Sweet & Savory: Apple Sauce Cookies

Sweet & Savory is a new monthly blog series where we explore adventures in baking, cooking, and the rapidly evolving food landscape. This month’s blog is written by Category Manager, Stevie Wallace.

Sometimes you want a piece of cake, but you only want a single piece and not the whole thing (I know, I know – blasphemous of me to assume such a thing could happen.) I find that tiny little cakey cookies often do the trick for me, especially as they’re not traditionally my kind of cake or cookie - and they’re easy to hand the remainders out to other hungry folx if you know you won’t eat them all. Awful hard to find someone who will say no to a tiny little cakey cookie.

New England gave us one of the OG snack cakes, the apple sauce spice cake. During the early 20th century, this lightly sweet and spicy cake garnered a lot of love as large scale cook books became more easily accessible to everyone and their cousin’s friend’s grandmas. As a lot of family pantries had store bought or home canned seasonal staples around, this easy cake was often served as an accompaniment with coffee or tea after meals, when your gal pal stopped by to talk gossip about who said what about Doris down at the supermarket, for kids that needed a snack as they ran out the door on weekend afternoons… or, if you’re like me, when it’s 10:30 at night and you sneak into the kitchen for a nibble when everyone else in the house is asleep (except for my dog, who always catches the crumbs I inevitably drop onto the floor.)

I personally find that this treat often goes faster than a cake, quantity made aside, simply because it makes a little less and is easier to share – especially when you can grab a spare Dansk shortbread tin and trek them off to work with you. Plus, it’ll get through most “I don’t like cake/cookies” responses as it’s technically both (sneaky sneaky.) If you find that this recipe makes a little more than you bargained for, they do freeze well after cooling and before glazing: just toss them into a freezer safe container and they’ll keep up to two months’ time.

Apple Sauce Cookies

Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen, the Perfect Cookie

Makes 16 to 18 cookies

Tools:

• 2 baking sheets

• Parchment paper*

• Large saucepan

• 2 mixing bowls

• Whisk

• Wire rack

Ingredients:

• 4 oz/ 1 stick salted butter

• ¾ tsp cinnamon, plus an additional ¼ tsp for later

• 1 ½ cups (7 ½ oz) all-purpose flour

• ½ cup toasted walnuts, chopped

• ¾ tsp baking soda

• ½ tsp kosher salt

• ¾ cups unsweetened apple sauce

• ¾ cup (5 ½ oz) packed light brown sugar

• if using dark brown sugar, cut to ½ cup (3 ¾ oz)

• 1 large egg yolk

• 6 tablespoons confectioner’s sugar

• 2 tablespoons sour cream

I recommend a lighter variety, such as Organic Valley or Daisy. If you’ve got a thicker sour cream on hand, add ¼ tsp water to help thin it out.

Directions:

Melt the butter in the saucepan over medium-high heat until slightly browned and nutty in aroma, 1 to 3 minutes. Add the ¾ tsp cinnamon and whisk vigorously until combined, about 5 seconds (careful, it’ll foam and pop a bit.) Transfer to a larger mixing bowl and let cool for 10 to 15 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 375 F, with oven racks in the top and bottom thirds. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, walnuts, baking soda and salt for 1 minute – don’t skimp on the time, or you’ll end up with pockets of soda in your cookies.

Add to the cooled butter mixture the apple sauce, brown sugar, and egg yolk: whisk until fully combined, about 1 minute. Add the flour mixture and mix until smooth. Scoop 2-tablespoon sized dollops onto your prepared baking sheets, about 1 ½ inches apart (you should get about nine cookies per sheet.)

Bake 13 to 15 minutes, turning half way. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes, transferring to the wire rack to cool completely.

While the cookies cool, in a small bowl mix the confectioner’s sugar, sour cream, and remaining cinnamon. Glaze the cookies as you like, letting them set for 15 minutes before serving. Store in a single layer in an airtight container for 3 to 4 days.