“‘Don’t eat the apple.’ It was the first thing on the syllabus.” – Adam

notes

  • Browning the butter is totally optional. It adds depth to the cookies that differentiate these cookies from plastic-wrapped-store-bought desserts to rich, decadent, and addictive treats.
  • Make sure to keep the cookie dough refrigerated between batches.
  • Pink Lady (Cripps pink) apples are my go to apples for both eating or cooking and baking. Their flavor is more intense than other baking apples,having a sharp and fresh taste. Bottom line, they’re my favorite apple. But feel free to use a honeycrisp, braeburn, or any other solid apple that won’t become mush after a rasp or grater.
  • There is a very small window where these cookies go from fluffy and soft all around to fluffy on top and brown and crunchy on the bottom. Some people say you want your cookies to be the same consistency all around and desperately try to avoid any uneven browning on the bottom and usually I’m right there with them. Not on these. The crunch from the browning doesn’t negatively impact the cookies in any way, so if you miss the window, don’t fret.
  • Warning: the cookie dough is arguably better than the cookies themselves. Try not to eat the equivalent to a batch of cookies while you wait for a tray to bake. Or don’t, I don’t judge.

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cookie dough

makes 18-24 cookies

two-and-two-thirds cups of all purpose flour

one teaspoon of baking soda

half teaspoon of baking powder

half teaspoon of salt

ten ounces of browned unsalted butter or softened unsalted butter

one cup of crunchy peanut butter

three-fourths cup of sugar plus three tablespoons

one cup of light brown sugar

two whole eggs

one-and-a-half cups of dry roasted unsalted peanut halves

four Pink Lady apples, skinned and grated.

one teaspoon of ground cloves

one-and-a-half teaspoons of ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to three-hundred-and-sixty-five degrees.

If browning butter, do that first and immediately cool in the freezer for about five minutes.

In a bowl, mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

Grate apples into a seperate bowl. Make sure to use as much of the apple as possible.

In a standing mixer with a flat beater attached, beat softened butter until creamy, switch to a whisk attachment and set on low. If using brown butter, using a whisk attachment, begin whiskingbrowned butter on low. Add peanut butter to mixer, keep on low until well combined. Add brown sugar and three-fourths cup of granulated sugar, and mix for three minutes. Raise mixing speed to medium-low. Add eggs, one at a time, about thirty seconds apart.

Reduce the mixing speed to low and add the flour in four parts, scraping down the edges with a rubberspatula before each new addition. Add peanut halves. Add grated apple in four parts, about thirty seconds apart for each. Make sure to add all the juice as well.

The dough should be a little wetter than normal cookie dough, but it should still be able to be formed into a ball and will hold its shape well.

Allow dough to cool in a refrigerator for about ten minutes.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Put the extra three tablespoons of granulated sugar intoa bowl.  With an ice cream scoop or a regular spoon, scoop out cookie dough and roll into a ball. Drop the ball into the sugar bowl so the dough slightly flattens out on the side on which it lands. Place the dough sugar-side-up and with the flat prong side of a fork press into the ball twice, making a cross. There should be six to eight cookies per baking sheet.

Bake for twelve to fifteen minutes. The top will not look properly cooked, I assure you it is. That’s where the fluffy part of the cookie comes from. Remove and cool on the sheet for another five minutes then move to a wire rack to cool for another ten minutes.

Eat with apple cider, milk, or bingeing in the dark at three am.

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