Last Sunday for breakfast we stuffed ourselves with apple stuffed cookies. 😀

Those who follow my Facebook page knew it immediately, almost live, because I was so satisfied with my apple stuffed cookies that I couldn’t resist posting a photo, taken quickly right before bringing everything to the table! Here it is:

On Sunday mornings we love to lounge around, have a late breakfast, and make it richer and more indulgent than on other days! Sure, I don’t always have time the night before to prepare complicated things or experiment with new ones, so I often make shortcrust pastries, my own shortcrust pastry which, as you already know, has been a family staple for decades, for two reasons: one, it’s very easy to prepare, and two, it always turns out great, whether cookies or tarts, my shortcrust pastry always stands out in our house.

But have you ever bought packaged apple stuffed cookies? I’ve found them from various brands and sometimes I’ve bought them to please my kids. I have to say yes, they like them, as I think all kids do, but for me, they’re too sweet. And then they’re also too salty. Yes, yes, salty.

Don’t you believe it? Have you never noticed that packaged cookies – a bit of all of them, not just the stuffed ones – are also salty, besides being very sweet?

The issue of salt present, or rather hidden, in sweet foods is a topic that would deserve its own article… Well, let’s do this then… now I’ll leave you with the recipe for my apple stuffed cookies, you’re here for this, but then for those interested and wanting to learn more, at the end of the recipe I’ll leave you the link to an article, which in my opinion explains quite well the topic of ‘hidden salt’. I’ll see you after the recipe! 😉

Difficulty: Easy
Cost: Economical
Preparation time: 20 Minutes
Portions: 28
Cooking methods: Oven
Cuisine: Italian

Ingredients

1 block shortcrust pastry
1 apple
2 teaspoons sugar
1 pinch ground cinnamon
as needed powdered sugar (for decoration, optional)

Tools

Cookie Cutters for cookies
Parchment Paper Domopak
Oven Sfornatutto

Steps

Peel and cut the apple into very small pieces and sweeten it with a couple of teaspoons of sugar, flavor with a bit of cinnamon as desired (I really used just a pinch).
Cover with a plate and let it absorb flavor. Meanwhile, prepare the shortcrust pastry following the instructions I gave here.
After the necessary rest of the shortcrust pastry in the fridge, roll out the pastry with a rolling pin to a thickness of 1/8 to 3/16 inches.
Cut out round cookies using a cutter, the one I used is 2 1/8 inches in diameter.
Place about a teaspoon of apple pieces on half of the pastry circles. Stir the apple pieces before using them because during the rest, sugary juice will likely have formed at the bottom of the plate.
Close the cookies by placing a second pastry circle over the filling and sealing the edge well with your fingers.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper and bake at about 340°F for about 15 minutes. Be sure to adjust according to your oven, with mine, I always need to consider a rather low temperature when there is a filling to bake, take this into account too.
And now here’s the link I promised you (this one).
I would like to share a couple of quotes from the linked article, which I really like because they reflect my thoughts and experience:
“The blame is on a diet based on packaged products, made more palatable because they are added with salt. Over time, the taste gets accustomed, and when we cook with our own hands we tend to salt more because everything seems bland”
and
“A recommendation also for baby food: ‘We must get them used to recognizing the flavors of various foods’ (…) ‘with as little salt as possible, otherwise they won’t be able to do without it. Several studies have shown that it creates dependence, stimulating the pleasure areas of the brain located next to those sensitive to drugs. In past centuries, foods were preserved under salt. At that time, therefore, dependence was justified, but today it can be avoided’”
Here, “the taste gets accustomed” and “recognizing the flavors of various foods” exactly represent the core of my philosophy and what I have told you in my Cooking Without Salt, My Journey, an article I care a lot about that explains the choice without salt for my family. From time to time I remind you to read it, hoping it might be helpful to even one of you.
If you can, try to do your best to limit the purchase of packaged foods and ready meals, and above all, think that in this way you are doing prevention for your children. It is my personal belief that limiting salt intake in youth may positively impact adulthood. And beyond the salt topic, but speaking in general, I believe that getting children used to healthy foods and proper nutrition can help them in the future to better understand what it really means to eat healthily.
I’ve finished! with my talks about ‘no salt here and no salt there’ as someone I know says 🙂 and I’ll let you peacefully prepare the apple stuffed cookies! And have a good feast!!