Apple Doodles -- The One Sweet Thing I Made for Us This Halloween Week

The fire truck costume arrived Monday. Liam opened the box with the focus of a person defusing a bomb, lifted out the foam shell, and put it on over his head without taking off his pajamas. He stood in the living room wearing a fire truck over his pajamas for forty minutes, walking slowly from one room to another, making siren noises that he has been workshopping since September. He has three sirens: a standard wail, a short yip, and a long low moan he developed himself which does not correspond to any actual fire apparatus I have ever heard but which he considers authoritative. He wore the costume to preschool on Wednesday for their Halloween parade. Miss Alicia sent a photo. The other kids appear to be having a good time. Liam appears to be working.

Nora will be a ladybug. I bought the costume at Target on a Tuesday lunch break, held it up to her that evening, and she put her arms out. That was the extent of the decision process. She is not invested in Halloween the way Liam is. She is invested in the idea that her brother is getting something and therefore she needs a something of her own. Same impulse that leads her to take his blocks when he is not using them. Halloween is one more instance of the underlying principle.

We went to a house Sunday -- a split-level in Quincy, three bedrooms, a yard, a kitchen that has not been updated since 1989 in a specific way that I found immediately comforting and Sean found immediately daunting. The bones are good, the realtor kept saying, the bones are good. Sean and I walked through it twice and did the thing we have started doing, which is we do not talk about it until we are in the car. I said "the kitchen" and Sean said "I know" and that is where we left it. I am trying not to fall in love with kitchens that have not become mine yet. This is one of the things the house hunt is teaching me. You can like many kitchens. You only cook in one.

A patient on the floor this week -- I keep a mental list I do not write down, the ones who get under the door -- is a father to a three-year-old. A boy. Same age as Liam. I walked into his room Tuesday and saw the picture his son had drawn taped to the IV pole and I did the professional thing where I smiled and checked the pump rate and said something warm and normal. Then I went to the break room and drank a glass of water and looked at the ceiling for thirty seconds. Then I went back. This is the job. This is how it is done. You carry the weight. You do not put it down on the patient.

Pumpkin chili this week -- I make it every October, the recipe I adapted from a Cook's Illustrated from around 2015, with the pie pumpkin and the ground turkey and the black beans and the specific chili powder I use. It is not the Southie version, my mother considers it borderline illegitimate, she has told me so, and she has also quietly eaten three bowls of it every time she has had it, so I take her theoretical objection under advisement. The leftovers got us through Tuesday and Thursday.

The chili handled Tuesday and Thursday. But Halloween week with a fire truck and a ladybug in the house felt like it deserved something on the sweeter side too — something I could make after the kids were in bed without thinking too hard, something that would be on the counter Wednesday morning and gone by Wednesday afternoon. Apple Doodles are exactly that: soft, cinnamon-heavy, the kind of thing that fills the kitchen with a smell that competes favorably with any candle. My mother has no theoretical objections to these, for the record.

Apple Doodles

Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 12 min | Total Time: 32 min | Servings: 24 cookies

Ingredients

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp fine salt
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar, plus 3 tbsp for rolling
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs, room temperature
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups peeled and finely diced apple (about 2 medium Honeycrisp or Granny Smith)

Instructions

1. Preheat and prep. Heat oven to 375°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. In a small bowl, combine the 3 tablespoons of granulated sugar with 1/2 teaspoon of the cinnamon and set aside for rolling.
2. Mix dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, remaining 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and nutmeg. Set aside.
3. Cream butter and sugars. In a large bowl, beat softened butter, 3/4 cup granulated sugar, and brown sugar together with a hand mixer or stand mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.
4. Add eggs and vanilla. Beat in eggs one at a time, then mix in vanilla extract until fully incorporated.
5. Combine. Reduce mixer to low and gradually add the flour mixture, mixing just until no dry streaks remain. Do not overmix.
6. Fold in apple. Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, fold in the diced apple until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
7. Roll and coat. Scoop dough by rounded tablespoons and roll each portion into a ball. Roll each ball in the cinnamon-sugar mixture until fully coated, then place 2 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
8. Bake. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, until the edges are set and the tops are just barely golden. The centers will look slightly underdone — that is correct. Do not overbake.
9. Cool. Let cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack. They will firm up as they cool and stay soft for up to 4 days stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 178 | Protein: 2g | Fat: 8g | Carbs: 25g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 112mg