Week Four: Apple Spice Drops

Apple Spice Drops
Yields about 3 1/2 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup apple juice
2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup finely chopped peeled tart apple
1 cup shopped walnuts
Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3 cups confectioners' sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons apple juice

Directions:
In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and apple juice. Combine the dry ingredients; gradually add to the creamed mixture. Fold in apple and walnuts.
Drop by teaspoonfuls 2 in apart onto greased baking sheets. Bake at 375 for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown. Remove to wire racks to cook completely.
For frosting, cream butter, sugar, vanilla and enough apple juice to achieve spreading consistency. Frost cooled cookies.

Ok. Here's the thing. These taste amazing. However, they fell flat. They lost their "cookieness" to me. I like a fluffy cookie with some fluffy frosting. These cookies spread out way too much while cooking. Here's the fix: if the recipe falls flat, replace half of the butter with shortening. This is great if you don't mind making a whole new batch of cookies. I, however, tried to fix the recipe by putting the dough in greased mini muffin pans. They are soft, but they still spread outside the muffin form. I had to scrape the edges back into the depression and continue baking for another three minutes. As they came out this time, these would not be a good cookie to put in a tin for gifts as they are way too brittle. Next time I try this recipe I'm going to make the switch. I also left out the walnuts and added more apples. We went apple picking so we are elbow deep in apples. They are absolutely applicious.