When you want a cookie that tastes like a bowl full of baked cinnamon apples…
Although apple butter has a buttery, almost jam-like consistency, apple butter is actually made kind of like caramel. Just as caramel is simply sugars cooked and cooked and reduced and reduced until they turn into delicious caramel, apple butter is made by reducing about five pounds of apples, brown sugar, regular sugar, and baking spices for about ten hours over a very low flame. The natural sugars in the apples combine with the starches and sugars added to that pot and all begin to caramelize, giving you the heavenly concoction that is apple butter. Then you purée them, put them in a jar, and you have apple butter.
So apple butter has that delicious concentrated apple flavor for a reason and it really lends these cookies a delicious apple flavor that is hard to get in a cookie. You don’t see many cookies just bursting with apple flavor. Until now! In fact, you might have had an applesauce cookie and been kind of, “meh” about it. But applesauce is not caramelized and concentrated like apple butter is. If I had to describe them best in words I’d say they’re like a candied apple meets a snickerdoodle kind of creation -that is crispy and sugary on the outside and sheer apple-cinnamon softness on the inside.
The Secret to Soft, Tender Apple Butter Cookies
When cream of tartar is used in a cookie recipe this tells you a couple of things -especially if there’s cinnamon and sugar present, too. First, the cookies will have some of that sharp, tangy flavor of a snickerdoodle that are created by the acids in cream of tartar and two, it’s a cookie that needs the tenderness of cream of tartar for a reason – to keep it from getting too tough. As a baker, this tells me to handle my dough super-carefully and not to over-work it.
Follow this tip and you’ll have the softest pillows of Apple Butter Cookie goodness.
How to Make Ahead and Store
The Apple Butter Cookie dough will keep in the refrigerator 2 days if you want to pre-make it. The uncooked cookie balls can also be frozen but you cannot dust them with cinnamon sugar until they’ve softened and thawed a bit before baking. Then you can roll them in that mixture or sprinkle it atop them with a sifter. Freeze these 2 months tops. Once baked, the cookies keep one week in an airtight container.
Serving Suggestions
I love taking these to cookouts just to watch everyone marvel over their apple-rich flavor. If you enjoyed baking these apple-flavored cookies, why not keep the theme with these Apple Cinnamon Scones or some Sour Cream Apple Bars.
If, on the other hand, it’s more cookie recipes you’re after, take a look at this one for Coconut Cookies or maybe this one for sweet and delicious Sugar Cookies.
Apple Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup apple butter
- 2 cups granulated sugar divided
- 1 large egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon ground cinnamon for coating
Instructions
- Begin by mixing the butter, apple butter, and 1 3/4 cups of the sugar in a stand mixer until just combined.
- Add the egg and vanilla to the mixture and blend until they’re fully incorporated.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. Gradually add this to the wet ingredients, mixing until a dough forms.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for 1 to 2 hours to make it easier to handle.
- Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone mats.
- Create the cinnamon-sugar coating by mixing the remaining 1/4 cup of sugar with 1 tablespoon of cinnamon in a small bowl.
- Form the dough into balls, roll them in the cinnamon-sugar mixture, and place on the prepared baking sheets, spaced apart.
- Bake the cookies for 15 minutes. They should spread and the edges should brown, but the centers will remain slightly soft.
- Let the cookies rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely.
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