Making the transition from the warm New York summer to freezing and windy winter is depressing. I would probably never leave my dorm if it weren’t for football season, hot apple cider and Halloween. Since my Giants weren’t playing last Sunday, I did the only thing I could to salvage my Sunday Funday— went apple and pumpkin picking at a monstrous farm in western New Jersey.

I now have a lot of great pictures of my looking at pumpkins, picking up pumpkins and dropping pumpkins I realized were rotting a few seconds too late. Sadly, I did not get any apples. Apparently, you can only pick apples until mid-October; it seems that I’ve missed some key agricultural curriculum along the way.

I’ve thought about hot apple cider since last Thanksgiving, but I quickly realized that dream might have to wait until next year. I thought about apple pies or tarts, but I’ve honestly never tried my hand much at baking. So with no apples after all, I finally found this recipe on tablespoon.com. This adapted recipe is a crunchy and sweet fall dessert that doesn’t need more than one or two apples at most, but it may still make you regret you didn’t go apple picking.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together the cookie mix and butter until fully moistened. I’m still not entirely comfortable with baking, but the sugar cookie mix helps it to all stick together.

3.  Press the mixture into the bottom of an ungreased pan, saving about ¼ cup of the mixture.

4. Sprinkle the apple pieces over the cookie dough followed by the granulated sugar. Dust with a light coating of cinnamon. Crumble the reserved cookie mixture over the top.

5. Bake for 30-35 minutes, until golden at the edges. Let cool for 15 minutes. Dust with confectioner’s sugar.

Makes 12 squares, serve warm or cold.