Apples and honey are a tasty fall combination and can be turned into these wonderful gluten free treats for anytime, to celebrate National Honey Month, or to feast upon as a dessert at Rosh HaShanah. 

Apple Selection

Cooking apples come in many types. Generally not a Red Delicious, they are bred for eating out of hand and do not survive cooking well. You want something with firmer flesh, like a Granny Smith. Other okay options are Fuji, Winesap, Honeycrisp, Gala, Cortland, and Empire.

Don’t forget to save your skin and cores to make apple scrap vinegar!

Oat Selection

There are 8 different ways you can buy oats at the supermarket. Then there is animal feed – but let’s not get into those oats!

Either quick oats or instant oats are well crushed and will work in this recipe.  Our  No Bake Cookie recipe on this site discussed oats a bit more.

The other 6 common forms of buying oats I don’t recommend for this recipe. How you can use all these different oats would be a lovely topic for another post. Anybody want to write a guest post?! Oat groats are the whole oats and not at all suitable for these cookies. Smaller but still not good are the rolled oats, also called old-fashioned oats – too coarse and the cookies fall apart. Steel cut oats are also known as Irish oatmeal and are also too coarse. Scottish oats are stone ground and they look like they would be too coarse. I might be wrong. Oat flour and oat bran are the last two. I did try oat bran instead of the flax seed meal and the cookies would not stick together.

 

Flax Seed Meal

Get (or make) the flax seed meal fine and not coarse. The plant compounds in the meal, when moistened, help hold the cookie together. The honey plus the juices of the apple moisten it just enough, but you might have to add a tad more water depending on the apple.  You need this ingredient for the recipe to work.  We also use flax seed meal in our OMM, One Minute Muffin.

Apples and Honey Cookies

This makes just enough dessert for 2 couples to enjoy after dinner with tea. If you have younglings about the house, put them to work shredding and make a double batch or more.

1 /4 cup honey
1/ 2 cup shredded cooking apple
1/ 4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/ 2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/ 2 cup quick oats
1/ 4 cup flax seed meal
Optional: 1/ 8 cup chopped walnuts

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 325F.

2. Mix together shredded apples and honey

3. Mix in vanilla, cinnamon, and blend well. These need time to develop.

4. Add the dry ingredients – oats and flax meal – and mix in.

5. Test to see if they will form a clump. If the mix is too dry and crumbly, try adding a tablespoon of water or apple juice. Is to gooey, you may need to add a tablespoon more oats.

6. Add optional walnuts, if using, and mix again.

7. Cover a cookie sheet with parchment paper. There is no oil in these so you will need the paper.

8. Take a big tablespoon full of the mix and place on the cookie sheet.

9. Flatten the top of the mound with the back of the spoon. The cookies should be about 2 inches in diameter. They barely spread so you can spaced close together.

10. Bake 10 to 15 minutes. How long depends on how wet your apple is. Watch that they don’t burn because honey burns at a lower temperature than sugar does.

Enjoy!

And Enjoy More Honey Recipes

May we suggest our dandy little cookbook?   Using Honey in New and Savory Ways offers 36 pages of tips for using honey in your cooking, as well as in all manner of dishes. A steal at only $7!

We hope you will help support some local Southwest folks!
From the review:
“Honey is for more than desserts and this book can help! Using honey in cooking savory dishes helps engage all your taste buds and adds a layer of added flavor to everyday dishes – plus holiday fare.”

Beekeeper?  We offer volume discounts – because if you sell honey in local markets you might want to offer some of these books as well.

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Disclaimer

The authors of this website have researched the edibility of the materials we discuss, however, humans vary in their ability to tolerate different foods, drinks, and herbs. Individuals consuming flowers, plants, animals or derivatives mentioned in this blog do so entirely at their own risk. The authors on this site cannot be held responsible for any adverse reaction. In case of doubt please consult your medical practitioner.