Chef Cutis Stone's Breakfast Cookies

I am always keeping an eye out for different recipes for cookies.  Hubby loves a cookie with his daily tea and I'm not entirely satisfied with him eating bought cookies...the ones we used to call 'cardboard cookies' years ago.
This recipe caught my eye on oprah.com and I gave them a try yesterday.  Sadly the photo of them resting before baking doesn't exactly make them look mouth-watering. I made a couple of changes; I used pistachios and almonds rather than walnuts and, because hubby loves dates, I decided  to drape a date over the top of each cookie.  I guess that's the thing detracting from their beauty in the photo.  All that being said, after sampling the final product, hubby pronounced them 'filling' which in his vernacular means 'good'.
 So here is Chef Stone's recipe as it appears on www.oprah.com ....

Breakfast Cookies

Makes 16 cookies

2 cups walnuts                                               1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats                                     2 tbsp ground flaxseed meal
3/4 cup whole wheat flour                             1 1/2 tsp finely grated orange zest
2 tsp baking powder                                      1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp  baking soda                                       1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 stick unsalted butter, softened                     1/2 cup plain, low-fat yogurt
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups dates, pitted and chopped

Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  Line 2  baking sheets with parchment paper.  On a separate baking sheet toast walnuts til golden about 8 minutes. Let cool and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine oats, flour,  baking powder, and baking soda.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat butter, sugar, flaxseed, zest, salt, and cinnamon until creamy.  Add yogurt and egg and beat to combine.  Add oat mixture and beat to combine.  Fold in dates and reserved walnuts.

Mound dough in 1/4 cup scoops on prepared baking sheets. Bake until golden, switching positions of the pans halfway through, 18 to 20 minutes.  Let cool on baking sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

I gave one a taste and I think you could get away with slightly less salt; I like how with this recipe you could make substitutions for whatever you have in your cupboard at the time.  I'm thinking apricots, figs, prunes, etc. would probably all work well.