Apple Pie Cookies aka oh sweet god...

When I saw this recipe over on Smitten Kitchen I wanted to leave work immediately to make these. (Not that I look at the internet at work or something.) Thankfully I have awesome coworkers so I could leave work immediately to buy ingredients. I made them when I got home from school and I'm so glad I did. I hope my friends are too, because I'll probably bring them to every fall event this year. I took some short cuts from the original recipe, but they were still easier than I anticipated.

I used store bought pie crust. I know the purists out there are gasping right now, but it's 2011; store bought pie crust isn't that much different than crust from scratch.

I also used the mandolin to slice the apples and it was (as always) perfect. The recipe says to cut them 1/8" thick, which was a little thin to me. I set the mandolin half way between 1/8" and 1/4" and it was just right. I doubled up the thin apples when I made the cookies.

I recommend assembling them one at a time. I laid out the first batch and topped them all with apples then sealed all the tops and they get pretty sticky. The stickiest ones separated in the oven. Still delicious, but not as pretty. The second ones I did one whole cookie at a time and they turned out much better.

I used honey crisp apples and they were heavenly. Thank you Kristin Damstra for introducing me to those. Macintosh would probably be awesome, too. Speaking of which, I listened to Fleetwood Mac while I made these and it was a fantastic evening.