Peachy Keen: Fresh-Peach Drop Cookies

Last week as soon as Josh and I decided to go to the Concert in the Garden, I knew I had to find a great treat to take with us on our picnic outing. Something summery, something sweet, and most importantly something easy for hand-held eating. I thought I'd hit the jackpot when I found this recipe, and I was right. Josh used words like "heaven" and "gold" to describe these cookies. And he's not even very fond of peaches. I think that pretty much says it all, don't you?

Fresh-Peach Drop Cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart Living; Makes appx. 4 dozen












2 cups all-purpose flour, plus 2 tablespoons
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 large ripe peaches, peeled, pitted, and cut into 1/4-inch dice
1/3 cup peach jam or preserves
2 tablespoons fine sanding sugar
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• Preheat oven to 375. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda.
• Beat butter and granulated sugar with a mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Reduce speed to low. Beat in egg and vanilla. Add flour mixture, and beat until just combined. Add peaches and jam, and beat until just combined.
• Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop dough onto baking sheets lined with parchment, spacing about 2 inches apart. (If not baking all of the cookies at once, refrigerate dough between batches; dough can be refrigerated in an airtight container for up to 2 days.) Combine sanding sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle each cookie with 1/8 teaspoon cinnamon-sugar mixture.
• Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until golden brown and just set, 11 to 13 minutes. Let cool on sheets for 5 minutes, and then transfer cookies to wire racks to cool completely.

My notes: Well, these cookies were pretty much exactly what I was hoping they would be- sort of like little, hand held peach cobbler bites. Can you believe this was the first time (that I can recall anyway) that I've bought peaches? These cookies could have used more fresh peach, but that could be my inexperience with the fruit. Perhaps I bought medium sized peaches, not large. I used regular sugar in the sprinkle topping, didn't see any sense in buying all new sugar just for a batch of cookies, ha. And upon typing up this recipe I realized that I didn't rotate the sheets, but that didn't make much of a difference. Oh, and lastly I got less than 4 dozen, but I also used my 1 1/2 T cookie scoop, so a bit more batter when into each cookie. Great summertime cookies!