Apple Cheese Cookies

A wee while back I made a delicious apple pie, which had cheddar cheese added to the pastry. You may have seen it, you may not have. But the result was surprising.

Good surprising that is.

The cheddar in the crust gave the whole pie a creamy taste to it. You couldn’t pick that it was cheese in the pie at all, for those who might baulk at the thought.

So, I wondered how cheese and apple might go together in sweet cookies? I set about looking at some recipes and came up with my own. I didn’t want to add cinnamon, like there was in the pie, as I wanted the flavour of the apple to stand out.

I used a grated mature cheddar cheese and Granny Smith apples. I grated both by hand. Using the food processor to grate the apple would have left it way too moist for the recipe. In fact grating the apples by hand still leaves them a bit wet, so I placed them in some kitchen roll and squeezed out the excess moisture.

The addition of oats in the cookie dough ensures a chewy cookie, the kind I like best. Here’s how I made them;

Yield: 10 large cookies

Ingredients:

75 grams plain flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon salt

110 grams grated strong cheddar cheese

120 grams porridge oats (not instant)

150 grams unsalted butter, softened

75 grams golden caster sugar

1 medium egg

2 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and grated

Adapted from Sargento.com

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C and line two large baking sheets with greaseproof paper.

Grate the cheese and apples. Squeeze the excess moisture from the apple by placing it in some kitchen paper or a clean dish towel and wringing it.

In a bowl of a mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add the egg and beat this in. Next, sift in the flour, baking powder and salt and stir to combine.

Add the cheese and stir through, then do the same with the apple. Lastly stir through the oats.

Scoop balls of cookie dough onto the prepared baking sheets and press them down with the bottom of a wet glass. Bake the cookies in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes.

The cookies will smell like cheese on toast when you open the oven door, they will be golden brown with flecks of cheesy orange on the outside.

Allow the cookies to cool fully before enjoying, as they are soft and likely to fall apart when picked up when warm.

They are just as good as the pie was – the cheese just lends a creamy taste which works perfectly with the fruitiness of the apple.

Try these  and you won’t be disappointed! Enjoy…