Homestyle Baking: Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies with Walnuts

How many of you still have apples hanging around your abode?  Well, if you're like me, you still may have some stragglers.  Even after a couple batches of homemade canned applesauce and some baked apple crisp, I still have some leftover apples that I am determined not to waste.  These particular apples are the same ones I picked in late September with my mom and sister, so I've got a very limited window of time to use them off before they start heading West.  The past couple of years I've bakes them in pies, muffins, crisp, and into applesauce; so putting them into cookie form was still a comforting twist on a lingering autumn flavor. 

I adapted the recipe from Serious Eats: Apple Cinnamon Cookies, using half the batter to bake some cookies one night then baked the rest the next day; with the batter resting the in the fridge overnight.  I also found out I didn't have precisely all the needed ingredients, so had to improvise a smidge with what I had on hand. (I really didn't want to make a trip to the supermarket.)

Ingredients:

1 c. flour
1 1/2 c. rolled oats
1 egg
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. olive oil (optional)
4 Tbsp. unsalted butter (melted)
1 1/4 c. brown sugar
1/4 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 c. applesauce*
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
4-5 small-medium sized apples (peeled, cored, chopped into small chunks)

Directions: 

Mix together rolled oats, salt, cinnamon, flour, and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl and set aside.  Using a large mixing bowl as your main bowl, mix butter, both sugars, egg, vanilla, and applesauce.  Add the dry ingredients from your medium bowl to your large.  Add remaining apple chunks and walnuts.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rest in fridge for at least an hour (or overnight).  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line baking sheet with parchment or wax paper.  Scoop dough about 1-1/2 inches in size and leave about 1 inch space between each cookie (they won't spread much).  Bake for 15-20 minutes and set on wire rack to cool.

These are great to have midway through the day with the chunks of apple and cinnamon oatmeal.  Also pairs well with any leftover apple cider you may have still left in the fridge too.  


*I chose to use homemade spiced applesauce that I canned in September, because it was on hand and already opened in the refrigerator.  Even though the original recipe calls unsweetened applesauce, I thought mine came out fine with sweetened.