Richey Christmas Cookies

With it being Christmas and with all the baking I'm doing I couldn't resist making my Dad's Christmas cookies.  It's a applesauce spice cookie with walnuts, raisens and chocolate chips.  My dad has a huge mixer.  It's got a wheat grinder and a huge silver bowl...  Any way using that mixer he makes one batch that yields 100 cookies.  My kitchenaid mixer can only handle a third of that but the recipe is easily divided by 3.  I usually get about 40 cookies from one of my batches - obviously my cookies are smaller than my dad's.

The first step is to add the baking soda to the applesauce.  If you skip this step your cookies won't ever brown.  The acid in the applesauce causes the soda to bubble up and foam a bit.  It also makes the applesauce a bit brown.  That's just what you want.  

Next you measure out the goodies (chocolate chips, raisens & walnuts).  Dad always adds a bit of flour to the raisens and works through them to make sure all the raisens are separated into individual raisens and each has a light coating of flour on it so it stays separate.  Don't want bite into a big clump of raisens.  Yuck! 

Dad always hand choppes his walnuts.  He doesn't want them chopped too fine.  I try and get all the pieces about the same size as the chocolate chips. I use the large milk chocolate chips by Guittard.

Next come the spices and the dry ingredients.  My dad tried a lot of different ratios but never found anything that tasted better than equal parts of the four below - cinnamon, allspice, cloves & nutmeg. 

I measured the flour into a bowl and then added the spices, and salt.  

Then I blended all the dry ingredients with a fork.  You can really start to smell the spices - I love that smell!

Now it's time to start mixing things.  First I creamed together the eggs, sugar and shortening.  Dad has tried butter and oil but found that shortening gave him the best results. 

After those are creamed together well...

Next you added the applesauce mixture.  See how foaming it's gotten... That's perfect.  

When you blend the applesauce in the resulting mixture looks kind of.... gross.  But don't worry that's how it's supposed to look and it will turn out perfectly yummy. 

Next I added in the flour/spice mixture.  Doesn't that look more like cookie dough?

Finally dump in all the goodies and your dough is done. 

The dough is a bit looser than a normal cookie dough but not as runny as cake dough.  It results in a soft cookie, with a consistency like a pumpkin chocolate chip cookie.  

Dad uses two teaspoons to drop the dough onto specially made cookie sheets.  He's even scored the cookie sheets so he knows exactly how big to make the cookies to completely fill the sheet. 

I had to just guesstimate the size.  Dad says they should be about the size of a golf ball. 

I always use three cookie sheets so I can cook two at a time (once I get going).  I start with one on the bottom rack.  I cooked my about 11 minutes, then moved it to the top rack and then put in a new sheet on the bottom.  After 11 minutes I pull my first sheet out and repeat the process with the remaining cookies. 

Mine turned out a bit darker than I like (see the ones on the right) the later batches (ones on the left) are closer to the right shade.  This is the first time I've made them in this oven.  I think 10 minutes per rack would have been the right time.  But depending on your oven it could be as long as 12 minutes per rack.   

 

These cookies are delish right out of the oven!!  They also freeze wonderfully and taste almost as good right out of the freezer as they do right out of the oven.  If you like chocolate chip pumpkin cookies you'd like these, even if you don't normally like raisens and nuts in your cookies you should give these a try.  I'm not one to normally like raisens and nuts in my sweets but they are really good in this cookie.  Plus they make it seem slightly healthy.  To me they are healthy enough to have for breakfast.  :-)  

 

Recipe:

10 oz applesauce	1 tsp allspice
1 tsp baking soda	1 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs	1 tsp cloves
1 cup sugar	1 tsp cinnamon
½ cup shortening	10 oz Guittard Large milk chocolate chips
2 – 2/3 cup flour	5 1/3 oz walnuts coarsely chopped
½ tsp salt	5 1/3 oz raisins

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix applesauce and baking soda in a bowl.  Measure flour, salt, and spices into a bowl and mix with a fork until well blended.  Measure chocolate chips, walnuts and raisins into a bowl.  Separate the raisins by hand and add a little flour to keep them separated.  Cream eggs, sugar and shortening in a stand mixer.  Add applesauce/soda mix to the stand mixer and blend.  Slowly add flour mix to stand mixer, mix until well combined, scraping down sides as need.   Add goodies and mix until just incorporated.  Form into golf ball-size balls and drop on greased cookie sheet.  Cook for 10 – 12 minutes on bottom rack, then 10 – 12 minute on the top rack or until they look done.  Makes 3 – 4 dozen.