Frosted Apple-Cinnamon Drops

I was feeling a bit nostalgic the other evening and reminiscing about apple cookies my mom used to make for us when we were little.  I did a little research and I found an old recipe in a Sunset Cookie book that sounded similar, but I felt it needed a little something-something to make it worthy of adding it to the cookie line-up this year.

Brown butter, oh yeah that ups the deliciousness factor.  Cinnamon Chips, heck yes, I saw Liren - Kitchen Confidante post a Pumpkin Cinnamon Chip Muffin  recipe some time back and I swear I looked high and low for those darn chips.  I finally secured some at my local Tar-jay, you should have seen me it was ridiculous.  Here I am telling everyone in the isle, "Omg, they have cinnamon chips, do you know how long I've been looking for these?"  Of course they didn't, but I sure was proud of myself.  It was the equivalent of scoring the last talking Elmo (yes I'm acutely aware I'm dating myself here) the day before Christmas.  So if you see the chips in your local store, throw them in your cart a.s.a.p., or if you spot the last bag in someone else's cart and they somehow manage to work their way into your own cart (I saw nothing).

Frosted Apple- Cinnamon Drops

Cookie Dough
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/3 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 cup milk
1 1/2 cups finely chopped granny smith apple (about 1 and a half apples)
1/2 cup cinnamon chips (I found Hersey's brand at my local Target)

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.

Add butter to a small saucepan and heat on medium-low heat until nicely browned.  Usually takes about 5 minutes.  To a large bowl add the brown sugar and browned butter, stir to combine.  Add the egg, flour, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg, cloves, and milk and stir until combined.

Stir in the chopped apples and cinnamon chips.  If you can't find the cinnamon ones, I think semi-sweet chips would be great in these too.

Scoop tablespoon sized amounts of dough onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat.  These spread a bit so leave a little room between each cookie.  Should get 27 cookies or more depending on size.

Bake for 12-14 minutes until browning slightly on the bottom.  If you press one with your finger and it doesn't start to spring back they need a little more time.  Let cool.  For the most even baking I like to rotate my pans from upper to lower and lower to upper halfway between cooking time.

Icing
4 tablespoons butter
2 ounces cream cheese
1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
Zest from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine butter and cream cheese in a small saucepan and heat on medium-low heat until melted and whisk a little to combine. Whisk in powdered sugar, lemon zest and juice.  Should be a nice drizzling consistency.  If it seems too runny; whisk in more powdered sugar a spoonful at a time.  You can drizzle the icing over the cookies with a spoon or put it into a piping bag.  Let icing firm up and store the cookies in between layers of wax paper in an airtight container.

Like the cute red heart on these?  I just reserved a small amount of the icing and tinted it red and piped on a heart.  Adds just a little extra love I think.

Enjoy,

Gina