Name: Soft Caramel Apple Cookies
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 45 min
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 stick butter (113 g), at room temperature; 3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar (173 g); 1 large egg, at room temperature; 1 Tablespoon apple flavored whiskey or 1 tsp vanilla extract; 2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (292 g); 1 teaspoon baking powder; 1/4 teaspoon baking soda; 1/2 teaspoon salt; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg; 1/4 cup sour cream (60 g); 1/4 cup apple butter (68 g)–store bought or homemade apple butter; 1 small sweet apple, such as Gala; 1/4 cup caramel sauce, preferably homemade

Description

Big puffy soft cookies with cozy cinnamon and nutmeg and chunks of sweet apple topped with caramel for the perfect Fall cookie.

Ingredients

Scale

1 stick butter (113 g), at room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons light brown sugar (173 g)
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 Tablespoon apple flavored whiskey or 1 tsp vanilla extract
2 and 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (292 g)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/4 cup sour cream (60 g)
1/4 cup apple butter (68 g)–store bought or homemade apple butter
1 small sweet apple, such as Gala

Finishing the cookies

1/4 cup caramel sauce, preferably homemade

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Cream the butter and the 3/4 cup of brown sugar until it is light and fluffy. This will take about 2-3 minutes in a stand mixer or a hand mixer depending on how soft your butter is.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl, then mix in the egg and whiskey (or vanilla) until you have a smooth batter.
Grate the nutmeg into a small cup, then mix in the cinnamon.
Peel the apple and cut it into thin pieces about 1/4″ thick and 1/2″ long. Sprinkle the apples with the 2 Tablespoons of brown sugar and a 1/4 teaspoon of the cinnamon and nutmeg mixture.
Whisk the flour with the baking powder, baking soda, salt, the rest of the cinnamon and nutmeg in a small bowl to distribute the spices and leavening throughout the flour.
Alternate wet and dry ingredients.Add about one third of the flour mixture to the butter, then mix for a few seconds. It doesn’t need to be smooth. Next, add about half of the sour cream and half of the apple butter, mixing again for a few seconds. Continue alternating adding the flour and the sour cream/apple butter, ending with the flour. Be sure not to overbeat the mixture. No more than 5 seconds of beating with each addition is about right.
Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix the batter a few turns by hand to make sure everything is well-incorporated.
Fold the apples into the batter with a few turns of the spatula.
Scoop 2 Tablespoons of batter onto your prepared sheets. Spread out the cookies well with no more than 8 cookies to a sheet.
Lightly dampen your hands with a few drops of water, then press down on the tops of the cookies to flatten them to about 1/2″ thick.
Bake the cookies for 15 minutes, rotating the pans top to bottom and spinning them 180 degrees halfway through baking. The finished cookies will be lightly browned on the bottom and the centers of the cookies will spring back when you lightly touch them.
Repeat the baking with the remaining batter.
Cool the cookies completely.
To finish them, warm the caramel sauce if necessary to a pipeable consistency. Either squeeze out lines of zigzag lines across the tops of the cookies or use a fork to drizzle caramel over the tops. Let the cookies sit at room temperature until the caramel sets.
Cookies are best the day that they’re made, though you can keep them in the fridge on the same cookie sheet you decorated them on for up to 3 days.