Fruity Meltaways
Published Dec. 8, 2021

- Total Time
- 30 minutes, plus 2 hours’ chilling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- 12tablespoons/170 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature
- ½cup/62 grams confectioners’ sugar
- ¼teaspoon kosher salt (Diamond Crystal)
- 1tablespoon lemon juice
- 2teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 3tablespoons/20 grams finely ground freeze-dried fruit, such as cherries, blueberries, strawberries, peaches or mangoes
- 1¾cups/224 grams all-purpose flour
- ¾cup/93 grams confectioners’ sugar
- 3tablespoons/20 grams finely ground freeze-dried fruit
For the Cookies
For the Coating
Preparation
- Step 1
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a stiff spatula, mix butter, confectioners’ sugar, salt, lemon juice and vanilla until creamy and combined. Add ground freeze-dried fruit and mix until distributed. Add flour, and mix until it all comes together into a soft dough.
- Step 2
Divide the dough into two (250-gram) portions. On pieces of parchment paper, wax paper or plastic wrap, roll each portion of dough into a 10-inch-long log. Chill for at least 2 hours in the refrigerator or up to 3 months tightly wrapped in the freezer.
- Step 3
Set oven racks in the lower and upper thirds of the oven, and heat oven to 350 degrees. Line two sheet trays with parchment paper.
- Step 4
Using a sharp knife, trim about ⅛-inch off each side of the chilled dough logs, just so that you have flat ends. Slice the logs into scant ¼-inch-thick cookies. Roll the log a quarter turn after each slice to keep it round. (If the dough cracks while slicing, let it warm up at room temperature for 10 minutes.) Arrange on sheet trays ½-inch apart and bake, rotating the trays once during baking, until set and barely golden underneath, 10 to 12 minutes.
- Step 5
While the cookies bake, make the sugar coating: Sift together the powdered sugar with the ground freeze-dried fruit. While still warm, gently toss the cookies in the powdered sugar mixture and return to the sheet tray to fully cool. The cookies will keep for 2 weeks stored at room temperature in an airtight container.
Private Notes
Comments
Freeze dried fruit is a dried fruit, no sugar added, and has a lighter, crunchy, completely dry texture…not chewy and moist like raisins or dried apricots. Not always easy to find in grocery stores but I’ve had luck at Trader Joe’s for a good price. Great to flavor frostings without adding moisture or sugar!
These are delicious. But I don't know how the yield is 60-70 cookies. The logs and slices would have to be TINY! I got around 20, though I did make a larger log.
When I saw the picture of this it made my mouth actually water. Can't wait. This will taste good after a wrap with fried chicken, sriracha , lettuce, and the lemon chutney from Indian instant pot cookbook by Pitre. Love NYT Cooking, it's a great place to take a break from you know what.
Yes, they definitely look like sliced salami coated in confectioners sugar. I'm going to drizzle with chocolate to improve the appearance. A coworker suggested making up a "cheese and crackers" plate using a bar cookie cut into cubes and shortbread that looks like crackers.
I’ve had success using a bean grinder for grinding the dried fruit. Used a sieve to remove remaining seeds. Lovely recipe. Thank you!
I used freeze-dried strawberries ($10 worth!) that I chopped up in the blender and then put through a sieve. I tried so hard to get a fine powder so I could avoid the sausage look that other commenters had, but it didn’t work. I was about 20 grams short with the powdered sugar but had enough for coating. I baked one tray at a time as suggested by others and agree that’s necessary. My cooling rack made marks on the bottom of the cookies so I cooled the second batch by moving the parchment paper to the rack, which also kept the counter clean. They were so tasty and were a big hit with my family and were different from anyone else’s at my cookie exchange. The strawberry flavor comes through intensely. Made 67.
