Honeymoon Cookies
By Amy Traverso|Nov 01 2013|
Honeymoon Cookies
Photo Credit: Michael PiazzaIn 1960, reader Jane Goyer of West Boylston, Massachusetts, sent us this recipe for her grandmother’s soft sugar cookies, filled with minced apples, nuts, spices, and raisins (we substituted dried cranberries). They’re like tiny apple pies. Don’t be intimidated by the long list of ingredients; these honeymoon cookies are very simple to make.
In her introduction to the recipe, Jane wrote, “Grandma’s big black wood-burning stove was a wonder to behold. Its coil pipe, reaching almost to the ceiling, looked like a huge black cobra to the eyes of a little child. It was Grandpa’s wedding gift to his bride. He carried her over the threshold and set her down before it. She embraced it, then cried tears of joy for the love of it. That afternoon—yes, on her wedding day—she cooked beef stew and dumplings and a batch of cookies to test the oven. Can you imagine a bride today cooking on her honeymoon?”
Find more recipes for “Cookies Through the Decades.”
Yield:
about 4 dozen cookiesTotal Time:
1 hour 15 minutes minutesHands-on Time:
1 hour minutesIngredients
1-1/4 cups whole dried sweetened cranberries
1 cup walnut halves
1 large firm-tart apple, such as Granny Smith, Baldwin, or Northern Spy, peeled and roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon firmly packed light-brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Instructions
First, make the filling: Put the cranberries, walnuts, apple, lemon juice, brown sugar, and spices in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely chopped. Set aside.
For the dough:
Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, plus more for pans
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
3-3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon table salt
For the glaze:
Ingredients:
3/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
1–2 tablespoons heavy cream
Instructions:
Now make the glaze: Drizzle 1 tablespoon of cream into 3/4 cup of confectioners’ sugar, and stir with a fork until it forms a smooth paste with the consistency of honey. Add more cream as needed. Set the wire racks over waxed paper, and drizzle each cookie with a teaspoonful of the glaze, spreading with the back of a spoon.
These cookies will keep in an airtight container for up to 1 week; they also freeze well.
