Caramel Apple Cookies. These easy to make, soft cookies are bursting with bits of fresh apple and chewy caramel.
These Caramel Apple Cookies are the perfect Fall dessert. Loaded up with spices, fresh apple, and little bits of gooey caramel. Using the caramel bits makes this recipe super easy to toss together, and keeps a good consistency of the caramel after the cookies cool down. These cookies won’t get rock hard!
How To Bake with Apples?
Baking with apples is easy! My favorite for baking with is Granny Smith. They are firm and have a wonderful tart flavoring that lends well to baking. The end product will still have chunks of apple (not mush) and the tartness helps keep the food from being overly sweet.
You can of course bake with other types of apples. Other apples that hold up well in baking include: Jonathan, Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Jonagolds and Pink Ladys.
Just remember for these cookies you want to peel the apples and then dice the apples fairly small. The smaller the better so that the dough can hold together and each bite is enjoyable!
What is Apple Pie Spice?
This recipe calls for Apple Pie Spice. It’s a blend of spices that you would typically find in an apple pie. And if you don’t have a little bottle of it readily available in your spice cabinet, of course you can make your own blend!
It’s a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cardamom. There’s a recipe here at Betty Crocker. I’ve also seen recipes that include a little bit of ginger too for a little zip.
More Apple Recipes:
More Cookie Recipes:
- Banana Split Cookies
- Brown Butter Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Thick Chocolate Chip Cookies
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Caramel Apple Cookies. These easy to make, soft cookies are bursting with bits of fresh apple and chewy caramel.
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
- 1/2 cup light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 and 1/2 cup peeled and diced apple (about 2 small apples or 1 large apple)
- 1/4 cup caramel bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In small mixing bowl combine the flour and baking soda, salt, and apple pie spice set aside.
- In mixing bowl add room temperature butter and sugars. Beat with medium speed to cream them together. Add in the egg and vanilla extract and continue to beat with medium speed until completely combined.
- Add in the flour mixture slowly, half at a time mixing with low speed each time until combined.
- Fold in the chopped apples and caramel bits. Recipe works best if the apple is diced into small pieces.
- Prepare a cookie sheet with cooking spray, or parchment paper. Place about a tablespoon of dough on the sheet.
- Bake for approximately 14 minutes. Allow to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.
Notes
Granny Smith apples are the best for baking, but you can use any apple.
If you don’t have apple pie spice on hand you can make your own spice blend. 3 tablespoons cinnamon, 2 teaspoons nutmeg, 1 teaspoon cardamom, 1 teaspoon allspice. Mix it together and store in a sealed container or old spice jar.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 cookie
Keywords: cookies, apple, caramel, fall,
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MonicaSGS says
September 19, 2014 at 12:42 PMWait…wait…. Rainbow Sherbet Cupcakes?!!!!!! I must be dreaming!!! Guess what I will be making…and SOON!!!
Serene says
September 22, 2014 at 6:45 PMYay!! They are sooo good! Enjoy 🙂
Ashlyn @ Belle of the Kitchen says
September 19, 2014 at 7:14 PMWow, Serene! Seriously, let me at that gooey caramel coming out of these cookie! Looks absolutely amazing!
Serene says
September 22, 2014 at 6:45 PMThanks so much Ashlyn!!
Jaren (Diary of a Recipe Collector) says
September 20, 2014 at 6:55 AMThose COOKIES look AH-Mazing!! Yummo!
Serene says
September 22, 2014 at 6:46 PMThanks Jaren! Have an awesome week! XO
Meggan | Culinary Hill says
September 23, 2014 at 12:51 PMOh man, Apple Cookies oozing with Caramel??? Wow! These look so delicious!
Serene says
September 23, 2014 at 6:15 PMThanks so much Meggan 🙂 I think anything oozing with caramel is just amazing!
Ann Aguirre says
October 2, 2014 at 12:46 PMIf I were to win the kitchenaid mixer, I would choose the color pink and I would use this to make the caramel apple cookies!! 🙂
Serene says
October 2, 2014 at 6:18 PMA pink one would be so much fun!! And these cookies would definitely taste so much better being made in a pink KitchenAid! Good luck Ann 🙂
Ignacia says
October 8, 2014 at 12:01 PMDear Serene,
I just bumped into your blog by accident, and loved it! I can’t wait to try the caramel apple cookies, but I need your help…see, I live overseas and here we don’t have pudding, can you think of a substitute for the recipe? Please tell me you do!!!!! I so want to try ’em…
Thank you in advance!!!!!!
