These are the cookies you should bake this weekend

Hi friends! I have a half-written post Apple Cheesecake Bars slated for the blog today but I have to say… it doesn’t feel quite time yet. The mornings have the tiniest hint of chill in the air and I’ve been coaxed into wearing my new tik-tok-made-me-buy-it-flannel only to be sweating through it come 1pm.

Maybe some of you up north (I’m pointing up with my finger at you, Michigan) are out apple picking and wow, I really do love that for you. Please swear a scarf about it and set some apples aside for the next few weeks when apple cheesecake makes more sense for all of us.

Until then, I think we should do two things this weekend: take an extra long walk in these gorgeous early fall days (these days are so elusive and unique let’s be in them!) AND let’s stock our freezer with a batch or two of cookie dough (for the coziness of our future selves).

Above is me making Italian Butter Cookies for last year’s holiday magazine and gah I love a piped cookie but I’m not quite at that level this weekend. Check in with me again closer to the holidays and after a nap.

Here are the cookies I think you should make this weekend!

•  Browned Butter Oatmeal Apple Cookies. Consider these THE moment with chewy dried apples and butterscotch chips.  I made a batch of these cookies this week and can confirm, they’re still perfection and, if gifted, will make you a legend (no exaggeration) .  I made my latest batch gluten-free with King Arthur Flour’s Measure for Measure Flour with success, so this recipe is sturdy enough to do whatcha wanna, for the most part.

•  Peanut Butter Cookies.  Someone in my Instagram comments referred to peanut butter as “the devil’s butter” which is a hilarious insult to something I eat in the middle of the night by the spoonful.  Peanut Butter Cookies are classic but especially cozy as we enter fall.  I highly recommend these very easy 4-ingredient Peanut Butter Cookies (that happen to be gluten and cow butter-free).  If you have brainspace for a little more fuss, these Fluffernutter Cookies (yay for a marshmallow) should be your cookie of choice.

•  Picture yourself with a batch of Taylor Swift’s Chai Sugar Cookies in the oven while you scream to the 10-minute version of All Too Well and wonder about the Jake Gyllenhaal of it all.  Just me?  (Don’t answer that.)

•  Or simple, a recipe for just two giant Chocolate Chip Cookies that comes together in a small saucepan with 20 minutes of your time. Take these cookies on as a new life skill and memorize the recipe.  It’s like memorizing your credit card number – both useful and dangerous.

Weekend it up, friends!

My love to you.

xo Joy