Soft Spiced Apple Oatmeal Cookies. In the world of oatmeal cookies, soft ones reign supreme. Apples, warm spices, crunchy pecans and caramel notes from the dulcey chocolate pieces.
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Going all in with all the fall things in this apple oatmeal cookies recipe. I love oatmeal cookies - soft or crunchy, and these oatmeal cookies I think just might be my new favorite.
They are chock full of goodies - warm fall spices, shredded, fresh apples, pecans, oats three different ways and a very indulgent ingredient - Valrhona dulcey feves.
Jump to:
Why these cookies are so good:
- Soft and chewy, full of delicious fall baking flavors
- Easy to make and store really well in both the freezer and at room temperature
- A great way to use up apples after going apple picking
- Great as a dessert, after school snack or whenever your sweet tooth has a craving!
Apple oatmeal cookie ingredients:
- All purpose flour
- Oat flour - you can buy it or make your own with dry blended rolled oats
- Apple pie spice - see recipe notes
- Baking soda
- Kosher salt
- Unsalted butter
- Brown sugar (light or dark work great)
- Egg - just one
- Vanilla extract
- Shredded apple (honey crisp, granny smith )
- Lemon juice
- Golden raisins
- Rolled oats
- Quick cooking oats
- Chopped pecans
- Valrhona Dulcey feves ( or a combination of vanilla, butterscotch and caramel baking chips) They work so well with the rest of the flavors in these spiced apple oatmeal cookies. I know they are on the pricey side, definitely an indulgence. I find them online at Surfas, Caputos or Valrhona.
See recipe for full amounts.
How to make the cookies:
Like most cookie recipes this is broken into dry ingredients, "wet" ingredients and mix-ins.
- Dry ingredients - all purpose flour, oat flour, baking soda, salt, apple pie spice. (You can make your own apple pie spice blend if you like - check recipe notes)
- Wet ingredients - (not always wet as in liquid, but what gets mixed together with butter or oil, usually) - butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract
- Mix-ins - Fresh shredded apples, oats two ways (whole oats and quick cooking), golden raisins, pecans and Valrhona Dulcey Feves.
One ingredient I use is apple pie spice. Apple pie spice is most often a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Some blends you will see also include ginger, cardamom and clove. I like to use it all so I make my own blend if I can't find apple pie spice in stores. See recipe notes for more details.
I made this oatmeal cookie recipe in several bowls for the purpose of showing the steps. You can make it in fewer bowls if you like. I always mix together the dry ingredients in one, and the wet in a larger bowl since everything eventually ends up in the larger mixing bowl.
I don't add the oats to the dry ingredients since I like to stir them in towards the end of mixing so they don't get broken up into even smaller pieces.
The apple can be shredded using a food processor or a box grater.I will cut the apples into quarters, cut out the core then shred. I leave the peels on for texture and color. You can peel the apples if you like.
I always squeeze a little lemon juice over the apples to keep them from browning but then right before adding them to the dough I will wrap in a towel or paper towels and squeeze out the excess moisture.
Finally, add in the flour mixture then the oats, then the nuts and dulcey feves. I only mix-in the oats slightly so they don't get broken up more than they are. I like using both whole oats and quick cooking oats for the different textures.
Now the dough gets to chill. At least two hours to hydrate the dough and let it rest, also helps so the cookies don't spread out when baking. I often make cookie dough in the evening and let it chill overnight to bake the next day.
Tip:
If you don't feel like splurging, which is just fine, a great alternative is to use a combination of vanilla, butterscotch and caramel chips. In the fall, Trader Joes has these insanely amazing salted caramel baking chips. I always grab a few bags when I see them.
How long do you bake oatmeal cookies for?
These bake for around 13-15 minutes. I usually bake cookies like these around 12 minutes, but since these cookies have more moisture in them they take a little longer. I also like to keep them super soft so 15 minutes should be the max amount. They are a soft, thick cookie.
How to store cookies:
- Store cookies in either an airtight container or resealable bag (freezer safe) at room temperature up to a week or up to three months in the freezer
Equipment needed:
- Mixing bowls - I love my Mason Cash bowls.
- Food Processor or box grater
- Cookie scoop - I use a two tablespoon sized scoop to scoop out the dough and place a few inches apart on the cookie sheet, then I press down slightly on them so they will flatten out a little when baking.
- Baking sheets
- Cooling racks
Normally just using instant oats means less chewy cookies. These cookies use oats in three forms - oat flour, rolled oats and instant to get a variety of textures and chewiness.
Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:
I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.
Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.
I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.
Other oatmeal cookie recipe ideas:
Soft Spiced Apple Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 162 g all purpose flour (1 ¼ cups)
- 45 g oat flour (½ cup)
- 2 ½ teaspoon apple pie spice see notes
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 113 g butter unsalted at cool room temp (½ cup)
- 208 g brown sugar light or dark (1 cup)
- 1 large egg cool room temp
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
- 150 g shredded apple honey crisp, granny smith 2-3 apples, core removed (1 cup)
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 79 g golden raisins (½ cup)
- 96 g rolled oats (1 cup)
- 80 g quick cooking oats (1 cup)
- 80 g chopped pecans (⅔ cup)
- 225 g Valrhona Dulcey feves cut in half ( or a combination of vanilla, butterscotch and caramel baking chips) (1 cup)
Instructions
- The cookie batter is chilled before baking. Preheat oven before baking, not before making batter. Each batch takes about 15 minutes to bake - I try to bake 10 cookies per batch for a total of 45 minutes of baking.
- In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt and apple pie spice and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, or stand mixer, mix together the butter and brown sugar until combined. Add in the egg and mix well.
- Shred the apples and sprinkle with lemon juice and let sit for one minute. Wrap in paper towels or a cloth and squeeze out the excess moisture. Add to the mixing bowl along with the raisins and mix to combine. Add in the regular oats and quick cooking oats and mix again. Then finally add in the pecans and the Valhrona Dulcey feves. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill for at least 2 hours up to overnight.
- Before baking, heat oven to 350 Deg f (180c) and set out baking sheets lined with parchment paper
- Using a 2 tablespoon sized scoop, scoop out cookie dough rounds and place on baking sheets a few inches a part. Slightly flatten with your hand.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes until starting to turn golden brown and middles are set.
- Let cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
- Keep cookies in an airtight container at room temperature or in the freezer. These cookies are soft so they will stay soft at room temperature. They will keep best up to 3 months in the freezer. You can also freeze the cookie dough in balls to bake at a later date.
Notes
- 4 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1 teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
Let me know if you make these! You can always share on social media and tag me. I am @pineapple_and_coconut on Instagram (use my tag too - #pinacocorecipes) or on Facebook - @pineappleandcoconut I love when readers share my recipes they make.
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