Get your fall dessert fix in a convenient handheld package with my apple pie cookies recipe!
Tender cookies laced with cozy spices, stuffed with homemade apple curd, and finished with a delectable duo of buttery oat topping and sweet apple drizzle. These vegan apple cookies are the perfectly portable mashup of my vegan apple pie and vegan apple crumble.
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📖 Recipe Overview
- Made With Primarily Pantry Ingredients - Aside from the apple curd, I’d imagine you already have most of what you need on hand.
- Bakery-Quality - Between the larger-than-life size and the gorgeous lattice top, these apple pie-filled cookies look like something you’d see in a pâtisserie window.
- Perfect For Holiday Gatherings - Whether you’re celebrating Halloween, Thanksgiving, or Christmas, these cinnamon apple cookies are an excellent choice. They have all the charm of a slice of an apple pie, but are decidedly easier to serve. No slicing and no dessert plates required!
Looking for more fall cookie inspiration? Check out my warmly spiced vegan recipes for Homemade Biscoff, Chewy Molasses Cookies, Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Snickerdoodles next!
🧾 Ingredients Needed
As promised, this recipe for apple pie cookies requires just a few simple ingredients:
Ingredient Notes
- Vegan Apple Curd - You’ll only need a half batch for this recipe, but having extra on hand isn’t a bad thing. It’s great for topping pancakes, spreading on toast or scones, or using as a fun alternative in a PB&J sandwich. You’re also welcome to freeze the other half so you can make another batch of these fabulous cookies in the future.
- Vegan Butter - Make sure to opt for block-style butter for the proper cookie consistency.
- Baking Powder & Baking Soda - You’ll need both raising agents to achieve the perfect tender crumb. If it’s been a minute since you used them, give them a quick test using hot water and vinegar, respectively.
- Ground Nutmeg - If at all possible, I recommend purchasing whole nutmeg, then grating it yourself with a microplane when the time comes. Whole spices retain more of their essential oils, which means they’re more flavorful. They’ll also last on the shelf nearly indefinitely, while ground spices have a shelf-life of just 6-12 months.
- Rolled Oats - Also known as old-fashioned oats, these whole grains give the oatmeal crumble topping a lovely chewy-crisp consistency.
- Apple Cider Vinegar - Vinegar, in cookies? It might sound weird, but the tangy sweetness of concentrated ACV gives the drizzle a certain je ne sais quois that is superb. Feel free to swap in apple juice or apple cider if you prefer.
- Powdered Sugar - Also aptly known as “icing sugar,” this ingredient is essential to creating a firm, shiny, and grit-free glaze. If you’re fresh out, you can easily make your own using granulated sugar, cornstarch or potato starch, and a food processor.
🥣 How To Make Apple Pie Cookies
Find the complete list of ingredients, quantities, and instructions in the recipe card at the end of this post.
This apple pie cookie recipe has quite a few steps, but I promise they’re all simple enough for even a baking novice to handle. Here’s what to do:
Step 1: Add the melted butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Whisk in the apple curd, yogurt, and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients.
Step 2: Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold them together using a spatula until they are evenly mixed. Cover and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
Step 3: Add the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and melted butter to a medium bowl. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a crumb consistency. Set aside in the fridge
Step 4: Add the apple cider vinegar to a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until it reduces to 2 tbsp/30ml in volume. Transfer to a mixing bowl and whisk the non-dairy milk, vanilla, and powdered sugar until smooth.
Step 5: Separate the dough into 8 balls and place them on the lined sheets - leave at least 2.5 inches of space between each dough ball as they will spread while baking! Slightly flatten each cookie, and indent a hole in the middle of each one. Fill each cookie with a teaspoon of apple curd.
Step 6: Use your hands to carefully mold the cookie dough around the curd, making sure it is completely sealed.
Step 7: Press some crumble topping on top of each cookie. Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes (10-12 minutes if making smaller cookies). Then use a large cookie cutter or glass to carefully round off and shape the edges of the hot cookies.
Step 8: Let the cookies cool completely. Transfer the icing to a piping bag and snip off the top. Pipe a lattice on top of each cookie, or simply drizzle the icing on top with a spoon. Let the icing set for 10-20 minutes before serving.
🍎 Optional Variations
As much as I love this recipe for cookies that taste like vegan mini apple pie, feel free to make some tweaks. Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Caramel Apple Pie Cookies - Add a layer of salty-sweet goodness by drizzling them with vegan salted caramel sauce instead of apple glaze.
- Swap Your Curd - You can easily transform the flavor of these cookies by swapping in vegan lemon curd, or blueberry curd.
📝 Recipe Tips
Resist the urge to over-stuff. More of a good thing isn’t always a good thing. Make sure to seal the filling in completely to prevent any messy mishaps.
