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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
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp apple pie spice
- ¾ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ½ cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1½ cup apple peeled and diced
- ¼ cup caramel bits
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F
- 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.
Equipment
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
i got first
Any advice for a new Baker? I am using this for a baking contest tomorrow
Definitely more caramel bits. Cross between a cake and cookie. Good will make again but adjust recipe
I think think the comments on the smaller apple pieces should be announced sooner. I went from a dice to a mince later. They are in the oven and not tried yet but seems apple to caramel bits is a bit off, I will find out soon enough, will come back with results 😉
I just made a batch of these, and so far they’re looking great! I’d made a different kind last winter and they were actually kind of soggy from the apples, so this time I sweat them for a bit, rinsed and dried them, then added them to the mix. Definitely a lot less soggy! I did double up the caramel bits, but not to the detriment of the recipe. Will definitely use this one again!
I made this recipe according to a recipe and a half because I wanted more than 18 cookies. I did not have cardamom for the apple pie spice, but the flavoring of this cookie came out very well. I also grated my apples instead of dicing them because of one of my pickier eaters. Everything turned out well. The one thing that I feel that should be mentioned is that this produces a very cake-y cookie. If you are looking for a chewy cookie, this is not it. If you want to eat a cookie that resembles a muffin top, this is a good stop.
These are like small soft apple cakes, tender and very good. The bits had a tendency to stick to the cooling rack, however. Next time I’m going to place 3 bits on top of each dough ball before baking.
These 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.
I’m going to modify this with oats and walnut dust and put them around a stick and drizzle the caramel on the outside once cooled…. if not will try gingerbread with apple to get it hard enough for a stick…
You 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?
Yes!! So sorry Sheri, I got that updated in the recipe 🙂