Appledoodles

Last month I inherited a giant basket full of apples from my mom after she went apple picking a couple times.  I made a giant batch of applesauce, and some of my family's favorite apple donuts, but still had plenty of apples left over.  One night, I was stress baking, and I decided to use up some more apples in these appledoodles.

Apple doodles are basically the softest snickerdoodles, with that cinnamon sugar flavor, that you can imagine, thanks to a secret ingredient (okay, fine I'll tell you: it's a box of pudding mix.)  Plus, these have the added extras of diced apple and, if you feel like it, white chocolate chips.  My mom was not a fan of the chocolate chips, as I expected, and I had only added 1/2 a cup compared to the whole cup the recipe suggested, but hey, you can't please them all.

I'm usually not one to add boxes of anything to a recipe, but I have to admit that the pudding in the cookies keeps them super soft for days.  They were still soft a week later, when they were still sitting in my cake dish and Kelsey sampled one when she came up to visit.  I should never keep any baked goods in my house because they just go to waste. I'm a freak.

Recipe:

appledoodles
from The Girl Who Ate Everything
makes 2 dozen

Ingredients:
3/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 small (3.5-ounce) box instant cheesecake or vanilla pudding, not prepared
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
pinch nutmeg
1 cup apples, peeled and diced small
1 cup white chocolate chips (optional; I only used 1/2 cup)
for cinnamon sugar coating:
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Instructions:

1) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugars.  Mix in vanilla and egg until smooth.

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, pudding mix, baking soda, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.  Add dry mixture to wet ingredients and mix until combined well.  Stir in apples and white chocolate chips.  Chill in the fridge for one hour.

3) For the cinnamon sugar coating, combine cinnamon and sugar in a small bowl.

4) Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment paper.  Take around 2 tablespoons of dough and roll into a ball. then roll generously in the cinnamon sugar.  Place on prepared baking sheet.

5) Bake for 10 - 12 minutes.  Allow cookies to cool completely on baking sheet; they will continue to bake as they cool.  Store in airtight container at room temperature.