Apple Spice Cookies, A Homey Fall Recipe

Ah, autumn. As Camus once said, “Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Fall is time of grounding, a time of rebirth, a time to let go of old worries and open yourself up to new beginnings.

Autumn was always my favorite season, even as a little girl. I was enamored with the almost sacred feeling of excitement that the falling leaves bring– a new school year, the bold colors, those crisp mornings and cozy evenings. Halloween was my favorite holiday, partly for the cute costumes but mostly because I was always drawn to the weird, the spooky, the magical. Every year I lost myself in the changing of the seasons.

Not much has changed as I’ve aged, although since moving to Minnesota, the “crisp” and “cozy” have become considerably more frigid! Plus, I do a lot more baking nowadays (as a grown woman who is allowed to use the oven unsupervised). Somewhere around mid-August I start pulling out the scented candles and filling my calendar with festivals, hayrides, pumpkin patches–the works.

This year, however, between the virus, my rounding belly, and chasing after my curious 16-month-old, I’ve been struggling to get my fall fix. Mentally, I think I’m still stuck in March, and somehow my favorite season feels… lacking. So a couple weeks go I packed up the family and I took us all for some socially distant apple picking.

And we picked.

And picked.

And picked.

And left with more apples than I knew what to do with.

When we’d arrived and the cashier had pointed to the empty bushel boxes and half-bushel bags, I’d thought, “Wow, a bushel is much smaller than I realized! I’ll take a bushel and a half.”

I was a fool.

So my home has been apple central ever since. I’ve made apple butter, apple pie, applesauce, apple tarts, apple muffins… apple apple apple. Apple everything. I’ve even been putting homemade apple pie filling on my ice cream lately (which I highly recommend). I wondered one night, can I put apples in a cookie?

Yes, Niki. You definitely can.

Enter these apple spice oatmeal cookies. They taste like autumn is giving your tongue a hug. And what’s more– You can pawn them off on people without getting the same weird looks you do when you roll up to their house with a gallon jar of apple butter.

So my apple stash has been slowly but surely depleting and I’m entering hibernation mode after sating my hunger for all things autumnal. I just pulled another batch of these bad boys out of the oven, and if you need me I’ll be in a blanket burrito on the couch watching Hocus Pocus until my eyes bleed.

APPLE SPICE COOKIES

• • 1 cup finely chopped peeled baking apple of your choice (I used Cortland)
  • 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (or as needed)
  • 1 cup whole wheat flour
  • ¼ cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 1/4 cups old fashioned oats
  • ½ tbsp ground cinnamon
  • ¼ tbsp ground cloves
  • ¼ tbsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 3/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1 tbsp molasses
  • 1 large egg
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. 1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line 14×20 baking sheet with parchment paper. (If using two smaller baking sheets, bake one at a time).
   2. Drizzle lemon juice over apples and set aside.
   3. Mix flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
   4. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and sugar, then mix in vanilla, egg, and molasses.
   5. Combine both wet and dry mixtures, then stir in apples.
   6. Scoop onto prepared baking sheets with medium cookie scoop, spacing about 2in apart.
   7. Bake for about 15min or until just set, then let cool before removing from sheet. 

Enjoy!

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