Old-Fashioned Amish Apple Cookies

Jump to Recipe

I try to keep recipes on Amish365.com seasonal, which means asparagus and peas in the spring, corn in the summer,  and apples and pumpkins in the fall… But apples are one of those foods that, at least at my house, are around all year. So I thought, what the heck, let’s do an apple recipe even though it’s April. You can enjoy Old-Fashioned Amish Apple Cookies any time of year!

Ideally, you’d be using some wonderful autumn apples in this recipe. Granny Smith would do really well. But I just used Gala apples, and this was fine. We keep apples on hand as a quick, easy snack for the girls.

There are versions of this recipe that have nuts and dried cranberries or raisins in it, but we just made these as a clean, crisp apple cookie. We did chill the dough for a good hour before making them into cookies. Beatrice was impatient to make them or I would have chilled the dough longer. You'll do find if you don't chill the dough, but I think chilling the dough is a good ideas. Most Amish bakers are keen on chilling their cookie dough and it really does improve the flavor.

And the star of this show? The frosting! It has apple juice in it which really pairs well with the more muted apple flavor of the cookie. While this Old-Fashioned Amish Apple Cookies would do well without frosting, you're cheating yourself if you don't!

I used a cheese grated for the apple, because the instructions said to chop into these tiny pieces so that they would do better during the baking process and I was like," no way I have time to do that." So I grabbed the grated and it actually worked well.

I went easy on the cloves in this recipe, I'm not a clove fan.

The cheese grated apples did a pretty good job.

This is after we baked the first batch. I think flattening the cookies before baking was a good idea, the frosting spreads better. In fact, the cookies didn't spread out at all during baking so if you don't flatten them, you'll end up with "apple rounds", which is OK, but I like a flatter cookie.

I really, really liked these cookies. Usually for a cookie to "make the cut" with me, it has to involve chocolate, but these were easy, delicious, and I would make (and eat) them again. Good cookies!

🍏 Apple Cookie Ingredients

• 2 ¼ cups flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. nutmeg
• ¼ teaspoon cloves
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• ½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
• ⅔ cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 large egg
• ⅓ cup applesauce
• 1 apple peeled, cored and finely chopped

🧁 Frosting

• ¼ cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups confectioner’s sugar
• ¼ tsp. cinnamon
• ¼ tsp. vanilla extract
• 2 Tbsp. apple juice

📋 Instructions  

1. Whisk together the flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, baking soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.
2. Vigorously mix the butter and brown sugar with a wooden spoon. Add the egg and combine until completely mixed. Add the apple sauce. 
3. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Stir in the apple.
4.  Scoop or spoon the cookies onto the parchment-lined sheets, about 2-inches apart. Press flat with the back of a spatchla or spoon.  Bake in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes or until set and bottoms are lightly browned.
5.  While the cookies are baking, make the frosting by beating the butter, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla until well mixed. Add the apple juice and mixx1.
6.  Remove cookies from the oven and cool completely on a rack.  

🍎 More Amish Apple Recipes

Gloria's Apple Goodie - So amazing!

Baked Apple Pudding - Delicious!

Apple Dumplings - A classic

Paperbag Apple Pie - Wow!

Jump to:

• 🍏 Apple Cookie Ingredients
• 🧁 Frosting
• 📋 Instructions  
• 🍎 More Amish Apple Recipes
• 🖨️ Old-Fashioned Amish Apple Cookies

🖨️ Old-Fashioned Amish Apple Cookies