Description
These apple pie cookies are made with a spiced cookie dough, crisp apple pieces, and flaky pie crust leaves. They really are an apple pie in cookie form!
Ingredients
Scale
For the pie crust leaves:
- 50g (⅓ cup + 1 tbsp) all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp kosher salt
- 35g (2 ½ tbsp) unsalted butter, cold
- ¼ cup ice water
- Egg wash (1 egg + 1 tbsp water)
- Turbinado sugar, for sprinkling
For the apple pie cookies:
- 270g (2 ¼ cup) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp cloves
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 170g (¾ cup) unsalted butter, room temp
- 160g (¾ cup) brown sugar
- 100g (½ cup) granulated sugar
- 1 egg, room temp
- 1 tsp vanilla bean paste or extract
- 1 honeycrisp apple, cut into small pieces; reserve a few pieces for topping
Instructions
For the pie crust leaves:
- In a medium bowl combine the flour and salt.
- Cut the cold butter into cubes and toss in the flour. Using your fingers, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until pea sized pieces are left.
- Add a couple tablespoons of water, then toss with your hands to combine.
- Continue adding very small amounts of water until the dough can hold together, but is not overly wet.
- Wrap the dough tightly in plastic wrap, then chill for one hour.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out into a rough rectangle, fold in half, then again into quarters. Repeat one more time.
- Shape the dough into a disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and chill for at least one hour before using.
- Preheat the oven 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to ⅛” in thickness. Use small leaf cutters to cut out the dough.
- Freeze the cutout dough for 10 minutes.
- Place frozen cutout dough on the prepared baking sheet, and brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
- Bake the pie crust leaves for 10 minutes until slightly golden.
For the apple pie cookies:
- In a medium bowl combine the flour, baking powder, spices, and salt. Set aside.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugars for 2-3 minutes until light & fluffy.
- Beat in the egg and vanilla until fully combined.
- Scrape down the bowl, then add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until just combined.
- Fold in the apple pieces with a rubber spatula until evenly distributed.
- Using a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop, portion the dough onto a small parchment lined baking sheet. Top each with one apple piece, then freeze for 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place the frozen cookie dough balls on the baking sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake for 12 minutes until barely golden on the edges. They will appear underbaked, but will continue to bake as they cool on the baking sheet.
- Once the cookies come out of the oven, immediately top each of them with a pie crust leaf.
- Allow to cool completely on the baking sheet, and enjoy!
Notes
- Use a cookie scoop. Use a 3 tablespoon cookie scoop to portion the cookie dough into equally sized cookies!
- Freeze the portioned cookie dough. To ensure the cookies bake up thick, don't skip the freeze time!
- Scoot the cookies. Immediately after the cookies come out of the oven, use a large round cookie cutter or glass to scoot the edges and form a perfectly round cookie.
Keywords: apple pie cookies, apple cookies