Just over a week ago I was on vacation… sitting by a warm fire, relaxing in front of the tv with a warm cup of tea. And now is the first week back at work and it’s just as rough as I thought it would be. I did have one thing to look forward to: the new season of The Bachelor. With my friends at work, we pick Bachelor fantasy teams and earn points for different things that the contestants do each episode. It makes it that much more fun to watch, so I was pretty excited to see the premier last Monday with my, as it turned out, less than rock-star team. I won’t give away any spoilers in case you haven’t watched yet, but am I the only one who is surprised by some of the girls Ben sent home?? Anyways, that really got me through Monday.

And now I’m sitting in my apartment on the coldest day of the winter so far (windchill put us at -2 this morning) dreaming of these deliciously warm apple pie cookies. For Christmas, I made these eggnog snickerdoodles, these healthy thin mints, and these chocolate chunk gingerbread cookies. But that wasn’t enough, so I came up with these apple pie cookies as a lighter sweet treat.

They are cinnamony and appley and soft. I made them at home and my mom was dipping them in toffee sauce, which was delicious! So feel free to add toffee to these if you want. Also, I rolled these cookies in cinnamon and white sugar before baking since I didn’t have raw sugar on hand, but if you want to make them refined sugar free, use raw turbinado sugar instead. These cookies are perfect to satisfy your sweet tooth but still keep you on track with your healthy new years goals.

Yield: 10-12 cookies; Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1/4 cup coconut sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 1/3 cup chopped apples (about half inch cubes)

Cinnamon Sugar Dip:

• 2 tablespoons white sugar (or turbinado sugar)
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients until well combined (flour through coconut sugar). Stir in the vanilla extract, applesauce, coconut oil, and honey until combined. Finally, fold in the chopped apples. The dough will be sticky. In a small bowl combine the sugar and cinnamon to dip the cookies into. Use a spoon to gather tablespoon sized balls, flatten, and carefully roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture, then place on the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes.