Apple Oatmeal Cookies.

 It's a bit harder than I thought to get back into posting recipes after (my perfect) last week. HOWEVER, the recipes must go on. Everyone who eats these cookies (including my lovely houseguest from last week) falls in love with them and I suppose that should be enough inspiration for me anyway :)

These apple oatmeal cookies are the perfect taste of fall.  I used a combination of raisins and dried cranberries as my dried fruit, but feel free to use anything you'd like as well as any nut you'd like, although I do think the toasted walnuts were perefect.  Use any type apple you have lying around the kitchen, I didn't bother to peel mine and it didn't make a difference.  If anything, it added to the rustic texture.  I think this dough benefits from a bit of refrigeration but they'll still taste great if you bake them straight after making the dough as well.  I added multiple spices here but you can just keep things simple with cinnamon if you'd like.

Apple Oatmeal Cookies
Adapted from a Good Housekeeping recipe
1 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 medium apples, cored and diced
3 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup dried cranberries
3/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. and line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine the dry ingredients in a small bowl.  Cream the butter and sugars together until light and fluffy and then add the vanilla extract and eggs, beating until well combined.  Add in the dry ingredients and mix until the flour is just absorbed.  Stir in the apples, oatmeal, dried fruit and nuts.

(Optional) Refrigerate the dough for a few hours before dropping by tablespoonful scoops onto the baking sheets and baking in the preheated oven for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies and if you refrigerated the dough or not.  Keep an eye on them, they should be golden brown on the outside and just slightly wet in the middle.  These cookies will stay very soft because of the apples so a bit of goldenness is preferred.

Serve with coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon and milk before bed and be happy :)