smitten kitchen | The Style Eater

I’m 100% in the Thanksgiving mindset this week. Living and breathing it. Breathing it? Yes because I’m currently surrounded by the densely aromatic smell of freshly baked cake, cinnamon and clove, apples and frosting.* Quintessential fall! Exactly what I need to get me ready for Thanksgiving.

But even better, this Spiced Applesauce Cake (recipe courtesy of one of my favorite food bloggers, Smitten Kitchen) tastes just as good as it smells. It’s incredibly moist and has just the right amount of appley flavor. I even used plain, store-bought applesauce instead of making it myself and it was just as delicious. The recipe is simple and quick – and it’s now my breakfast for the next 3 days.

*I started writing this post when it still smelled delicious and cinnamon-y up in here. Now, we’re doing a 4-hour oven self-cleaning and it currently smells like melting plastic and burnt-to-a-crisp baked goods. Oh the sacrifices we make for Thanksgiving!!

I won’t lie, I usually make oatmeal chocolate chip cookies from a recipe on the side of my Costco-sized bag of rolled oats. What else am I going to use 5 lbs. of oats for? Oh, I could make regular old-fashioned oatmeal with it, you say?? That’s too difficult.

When I was reading about my friend Heather’s oatmeal choc chip cooks, it inspired me to find a better recipe than the one on a Costco oatmeal bag. I ended up choosing this recipe and I’m soooo glad I did! The spice-factor is what really drew me into these cookies. The recipe calls for cinnamon, nutmeg, and clove so you know they’re going to be good even before baking them.

And guess what? They were really delicious. Chewy yet slightly crispy, loaded with chocolate, undercurrents of spice, and just the right amount of oats. I omitted the pecans because I’m not really a fan of nuts in cookies but they didn’t lose any flavor without them. I also used about half the amount of orange zest and they still had a subtle taste of orange.

Best part: the cookies come out of the oven nice and flat. You know what that means? They make perfect ice cream sandwiches.