Apple Pie Cookies

 Alright!  Here's what I decided to make with a few of the apples I've got.  (I still have plenty more, though, so I'm sure there'll be another apple recipe in the near future.)  These cookies are amazing!  They literally taste like apple pie and they're so moist and gooey and full of spices!  Yum!

Apple Pie Cookies
Slightly adapted from The Naptime Chef
Makes about 4 dozen

Ingredients:
1/2 cup shortening
1 1/3 cups brown sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup milk
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon (I always use a heaping teaspoon)
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup finely chopped apple
*Original recipe also called for 1 cup walnuts, but I don't like nuts in my cookies, so I omit them.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Using a mixer, combine the shortening and brown sugar.  Add in the milk and egg, and mix well.
3. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and salt.
4. Slowly mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients using the mixer.
5. Stir in the chopped apple by hand.
6. Drop tablespoon-sized cookies onto prepared baking sheets about 2 inches apart.  *Optional: Flatten cookies slightly using your fingers or a spoon.  This creates a flatter cookie, obviously.  The cookies in my pictures were flattened like this.
7.  Bake about 12 minutes or until cookies are slightly browning.  They will soften up immensely when cooled, so don't worry if they look a little too brown right out of the oven.
8. Cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
9. I would suggest storing these in the fridge unless you're going to eat them within a day or two.

On a different note, I have an insanely large to-do list going.  I won't bother with reciting the entire thing because it would take too long, but I will say that I am determined to get my newest scarf finished this weekend!  There!  Now it's published, so it must become so!