Apple Cinnamon Cookies

At work, I have folks who can and can’t eat different foods. One of my friends can’t have dairy, and she is terribly kind and says it’s ok that I don’t always bring dairy-free treats. I love to bake with butter, and it can be hard to substitute. For some cookies, it’s no problem, and there are great vegan butters out on the market now. I try to make dairy-free occasionally, and my husband also found dairy-free white chocolate and butterscotch chips, so I need to get baking! I also have a gluten-free friend at work, and I am going to start wrapping my head around that.

These cookies come from a vegan blog and made some very simple changes that worked for me. My friend can eat eggs, so I used regular eggs. I also used granulated sugar instead of coconut sugar. I shredded my apples and when writing up the recipe I noticed I could have used chopped apples. I think that’s why the cookies in the original blog photo had more chunks and bumps than mine. Mine look plain, but they are tasty.

These are not difficult to make, but I read the comments and thought that adding oats would be ok. Some of the comments noted that the dough was really soft, so oats would help. I also noticed that folks like to make substitutes, and that can greatly impact a baking recipe, since baking is science. My substitutes were nearly identical, so I figured I would be ok. It’s a good lesson to be very thoughtful when making substitutions when baking, because a lot can go wrong.

Apple Cinnamon Cookies

3/4 cup vegan butter, room temperature

1-1/2 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 egg yolk

1 teaspoon vanilla

3/4 cup shredded or chopped apple

1-3/4 cup flour

1 cup oats

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon baking powder

Cinnamon Sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the vegan butter and sugar on medium until smooth. Add the eggs, vanilla, and apple and stir to combine. Add the flour, oats, salt, and baking powder and stir until combined. Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet and flatten slightly.

Bake for about 12 minutes, until the cookies are barely browned along the edges. The cookies will be pale. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Vegan in the Freezer