salted caramel flavored powdered sugar and milk to make my glaze. If you don’t have this powdered sugar, use plain powdered sugar and follow the recipe I put above. Whisk your glaze until it’s smooth. If you feel that it’s too thin. add a bit more powdered sugar and if you feel it’s too thick, you can add a bit more milk. You want a consistency that will easily drizzle off of the whisk.
• When the cookies can be handled, move them to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, drizzle them with the glaze.
• Serve and enjoy!

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