Arugula Almond Drop Cookies

Ari Weinzweig, co-founder of the iconic-awesome food mecca Zingerman's in Ann Arbor, Michigan, blogs on the Atlantic Monthly food channel in a column called "Behind the Counter." "Purveyor's purveyor Ari Weinzweig finds foodstuffs to crave" is how the column's described. While I don't really know what that means, it's not a bad column. Then again, anyone who calls the town of my alma mater home--and does his or her business there--will always have my vote. Michiganders, you can do no wrong. No, really. Not even bankruptcy, government bailout, or high crime can tarnish you in my eyes.

In early December, Weinzweig mused upon the coupling of pepper and dessert. I immediately glommed onto the idea. For some reason I recently started really, really loving putting fresh-ground pepper on or in everything: bagels with peppery cream cheese. Fresh, peppered hummus. Bloody Marys with an extra dose of pepper. It was only a matter of time before I figured out the best way to incorporate it into my baking.

Weinzweig talks about fancy sweet pepper-laced stuff in his post. Quinces, a version of panforte, and other such things. I panic a little bit when poached fruit, foreign languages, or fire is involved in anything edible. Pfeffernüsse, a German cookie variety, gets front-billing in Weinzweig's post. I, like Weinzweig, am not a pfeffernüsse aficionado; I can't really recall the taste, flavor, or texture of such a cookie, which leads me to believe that I may have never had one before. I don't even know how to pronounce the word. When I looked up the recipe in the JoC, I saw that it involved lots of spices and nuts (and I was disappointed that Rombauer didn't also sound out the word for me). So, all these things combined means that pfeffernüsse must be fancy, too.

But the concept of a drop-cookie, which pfeffernüsse shares (at least according to its cookie categorization in the JoC), is not, at its core, fancy. It's just a really round cookie. Aside from their symmetry, I like how drop-cookies are kind of melty and crumbly and bite-sized at the same time, so I've been mulling over the idea of coming up with my own version of the pfeffernüsse. The kathernüsse, perhaps. Except, being Katherine, I'm not totally into the idea of just taking ground pepper and throwing it into a cookie recipe. That would be too easy.

Enter, stage left: arugula, with its cute wavy leaves. Arugula is a peppery green. I keep reading those two words--arugula and peppery--over and over again in recipes; it's like they're conjoined twins, eternally linked at the hip. I cook arugula up in the same way I cook kale or spinach, and I agree--it's got a bite to it (and it's really tasty as a side served with seared scallops!). In fact, I made seared scallops with braised broccolini and arugula last week for Valentine's Day. I had a bunch of fresh arugula left over, and then we got more in our CSA box this week. A not-your-run-of-the-pepper-mill (har!) recipe was basically handed to me without any creative thinking required on my part, and thank glory it was. My brain's only functioning at 50 percent after an epically raucous birthday barbecue party yesterday.

Like I did with the basil chocolate cupcakes, I combined, using a food processor, the fresh arugula with the confectioners' sugar in this recipe. If you're one of those people who's not into eating green things, then you might not be so into these cookies. (Otherwise, they're pretty good. Nutty with a savory earthiness that keeps them from being overly sweet, and they've got the bite-sized melty/crumbly thing going on.) Girlfriend helped pull the first batch out of the oven. "Are they ready to come out?" I asked. "They're done if they look vaguely brown." Her response: "I don't know, but they are vaguely green."

Arugula Almond Cookies
Makes about 30 one-inch cookies



1/2 c confectioners' sugar
1 1/2 c fresh arugula (or more--the ones I made ended up being very, very subtle in the arugula department)
1 c (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
2/3 c toasted almonds, finely ground (you can toast raw, unsalted almonds in a nonstick frying pan on the stove--5-7 mins on medium-high heat--then throw them in a food processor)
2 tbsp sour cream
2 c all-purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease 2 cookie sheets.

In a food processor, combine confectioners' sugar and fresh arugula until the arugula is finely chopped. The resulting mixture will be green and sticky.

Using a mixer, beat the butter, sugar mixture, salt, and vanilla until well-blended. Stir in almonds; add the sour cream. Stir in flour until well-blended. Shape dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on cookie sheets, about 1 1/4 inches apart.

Bake, one sheet at a time, for 12-15 minutes, until lightly browned. After removing from the oven, let cookies stand for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool. Once cooled, roll the cookies in confectioners' sugar.