Serene says
October 8, 2014 at 6:58 PMAww. Thanks so much! You’re so sweet. Sadly, I don’t know of a substitute for the pudding. But.. I did use this recipe because it’s a cookie base that I love, the pudding just makes them a little softer. You might be able to use a cookie dough base you enjoy and just add the apple, spices, and caramel center. I can’t tell you for sure that they’ll turn out the same, the baking time might be different. But it might be worth a shot!
Ignacia Valdes says
October 9, 2014 at 6:11 PMThank you so much! You’re the sweetest!!! I’ll try it and let you know how they turn out.
Best to you!
Alyssa says
October 12, 2014 at 11:14 AMDo we have to prepare the pudding first or just add the dry mix?
Serene says
October 12, 2014 at 12:31 PMHi Alyssa, just use the dry pudding mix 🙂
Alyssa says
October 12, 2014 at 5:07 PMThanks!
Danijela says
August 26, 2018 at 1:27 AMI love these. Perfect seasonal cookies!
Emily says
September 20, 2018 at 12:18 PMHi Serene! This recipe looks amazing! I love cookies that use pudding in the mix, and I see a lot of comments about pudding, but don’t see it in the recipe. Did you change it up from the original post? And if I use a different pudding mix cookie base, would you recommend using vanilla or caramel pudding with this recipe?
Serene says
September 21, 2018 at 2:24 PMHi Emily! This recipe did use to include a pudding mix. I updated the recipe recently to give the same type of texture, but without the mix. If you want to use a pudding mix cookie base I had always used vanilla. Let me know if you try the cookies 🙂
Louise Hebert says
October 29, 2018 at 1:25 PMI will def try this recipe it looks wonderful but I was searching for your original recipe with the vanilla pudding mix and could not find it. Would it be possible to have it please? Everybody was loving this one in my house and I would write it down this time so I have it forever! Thank so much!
Serene says
October 29, 2018 at 4:46 PMHi Louise, I do still have the recipe. The internet keeps archives on everything!! For anyone else interested in the original recipe that involved the pudding mix here it is in entirety.
Just so that it’s noted why I updated this recipe, over the years I have changed how I cook and bake, and I love going back and updating and improving my own recipes!
This particular recipe I love the updated version, with the caramel bits as opposed to placing the large pieces of caramel in the center. I also worked hard to get the same texture to the cookie with the new recipe that was achieved by adding pudding to the old recipe.
INGREDIENTS
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 stick butter (room temperature)
½ cup light brown sugar
¼ cup sugar
1 3.4 ounce package instant vanilla pudding
2 eggs
½ teaspoon apple pie spice
1 apple peeled and chopped (equals about 1 cup)
20 caramels
INSTRUCTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
In small mixing bowl combine the flour and baking powder, set aside.
In mixing bowl add room temperature butter and sugars. Beat with medium speed to cream them together. Add in the eggs and continue to beat with medium speed until completely combined.
Mix in the pudding and the apple pie spice.
Add in the flour mixture slowly, half at a time mixing with low speed each time until combined.
Fold in the chopped apples with a wooden spoon, (or spoon of choice!)
Prepare a cookie sheet with cooking spray, or parchment paper. Place about a tablespoon of dough on the sheet, place an unwrapped caramel in the center, and then place another tablespoon size scoop of dough on top. Slightly press down to ensure the caramel is covered by dough, otherwise it will leak out during baking.
Bake for approximately 15 minutes. Allow to cool on the sheet for 5 minutes then remove to continue cooling on a wire rack.
Be careful not to bite into them when they’re hot! The caramel will burn!!!
NOTES
Cookies are delicious when cooled, the caramel is slightly chewier though. To reheat the cookies place in microwave for about 10 seconds to warm the caramel to enjoy the oozy caramel again!
Amanda Zimmerman says
November 12, 2018 at 5:32 PMI made these cookies and they came out flat as pancakes..tried chilling them before baking..tried baking a little hotter and a little coolecoolwer than 350..and nothing worked..still flat. Any ideas?
Serene says
November 12, 2018 at 5:54 PMHi Amanda! Baking can be tricky sometimes. If you find the cookies to be too flat, you can try to reduce the amount of butter and sugar slightly, or add just a bit more flour. It’s all about finding the right balance.
Sheri says
December 3, 2018 at 8:03 AMYou mention adding the egg and vanilla in the instructions but I don’t see vanilla in the ingredients list. Should there be vanilla and if so how much?
Serene says
December 4, 2018 at 6:59 PMYes!! So sorry Sheri, I got that updated in the recipe 🙂
Brian says
August 17, 2019 at 2:59 PMThese are great. I just feel there should be more caramel, mine had a good amount of apple but the caramel felt lacking. Next time I’m probably going to go with a full cup of caramel bits.
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