Caramel Apple Cookies the cookies are every bit delicious as the name sounds. Simple enough for a fall snack or fancy enough for a fall festival treat. You will love the apple flavor of the cookie pairs perfectly with the cream cheese topping and caramel drizzle. If you love fall apple treats you will love my Apple Cider Donuts and Apple Cinnamon Twist.
SIS (Simple is Smart) TIP
The caramel drizzle on top of these cookies needs an extra thick caramel sauce. It’s hard to find a sauce that is thick enough and super easy to make your own sauce from a few simple ingredients. For how to make the best ever thick caramel sauce, click here.
Ingredients for Caramel Apple Cookies
Flour: all-purpose flour weighing the flour will ensure your cookies aren’t dry.
Baking Powder: The baking powder keeps reacting with the heat to give a leavening boost while the baked goods are in the oven.
Baking Soda: Baking soda reacts immediately to acidic elements and gives an immediate leavening effect.
Apple Pie Spice: Purchase the spice premixed or make your own apple pie spice if you don’t have any on hand.
- 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cardamon
Mix together and put the extra in an airtight container for later.
Eggs: large eggs, room temperature
Vanilla: Use pure vanilla extract and not imitation vanilla.
Salt: enhances the sweetness and blocks bitterness.
Butter: I use salted butter when I bake. I think it’s easier than purchasing two types of butter. If you want to use unsalted butter, increase the salt in this recipe by 1/4 of a teaspoon. The butter should be at room temperature.
Brown Sugar: Adds sweetness and moisture to your cookies.
Boiled Cider: Boiled cider is apple cider that is reduced to about 1/4 of its total volume by boiling it. The result is a thick sweet apple syrup. Yummy.
Caramel Frosting:
Butter: Salted butter: because this is a caramel cream cheese frosting, the little extra salt in salted butter makes the frosting yummy.
Cream Cheese: Like butter, adding cream cheese helps thicken a frosting without adding sweetness. Rich cream cheese does, however, add a delicious tangy taste. Be sure to use softened full-fat cream cheese for the easiest mixing and best taste. Any brand is good.
Powdered Sugar: Dissolves in the frosting, leaving it creamy and smooth. Granulated sugar will leave the frosting gritty.
Vanilla: Use real vanilla, no imitation flavored vanilla.
Caramel: Make a super easy, thick rich caramel sauce with my Caramel Sauce Recipe.
Step by Step instructions for Caramel Apple Cookies.
Make the cookies
- preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice, and salt to the flour and mix in. Set aside
- In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix in.
- Add half of the flour and the boiled apple cider and mix in.
- Add the rest of the flour and mix in.
- Use a small 1 tbsp cookie scoop to form the cookies. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie baking sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and the centers are set.
- Cool on a cookie cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Make the Frosting.
- Cream the butter and the cream cheese on medium with a hand mixer. Cream for 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and caramel sauce. Mix in.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix in. Adjust the consistency. Add caramel sauce if the frosting is too stiff to pipe or more sugar if the frosting is too thin to hold its shape.
- Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cookie with the 2A round piping tip. The opening on this tip is 3/8 of an inch.
- Drizzle with caramel sauce. I like to drizzle the caramel sauce on top the same day I am going to serve them. If there is high humidity, the caramel sauce may get watery if you top the cookies with it too far ahead. Store cookies in an airtight container. Freeze the undecorated cookies in an airtight container and decorate before serving.
- Store cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- Freeze undecorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months
- Freeze unbaked cookies for up to 6 months in an airtight containe
Pop on over to my social media sites, where you’ll find exclusive Doctor Jo’s pictures of what’s new in my gardens. Also, what new recipes I’m creating in my kitchen. I love your comments. After the recipe, the comment section is at the end of the blog. So let me know what you think in the Leave a Reply section at the end of this blog. Please leave your first name at the end of your comment, and I will reply by name.
Equipment
- This page contains Amazon affiliate links. If you click a link, I may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you
- To see the ingredient amounts in metric units, click the blue "METRIC:" button between the ingredients and the instructions for this recipe.
- 1 cookie baking sheet
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp apple pie spice
- ½ cup butter room temp
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup boiled cider
Caramel Frosting
- 3 tbsp butter
- 3 ounces cream cheese
- 1½ cups powdered sugar
- 1½ tbsp caramel sauce room temp.
- 1 tsp vanilla
- ¼ cup caramel sauce to drizzle on the top.
Instructions
Make the cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C)
- Add the baking powder, baking soda, apple pie spice, and salt to the flour and mix in. Set aside
- In a mixing bowl cream the butter and the sugar with a hand mixer or stand mixer.
- Add the eggs and vanilla and mix in.
- Add half of the flour and the boiled apple cider and mix in.
- Add the rest of the flour and mix in.
- Use a small 1 tbsp cookie scoop to form the cookies. Place the cookies on a parchment-lined cookie baking sheet.
- Bake at 350°F for 8-10 minutes or until lightly browned and the centers are set.
- Cool on a cookie cooling rack. Cool completely before frosting.
Make the Frosting
- Cream the butter and the cream cheese on medium with a hand mixer. Cream for 2 minutes.
- Add the vanilla and caramel sauce. Mix in.
- Add the powdered sugar and mix in. Adjust the consistency. Add caramel sauce if the frosting is too stiff to pipe or more sugar if the frosting is too thin to hold its shape.
- Pipe a swirl of frosting on top of each cookie with the 2A round piping tip. The opening on this tip is 3/8 of an inch.
- Drizzle with caramel sauce. (see notes)
- Store cookies in an airtight container for 3-4 days.
- Freeze undecorated cookies in an airtight container for up to 3 months
- Freeze unbaked cookies for up to 6 months in an airtight container.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
