I’ve been thinking in terms of cookie recipes all month, trying to come up with some fun new cookie recipes, that are definitely not your typical Holiday cookies. {Especially after creating my amazing Caramel Apple Cake Balls.} This first recipe I came up with was a huge, delicious win. And inspired my Hubby to name my new cookie inventing venture, “Not Your Nana’s Cookies”- so join me as I make up, and share with you some fun, new cookie recipes to add to your list of favorites.
I’ve been loving fruit and herb combinations lately. I’ve been sipping Strawberry Basil infused water, and Lemon and Mint everything. As I get older, I go less for the intensely sweet and want to try new variations of my favorite beloved recipes.
I’ve always been a huge rosemary fan, and try to cook with it often- which inspired me to come up with a cookie recipe featuring it. After much internal debate, I thought that apricot would go well with it- and just totally winged it (wung it? wang it? I’ve heard it both ways…) from there.
I started out with just your basic Shortbread recipe. Which is super simple, and contains dangerous amounts of butter. Heart attack inducing amounts of butter. But, the more butter the better, I say.
Let your butter get nice and soft. I mean it. Like, let it sit out for hours. I sat it out really early, and sat it on the warmer zone on my stove, turning it every so often so it didn’t melt. You need it to be nice and soft so that when you mix it with your powdered sugar, it gets nice and fluffy.
When mixing up shortbread you always want to sift your dry ingredients so that everything is nice and smooth. I’m never huge on sifting, unless it’s in a shortbread. Then, I become a stickler. So, sift in your powdered sugar and then mix until light and fluffy (and delicious, should you happen to taste it- butter and sugar are a match made in heaven!).
Then add your vanilla, mix it some more. Then the SIFTED dry ingredients.
See…sifted. I even took the time, promise!
Once you get your mixture nice and completely mixed…chop some rosemary. You can do it to your taste here. I took a sprig, pulled the leaves off and chopped them. Then did another half sprig. (This was for HALF the shortbread- I also left some plain.)
Nice, small bits, so you don’t get a huge sprig of rosemary caught in your teeth!
At this point, I forgot to take pictures, but I separated it and added the rosemary to half. Then rolled it into balls and wrapped it in plastic wrap. You want to refrigerate for AT LEAST 2 hours so your cookies are nice and firm and easy to roll out. I over-cooled mine and ended up having to let them slightly thaw, but they still turned out fine.
I only took pictures rolling out the plain dough, but it’s all the same. Throw down some flour, roll it out nice and thin…but not too thin. This was trial and error for me, but I eventually found a good thickness, that once I used a cookie cutter on them, they held their shape.
Then proceed to cut and place on your cookie sheet.
I tried lots of variations for fun. but my favorite were just the shortbread with the rosemary mixed in- they tasted the best plain. But, they all ended up looking pretty.
Once your cookies are baked and cooling- prepare your glaze.
I’m by no means a glaze expert and completely made this up, so if you are a glaze expert, and this sounds wrong- sorry!
I just started with a jar of Apricot Preserves.
Then, I put them in a small saucepan with a teaspoon or two of water, just to smooth it out. I heated until it melted together- then brought out my trusty sifter again.
I went ahead and pushed it through so it was silky smooth.
Then, in typical glaze fashion, added about 1/2 a cup of powdered sugar. I kept mixing the sugar with the melted preserves until my desired glaze consistency was reached. If it’s still too thick, go ahead and add a little more water, a tiny bit at a time.
Once your cookies are COMPLETELY cooled- glaze them. You can put it in a squirt bottle, or if you’re me, just put it in a plastic baggie and cut off the corner. Easy peasy. It doesn’t have to be perfect, just glaze away. Use however much you prefer, depending on how sweet you want your cookies to taste.
They’re a slightly sweet, and super delicious treat that looks fancier than it really is. They would make a great cookie for a Holiday get together and would taste great with a cup of tea. Perfect for sharing with friends.
Sorry I don’t have a full out recipe for these- especially since I made it up. Just take your favorite shortbread recipe and go from there- and I hope you enjoy my made up glaze. I did- I had to keep reminding myself how much better these cookies contained.
So, there you have it. Some super delicious, non traditional, Not Your Nana’s Cookies!
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