Summer Sweets: Apple Pie Oatmeal Cookies

Summertime and apple pie go together. Especially when you throw in a scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream *drool*. But, some days you just don't have the gumption to make a whole pie, am I right? That's how I felt the day I whipped up these cookies. They have all the flavor of a fresh apple pie, but were admittedly a lot less work! Also, you can't feel bad for eating three or four cookies when they have apple in them. It just counts as a serving of fruit!

I get that oatmeal cookies aren't for everyone, but apple pie is. Therefore, so are these cookies. They are just perfect for taking to a summer cookout. Don't forget to stop on your way to pick up your favorite brand of vanilla ice cream! 

I only needed one of these apples in the end.

Mixing the dry ingredients first.

Mix dry and wet ingredients separately, then combine slowly.

Anybody else find dicing up fruit to be therapeutic? I could do it for hours.

The last step before chilling is to gently fold in the diced apple.

After chilling the dough for 30 minutes, scoop into 15 rounded cookies.

Cookies cooling off on the baking sheet before further cooling off on a wire rack.

• 1 cup Instant/Quick Oats (do NOT use Old Fashioned)
• 3/4 cup Flour
• 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
• 1 1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
• 1/8 tsp Salt
• 2 tbsp Unsalted Butter (melted) or Coconut Oil
• 1 large Egg
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/2 cup Agave
• 1 cup Red Apple (finely diced)

1. Mix together dry ingredients (oats, flour, baking powder, cinnamon, & salt) in medium size bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (butter, egg, & vanilla).
3. Add agave to wet mix after combining the first three ingredients.
4. Add the dry ingredient mix to the bowl of wet ingredients and stir just until combined.
5. Fold in diced apples.
6. Chill dough in refrigerator for 30 minutes. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP.
7. Preheat the oven to 325 and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
8. Use a spoon to drop the dough into 15 rounded scoops and flatten a little.
9. Bake for 13-15 minutes.
10. Let cool 15 minutes on baking sheet then transfer cookies to wire rack to finish cooling.

Make sure to measure the dry ingredients correctly or your cookies will end up dry instead of soft and chewy. Another smart thing to do is to dice your apple as finely as possible. Big chunks will release too much moisture into the dough as it cooks. Mine could probably have been even smaller.