Almond Cookies with Dried Apricots

Somehow, winter still has us... it's cold, cold, coooold... However, that doesn't change the fact that I'm ready for spring! I'm in the mood for all those soft and bright spring colors: green, orange, yellow, lilac... So I went shopping for some new clothes last Saturday. And, as usual, I treated myself to a bouquet of flowers. It happens sometimes that I buy the decoration first and that it makes me think what I could bake that would look nice on a picture together with it. These apricot-colored roses led me to baking these cookies which I had bookmarked some time ago in one of my favorite books. These cookies have a lovely warm and full flavor, not too sweet, though. Depending on whether you like those soft or crunchy, you can adjust the baking time. I somehow managed to get them just right, with a crunch on the outside and still a little soft in the middle! I don't always manage to get cookies exactly in the consistency I would like to.

Recipe
(from: Süsse Sünden - Tarek Malouf)

135g butter, soft
80g sugar
80g brown sugar
1/2 sachet vanilla sugar
1 egg
190g flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
100g dried apricots, coarsly chopped
60g ground almonds
20g almond slivers

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Line two baking trays with parchment paper.

Put butter and the three sugars into a bowl and mix with an electric hand mixer until fluffy. Add the egg and mix on medium speed.

Sift flour, salt, cinnamon and baking soda into another bowl. Add the flour-mix to the butter-sugar mix in two addition and combine well. Add the apricots and the ground almonds.

With a tablespoon form balls the size of a walnut and place on the baking tray leaving enough room between the cookies. Flatten them a little with your hands and sprinkle with almonds slivers. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 12-15 minutes. It depends on how large your cookies are, the book suggests bigger cookies and the baking time is about 20 minutes. They are still slightly soft when you take them out of the oven. I ended up with 24 cookies.