Orchard Cookies
Fall is quickly becoming winter in Colorado. The leaves have abandoned their branchy posts and are colonizing all nooks and crannies of my yard. Frost is sparkling from the golden stalks of the ornamental grasses, and it is just suddenly so cold. At this time of year, I only want to bake cookies and curl up next to the fire under tons of blankets. Who’s with me?
These Orchard cookies fit the autumn season like a glove. The cinnamon, brown butter, and oatmeal cookie crumb is loaded with sweet, chewy dried apples, peaches, and persimmons, and topped off with a sparkle of flaky sea salt. I could probably eat these all day long; they are that good! Pair them with some hot tea or apple cider, and you have a late fall dream!
Plus this recipe is really simple and quick to make. You don’t need any fancy mixing equipment or chilling time, so the whole caboodle can be accomplished in well under an hour, leaving your house smelling divine and your time free for fireside reading under blankets.
The most complicated part of the recipe is making the brown butter, and that’s really not too tricky. Basically you’re just cooking butter until it turns reddish brown. That’s it! Despite it’s simplicity, brown is completely worth the extra work (if you can call it that). Not only does it smell amazing, but brown butter also adds so much depth of flavor to these cookies. Pretty much everything in life is better with butter, especially if its browned!
Orchard Cookies - Makes 16 cookies
Equipment:
Small saucepan
2 large baking sheets
Round Circle Cookie Cutter (3-3.5 in. diameter)
Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
3/4 tsp. kosher salt
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3/4 cups unsalted butter, divided
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 3oz. package (about 1 cup) diced RIND Orchard dried fruit mix
Flaky sea salt (optional for sprinkling)
Method:
Preheat the oven to 375ºF, and line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Set the oven rack in the middle of the oven.
Sift together the flour, oats, salt, and baking soda in a medium bowl, and set it aside.
Make the brown butter. Place 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter in the saucepan over medium heat. Melt the butter completely. Then continue cooking, swirling the butter and occasionally stirring with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula, until the butter has turned a golden red and smells amazing. Transfer the butter to a large mixing bowl and let it cool for a minute or two.
While the butter is cooling, cube the remaining 1/4 cup of butter. Add this to the browned butter and allow it to melt completely. Once the butter is melted, add the brown and white sugars, and mix until completely combined. Add the eggs, and whisk again until the sugars are dissolved. Whisk in the vanilla, and then gently fold in the flour mixture with a rubber spatula. Mix just until the flour is incorporated. Finally, add the chopped dried fruit and mix again.
Divide the dough into 16 balls, each about 3 TBS. Place them evenly on the two cookie sheets (8 cookies per sheet). These cookies spread a lot while baking, so you can even bake them on three sheets instead if you have them.
Bake one pan of cookies at a time for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies have spread and the edges are golden. Remove the cookies from the oven when they are done, and immediately slam the pan once or twice on the counter to even out the cookies. For perfect circular cookies, use a round cookie cutter to immediately shape the cookies by gently sliding each cookie around inside the cutter in a circular motion. Then top the cookies with a sprinkling of flaky salt.
Allow the cookies to cool for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to finish cooling. Store the cookies covered at room temperature for several days.
