Applesauce Cookies are a soft cookie recipe made with applesauce and frosted with a browned butter icing. They are a moist cookie spiced with cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg and are the perfect fall treat.
Kids love these applesauce cookies and they make a great afternoon snack as well as a part of your holiday dessert table at Thanksgiving or Christmas!
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Why You'll Love Applesauce Cookies
Fall flavors: full of apple flavor with warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg.
Old fashioned cookie: soft and delicious, just like Grandma used to make.
Drop cookie: these soft applesauce cookies are scooped with a cookie scoop and dropped onto the baking sheet for an easy peasy recipe!
Ingredients
The ingredients for this applesauce cookie are ones you likely already have in your pantry. See below for the measurements and full instructions on the recipe card.
- Unsalted butter
- Light brown sugar
- Dark brown sugar
- Large eggs
- Vanilla extract
- Applesauce (feel free to use store bought or homemade applesauce)
- All purpose flour
- Salt
- Baking soda
- Ground cinnamon
- Ground cloves
- Ground nutmeg
- Unsalted butter
- Heavy cream
- Powdered sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add applesauce and mix until combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
- Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture gradually stirring until combined.
- Drop dough using small cookie scoop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until cookies bounce back to the touch and no longer look wet.
- To make frosting: in a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook until particles start to turn brown.
- Remove from heat and add vanilla, powdered sugar and heavy cream. Stir until creamy.
- You may need to add a little more cream as you go along as this frosting will thicken more as it cools.
- Frost cookies. Store in airtight container.
Substitutions
Sometimes you may not have an ingredient on the list, but never fear! There is no reason you can't make the following substitutions with great results.
Sugar substitution: use all light brown sugar or all dark brown sugar. You can also substitute 1 cup of granulated sugar for 1 cup of the brown sugar.
Spice swap: use apple pie spice in place of the cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
Flour swap: feel free to use white whole wheat flour in place of all purpose flour.
Variations
- Add 1 cup raisins, chocolate chips, or cinnamon chips or a combination of all!
- Dice up an apple and stir it into the batter.
- Add a cup of chopped toasted walnuts.
- Stir 1 teaspoon of cinnamon into the icing
Top Tips
- Strain the applesauce by placing the measured amount in a fine mesh sieve over a bowl for 10-15 minutes and allow the excess water to drip from the sauce.
- Watch the butter carefully as it is browning. It doesn't take long for browned butter to become burnt butter.
- Parchment paper or a silpat works best for preventing the cookies from sticking to your baking sheet.
Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature up to 1 week. Cookies can be frozen up to 3 months.
Soft Cookie Recipes are the bomb!
We are huge fans of soft cookies. I grew up with my Grandmother making them on a regular basis! My very favorite soft cookie recipe is Soft Blueberry Cookies with Lemon Glaze. We also love Nanny's Pineapple Cookies with Orange Glaze!
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📖 Recipe
Applesauce Cookies
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Ingredients
For the Cookies
- 1 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup light brown sugar
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups strained applesauce (see notes)
- 3½ cups flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cloves
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
For the icing
- 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 3 tablespoons heavy cream
- 1½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugars. Add vanilla and mix until combined. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add applesauce and mix until combined.
- In a separate mixing bowl, combine flour, baking soda, spices, and salt.
- Add flour mixture to applesauce mixture gradually stirring until combined.
- Drop dough using small cookie scoop onto parchment paper lined cookie sheet.
- Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes or until cookies bounce back to the touch and no longer look wet.
- To make frosting: in a heavy bottomed saucepan, melt butter over medium heat. Cook until particles start to turn brown.
- Remove from heat and add vanilla, powdered sugar and heavy cream. Stir until creamy.
- You may need to add a little more cream as you go along as this frosting will thicken more as it cools.
- Frost cookies. Store in airtight container.
Notes
- Strain the applesauce by placing the measured amount in a fine mesh sieve over a bowl for 10-15 minutes and allow the excess water to drip from the sauce.
- Watch the butter carefully as it is browning. It doesn't take long for browned butter to become burnt butter.
- Parchment paper or a silpat works best for preventing the cookies from sticking to your baking sheet.
bellini
These are the perfect seasonal cookie Shelby.
honeyb
Bethany, that was a mistake on my part! A typo...they bake at 350. Sorry about that!
Patsy K
the browned butter icing is what has me drooling over these cookies! perfect for fall!