Use a spring-loaded cookie scoop for easy portioning. It’s the easiest way to get consistently-sized, professional looking cookies every time!
Exercise patience. There’s quite a bit of waiting around in this recipe. The dough needs a minimum of 30 minutes to rest before baking, then the baked cookies need to cool completely before icing. But you can use some of that time to prepare the crumble topping and glaze. Then, you’ll need to wait again after icing to let the lattice top set-up before serving.
💬 FAQs
Once cool, transfer the cookies to an airtight container. They will keep well at room temp for a couple of days. I personally prefer to keep them in the fridge due to the curd filling, where they will keep for up to a week.
You can also freeze them in an airtight container or in a freezer bag for up to a month. Just separate each cookie with a piece of parchment to prevent them from sticking to each other.
While I haven’t tried it, I think this recipe *should* work using a cup-for-cup gluten-free flour blend made with xanthan gum in place of all-purpose flour. Also, make sure your oats are certified gluten-free, as many are processed on equipment that also processes wheat.
I reckon you could. Apple butter would also be a great stuffing for these vegan cookies, however it'll be a bit thinner and have a tendency to ooze out when you bite into them.
🍪 More Fall Cookies
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📖 Recipe
Description
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- half batch vegan apple curd, *see note 1
- 200 g (1 cups) granulated sugar
- 115 g (4 oz) vegan butter (block-style), melted and cooled to room temp
- 20 g (1 tbsp) vegan Greek-style yogurt or skyr, or regular unsweetened soy or coconut yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 220 g (1 ¾ cups) all-purpose flour, plain flour
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
Crumble Topping
- 25 g (2 tbsp) brown sugar
- 15 g (2 tbsp) all-purpose flour, plain flour
- 20 g (3 tbsp) rolled oats
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons vegan butter (block-style), melted and cooled to room temp
Icing
- 80 ml (⅓ cup) apple cider vinegar, or apple juice
- 1 tablespoons non-dairy milk
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 150 g (1 ¼ cups) powdered sugar, icing sugar
Instructions
- Make the cookie dough: Add the melted butter and sugar to a mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Whisk in the 50g/3.5 tbsp of apple curd, the yogurt, and vanilla extract. Place the remaining apple curd in the freezer until ready to fill the cookies.In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir the dry ingredients so that they are mixed evenly.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and fold them together using a spatula until they are evenly mixed. Cover the bowl with the cookie dough with some clingfilm or a plate and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
- Preheat your oven to 180°C (356°F) while the cookie dough is chilling. Line 2 large baking trays with some parchment paper.
- Make the crumble: Add the brown sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon, and melted butter to a medium bowl. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients until it resembles a crumb consistency. Set aside in the fridge.
- Make the icing: Add the apple cider vinegar to a saucepan and simmer for 15-20 minutes until it reduces to 2 tbsp/30ml in volume. Transfer to a mixing bowl and whisk in the non-dairy milk, vanilla and powdered sugar until smooth. Cover and set aside until ready to use.
- Shape, fill and top: Use a 2.4"/6cm cookie scoop or ice cream scoop to separate the dough into 8 portions (or use a smaller scoop and divide into 12 servings). Place the cookie dough balls on the lined sheets - be careful to leave at least 2.5 inches of space between each ball of dough as they will spread whilst baking!
- Slightly flatten each cookie, and use a teaspoon measure to indent a hole in the middle of each one - be careful not to go all the way through.Fill each cookie with a teaspoon of apple curd (*see note 2). Use your hands to carefully mold the cookie dough up around the curd, making sure it is completely sealed.Press some crumble topping on top of each cookie.
- Bake: Bake the cookies for 12-14 minutes (10-12 minutes if making smaller cookies). Then use a large cookie cutter or glass to carefully round off and shape the edges of the hot cookies. Let the cookies sit on the baking trays for 5 minutes to cool slightly, then carefully slide them onto a wire rack lined with parchment to cool completely.
- Frost: Transfer the icing to a piping bag and snip off the top. Pipe a lattice on top of each cookie, or simply drizzle the icing on top with a spoon. Let the icing set for 10-20 minutes before serving.
- Storage: Once cool, transfer the cookies to an airtight container. They will keep well at room temp for a couple of days but I prefer to keep them in the fridge due to the curd filling, where they will keep for up to a week.You can freeze them in an airtight container or in a freezer bag for up to a month. Just separate each cookie with a piece of parchment to prevent them from sticking to each other.
Notes
- Apple Curd: You'll only need around ½ batch of curd or slightly less, but you can use the rest for other recipes or topping breakfast, or it can also be frozen for future use.
- Resist the urge to over-stuff the cookies. Make sure to seal the filling in completely to prevent any messy mishaps.
Nutrition
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