Lemon Polenta Apricot Cookies

I attend clinical Pilates once a week as a means of preventing my back from being injured, or at least to minimise the impact of any injuries.  It has transformed my life to the extent that I imagine something terrible is going to happen to my back during the weeks when I don't go.  My two longest serving Pilates instructors have been Dom, who has since disappeared to another life, and Emilia, who became my Pilates instructor when I returned to Melbourne after a short hiatus back in my home state.  Both of them have transformed me physically, in that I do not have to attend physiotherapy 3 or 4 times a week to try and persuade my reluctant lower back and glute muscles to relax and let me move.  They are also good fun, and can often lift my mood with their light-hearted banter even after the darkest day at work.

It was recently Emilia's birthday, and as I bore her every week with talk of what I have made that week, I decided to make her some baked goods for her birthday.  A quick survey of the ingredients that I had to hand led me to make Lemon Polenta Apricot Cookies for Emilia.  I found the recipe on 6 Bittersweets, via Russian Season.  Like Russian Season, I substituted dried apricots for dried cranberries, as that is what I had to hand.

These cookies are quite easy to put together, and have the lovely flavour mix of cornmeal (which also adds crunch), sweet apricots and tangy lemon.  They are made by rolling the dough into logs, then chilling it before slicing it into coin-shaped cookies.  The cookies are surprisingly tiny and bite-sized - perfect if you like to have more than one!  Apparently they were a hit, not just with Emilia, but with her other Pilates disciples and co-workers.  That would be a win in my books!

I wrapped them up in a hand decorated box (decorated in about 5 minutes flat with gold pen and cut-outs from wrapping paper):

These cookies are definitely keepers - so the next time the girls are coming round for tea, or to have on hand when the kids come home from school, you can't go wrong with these cookies.