Lately, I’ve been challenging myself to come up with cookies based on nebulous ideas.  So far, this ongoing experiment has brought you bad day cookies and unicorn poop cookies.  Today’s result is what you’d get if you took all the best bits of fall and turned them into a cookie.  I give you: the All Things Fall Cookie!

As with my previous two cookie recipes, this one is based on the Land o’ Lakes chocolate chip cookie recipe.  This time, I’ve substituted pumpkin spice cream cheese for some of the butter, rolled oats for some of the flour, a mixture of pumpkin spice baking chips and walnuts for the chocolate chips, and applesauce for the eggs, and topped it all off with a mixture of delicious, fall-appropriate spices.  The applesauce substitution is a pretty standard vegan substitution for eggs that I’ve used before, but this time I did it in an effort to add apple flavor without adding too much moisture to the dough.  As it was, the dough was so sticky and thick that it broke my ice cream scoop (not a new problem- I’ve lost two wooden spoons to the chocolate chip cookies these are based on as well).  You may be better off using the two spoon method with these, as they really stick to your hands and utensils.

I don’t think there’s anything major I’d change about these cookies, other than to perhaps add some leaf-shaped sprinkles and possibly increase the walnuts for a little more crunch.  Oh yeah, and to remember to bake them at 375°F, not 475°F.  That’s what happens when you move too fast and do too many things at once in the kitchen: you burn your cookies.  Don’t be like me.  Don’t burn delicious cookies due to carelessness.

You will need the following ingredients:

For the cookies:

• 3¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. ground cloves
• 8 oz. pumpkin spice cream cheese, softened
• 4 oz. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• 1¼ cups granulated sugar
• 1¼ cups brown sugar
• ½ cup applesauce
• 1 Tbsp. vanilla extract
• 6 oz. (½ package) pumpkin spice or butterscotch baking chips
• 6 oz. chopped walnuts

For baking ambiance:

• Elvis Costello governed this bakeventure.  Admittedly, he has nothing to do about fall, but he is good to get your blood pumping so you can get psyched up about turning fall into a cookie.

Let’s get baking!

Preheat your oven to 375°F and grease or line cookie sheets with foil.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cloves until uniform.  Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter, and sugars (brown and white).

Beat in the applesauce and vanilla extract until smooth.

Adding ⅓ at a time, stir in the dry ingredients.  Be careful, as this could break your wooden spoon towards the end.

Now stir in the pumpkin spice baking chips and walnuts until both are evenly distributed.

Using an ice cream scoop or ¼ cup measuring cup, scoop the dough into balls and arrange them at least 2″ apart on the cookie sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are no longer shiny and the edges are beginning to brown.

Leave the cookies to cool for at least 5 minutes on the cookie sheets, then remove them to cooling racks to cool as long as you can handle before eating them.

Enjoy!

You can download the printable PDF recipe here: All Things Fall Cookies