I don't make applesauce cookies very often, but when I do I make Old Fashioned Applesauce Cookies. The recipe's based on one from Fanny Farmer that calls for 1 cup applesauce, 1 cup sugar, 2 cups of flour and a half cup of butter. I've changed it up over the years by altering the spices, throwing in oats, and experimenting with different types of butter. And when I'm lucky enough to find them, I add cinnamon chips! Even with changes, the these apple cookies always bake up soft, cakey, and spicy.
Shortening vs. Butter in Apple Cookies
What's interesting is that a lot of the old fashioned recipes call for shortening which often improves a cookie's texture. With applesauce cookies, it seems like the texture is better with butter. So luckily you don't have to sacrifice the flavor of butter to have big, nicely rounded cookies.
Chopped Raisins in Old Fashioned Apple Cookies
Another interesting thing is that older applesauce cookie recipes often call for a combination of nuts and chopped raisins. I usually don't chop raisins for cookies, but I like how chopping the raisins helps keep them evenly distributed throughout the cookie, so I take that extra step with these and it seems worth it. Obviously, I like raisins, but if you don't you can leave them out and substitute cinnamon chips, chopped dried apple or something else.
Take The Darryl Challenge
The original version below calls for 1 teaspoon cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of nutmeg and ¼ teaspoon cloves. Darryl wants more apple pie flavor. Apple pie spice, per McCormick, is “a balanced blend of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice”. To take the Darryl Challenge, make the cookies with a generous teaspoon of cinnamon, ½ teaspoon of allspice and ¼ plus a pinch of nutmeg. Darryl, I hope you are well and that you try the cookies with this blend. For those who love spices, remember you can always experiment by putting different spices in small portions of apple cookie dough.
More Variations
I needed to make a batch of these for photo updates (see texture shot!) and threw in some sesame seeds and apple chips. These cookies are so versatile. Recently, I had a little bit more fun playing with the dough. I wrapped it around squares of frozen Apple Crumb Bars for apple pie filled cookies. You could use any kind of apple pie that's been frozen and cut into chunks. Just scoop up dough, shape it around frozen apple pie or apple square chunks, chill the shaped cookies, then bake at 375 for about 15 to 18 minutes.
Recipe
Old Fashioned Applesauce Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup salted OR unsalted butter, softened (114 grams)
- 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (220 grams)
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 cup unsweetened applesauce, room temperature
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour (260 grams), weigh or measure by spooning
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 cup oats, old fashioned or quick
- ½ cup chopped raisins
- ½ cup chopped walnuts
- ⅓ cup cinnamon chips or butterscotch chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the very soft butter, brown sugar and vanilla and stir until blended. For a light and cakey cookie, beat until light and creamy. For a cakey but slightly heavier texture (my preference) just beat until blended. Scrape the bowl well, then add the egg and stir until blended. Scrape bowl and stir in the applesauce.
- In a second bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Stir the flour mixture into the applesauce mixture, then stir in the oats, raisins and walnuts. The dough should be thick enough to scoop. If for some reason (you accidentally melted the butter, perhaps?) it's not, cover bowl and chill for 20 minutes.
- Scoop cookie dough with a large cookie scoop onto the baking sheet, spacing about 3 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time for 350 degrees F for about 15 minutes. If you are making the cookies smaller, check at 10.
- Let cookies cool on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and let cool completely. These cookies actually improve a bit as they sit.
Anna says
Glad you liked them! I think maybe your tablespoons were actually much, much smaller than typical American tablespoons, but the point is they needed a little more spice for you. Thank you for the review. Now I'm really curious to know how big your tablespoons are.
Iva Gallegos says
Wonderful, soft applesauce cookies. However, to add more flavor, I added more 3-tablespoons cinnamon and 3 of pumpkin spice. If a
Anna says
Darrel, thanks for the suggestions. The changes you made could have affected the overall flavor, but I'm glad you liked the texture at least. Next time I make them I'll put double the spices in part of the dough just for fun. The recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of salt. Increasing that to 3/4 teaspoon or using 1/2 teaspoon as listed but using salted butter might also bump up the flavor.
Darrel says
I have to start by saying I did do a couple changes I didn't have raisins so I used blueberries and I used pecans instead of walnuts but everything else was the same and used homemade unsweetened apple sauce. And I did use optional the cinnamon chips. With that being said the cookies were nice and soft but I did not think they had much flavor. Now maybe that is because my taste buds were damaged during Covid or maybe just because they are old but I expected a more of an apple pie type taste. If I make again I will up the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves 50%, I will use the raisins and would cut the nuts into bigger pieces, other than that the texture and all was good.
Anna says
Thanks so much for letting me know! I am so glad you liked the recipe and really appreciate that you took the time to leave a comment.
A Beasle says
I made these cookies using homemade applesauce and they were a huge hit with my husband. I chopped the raisans as suggested and will ty that more often in other cookies.
These cookies are nw in the cookie rotation at my house.