Catholic Recipe: Caramel Apple Cookies

These drop cookies have the flavor of Apple pie. The cookies can be frosted before freezing or just before serving.

Both feasts of Teresa of Avila and Therese of Lisieux, the Carmelite nuns, fall in October, the end of the Apple season in the United States. This type of cookie combines the seasonal harvest with caramel -- a play on words with "Carmel".

DIRECTIONS

Cream butter, sugar and egg until light and fluffy. Sift together dry ingredients and add to creamed mixture. When well-blended, stir in remaining ingredients, except icing.

Drop by level tablespoonfuls 3" apart onto greased baking sheet. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees) about 12 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Remove cookies and cool on racks. When cool, spread with Caramel Icing. Makes about 4 dozen.

Caramel Icing: Combine 1/4 cup butter and 1/4 brown sugar, firmly packed, in saucepan; cook until sugar dissolves, about 3 minutes. Add 1 1/2 cups sifted Confectioner's sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt and 2 1/2 tablespoons cream; beat until smooth. (If frosting becomes too thick when spreading on cookies, thin it by adding a little more cream.)