I’m calling these cookies “Midnight Madness” because Dan and I decided at 11:45 p.m. tonight that we were going to make them.

We realized we were all out of our homemade applesauce stock in the freezer, so we quickly looked up the grocery store hours! We were in luck – they were open until midnight! We jumped in the truck, even Rocco, and made our way to the store with 8 minutes to spare. We found a suitable substitute for my homemade applesauce (no corn syrup, sugar or anything – just apples). Then we looked to see if we could find dairy free chocolate chips. (If we could find some, then the cookies could be 100% vegan!) SCORE again, we found some semi-sweet chips by Guittard that did not have any milk products in them. Combined with the dried cranberries and pecans, we knew these would make fabulous cookies!

Preheat oven to 350ºF

Ingredients and Instructions

Combine below ingredients in a mixer or bowl and stir well.

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3 c. quick cooking oats
1/2 c. organic sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon

Next, add below ingredients.
Mix well ensuring no dry ingredients are left at the bottom of the bowl.

1 1/2 c. all natural applesauce (I prefer homemade if possible)
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Stir in remaining ingredients

1/3 c. pecans (or walnuts)
1/3 c. chocolate chips
1/3 c. dried cranberries

Coat baking sheet with coconut oil or use parchment paper to line them. Be sure to flatten cookies after spooning them onto pan, because they won’t spread at all! Bake for 8-10 minutes. These cookies will have an almost cake like consistency and are NOT overly sweet. If you wanted a sweeter cookie, you could increase sugar to 1 cup.

Especially delicious served with nut milk of choice!