Apple Crumble Cookies combine brown butter cookie dough with a spiced green apple filling and crumble topping. Bake 13 min for soft, 15 for crisp edges. Makes 20.
Category
Dessert
Servings
20
Prep time
2 hours 4 minutes
Cook time
30 minutes
Soft cookie meets apple crumble. These Apple Pie Cookies are loaded with brown butter, spiced apple filling, white chocolate chips and a crunchy crumble topping. They were made as an experiment after cooking the Apple Crumble Cake (which was so good). The team devoured that cake so we wanted to see if we could get a similar flavour and texture in a cookie. These a a little simplier than the cake but still have some key steps you'll need to follow.
Brown butter is the foundation of these cookies. When you melt unsalted butter and continue cooking it past the point where the water evaporates, the milk solids caramelise through the Maillard reaction, turning golden and developing a deep, nutty flavour that plain melted butter doesn’t have. The browned butter is cooled over iced water and then whipped until it turns light and pale again. That whipping step reintroduces air into the fat and gives it the texture of softened butter, which is what you need for creaming with sugar.
Ingredient Notes
Brown butter: Brown butter is made by cooking unsalted butter until the water cooks off and the milk solids caramelise to a golden-brown colour. You’ll know it’s ready when the foam subsides, brown flecks appear at the bottom of the pan, and the kitchen smells nutty and slightly toasty. Use a light-coloured saucepan so you can see the colour change clearly. After browning, the butter must be chilled until firm before being whipped over ice: this is what converts it back to a creaming consistency. If it goes into the dough liquid or even just soft, the dough will be greasy and the cookies will spread too thin.
Green apples: Granny Smith is the right apple for this. Green apples have firmer flesh and higher pectin content than most red varieties, which means they hold their structure through the stovetop cook and then the oven without breaking down. Red apples like Fuji or Pink Lady have more sugar and softer flesh: they turn to mush during cooking and make the filling overly sweet in a cookie that already has a generous amount of sugar in the dough. Peel and dice the apples finely and evenly so they cook at the same rate. The cornflour in the filling thickens the released juice into a light glaze that coats the pieces and keeps the filling contained in the indent.
Cornflour: The 2 teaspoons of cornflour in the apple filling acts as a starch thickener. When the filling reaches temperature on the stove, the cornflour gelatinises and binds the apple juice into a thick, glossy coating rather than a watery runoff. This is what keeps the filling sitting neatly in the cookie indent during baking instead of soaking into the dough or pooling on the tray. To know the cornflour has fully activated, look for the juices to shift from cloudy to glossy and the mixture to thicken noticeably. Cool the filling completely in the fridge before using: a warm filling will soften the cold dough on contact and make it difficult to shape.
Equipment
- Chopping board
- Peeler
- Medium saucepan
- Large mixing bowl
- Hand beaters or stand mixer
- Whisk
- Small food processor
- 3 large baking trays
- Baking paper
- Rounded tablespoon or cookie scoop
- Plastic wrap
Ingredients
- 225g unsalted butter
- 3cm piece ginger, finely grated
- 165g (¾ cup) caster sugar
- 220g (1 cup) brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 10ml (2 tsp) vanilla extract
- 300g (2 cups) plain flour
- 80g rolled oats
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- pinch sea salt
- ½ tsp ground cinnamon
- 100g white chocolate chips
- 4 green apples (500g), peeled, cored, finely diced
- 55g (¼ cup) brown sugar
- 30g butter, chopped
- 2 tsp cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 70g (⅓ cup) brown sugar
- 37g (¼ cup) plain flour
- 23g (¼ cup) rolled oats
- ¼ tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- 40g unsalted butter, diced and chilled
Apple filling
Crumble top
Directions
Brown the butter
Melt butter in a medium saucepan on medium heat and cook until browned and starting to smell nutty, 6-8 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in ginger.
- Transfer to a bowl and place over a bowl of iced water. Allow to cool, stirring occasionally.
- When cooled, whip the butter with a whisk or hand beaters over the ice until light, then discard ice.
Prep the dough
Beat the sugars into butter until creamed.
- Beat in eggs 1 at a time, beating well between each addition until light and fluffy, then beat in vanilla extract.
- Process oats in a small processor until a coarse crumb. Sift flour, baking powder, bicarb soda, cinnamon and a pinch of salt together. Mix into butter mixture until a soft dough forms, then fold in chocolate chips.
- Cover dough tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for several hours, ideally overnight.
Prep the apple filling
Combine apples, sugar, butter, cornflour, and cinnamon in a medium saucepan and place over medium-low heat.
- Cook, stirring until butter is melted and sugar is dissolved.
- Increase heat to medium and saute mixture for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until apples are tender. Remove from the heat, transfer to a bowl and refrigerate until completely cooled.
Prep the crumble and shape cookies
Combine the sugar, flour, oats and spices in a small food processor and process until a coarse crumb. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse breadcrumbs.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C fan forced (355°F) and line 3 large baking trays with baking paper.
- Divide the dough into 20 equal portions, roughly 2 heaped tablespoons.
- Use your hand to cup the dough while making an indent in the top with a rounded tablespoon.
- Place 3 teaspoons worth of the filling in the indent then sprinkle with some crumble topping, pressing in lightly to stay in place.
Bake
Place cookies on trays, with at least 5cm gap between each for spreading.
- Bake for 13-15 minutes, without opening the oven door, then allow to cool for at least 15 minutes on the trays.
Recipe video
Recipe notes
Cook support
13 minutes bake time will give you a very soft cookie, but 15 minutes will give a crisp cookie edge, but still a soft middle from the pie filling.
Don’t skip browning the butter
It adds depth to the dough and helps balance the sweetness. Let it cool fully before creaming if it’s too warm, the dough will be greasy and won’t hold its shape.
Resting the dough matters
Overnight refrigeration gives the dough time to hydrate and firms it up so the cookies hold the filling without spreading too much. A few hours is fine, but overnight is best.
Spacing on trays
Give them at least 5cm between each cookie. They spread. Don’t crowd the tray or they’ll merge.
Substitutions
The green apples will hold their shape when cooked and then again baked, so ideally don’t swap these out for red apples, which will also make the cookie sweeter.
Storage
Store cookies in an airtight container in the pantry.
