Nobody will be able to stop eating these Applesauce Cookies! Made with applesauce and oatmeal, they’re topped with a light drizzle of frosting.
Hello and welcome to our new favorite cookie recipe…spicy Cookies with applesauce! These are so chewy and irresistible that you’ll forget about everything else as you savor every chewy bite. (Sorry not sorry.) Applesauce makes them extremely chewy, and they have a little oatmeal to balance out the sweetness. But make no mistake: these are not diet foods. They’re more like a lighter version of an oatmeal cake: which is AOK in our book. Here’s what you need to know about them!
Ingredients for applesauce cookies
These Applesauce Cookies are perfectly flavored and so moist, you won’t believe how soft and moist they are. I’m always looking for a soft cookie rather than a crunchy one (soft cookies with ginger molasses, every day). So this kind of cookie is my ultimate. This is what you need for the tastiest oatmeal applesauce cookies:
- all purpose flour
- Old fashioned oatmeal (aka oatmeal!)
- Light brown sugar and granulated sugar
- Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves
- baking powder
- Salt
- applesauce
- neutral oil
- egg
- vanilla extract
When it comes to a neutral oil, you can use grapeseed oil, organic canola oil, or vegetable oil: any oil that has a neutral taste. Avoid olive oil as it is quite strong! If you like, you can replace the oil with melted butter.
Add frosting for best results!
The best thing about these applesauce cookies? The powdered sugar frosting! This icing takes them up a notch: both in general presentation and in taste! The sweet glaze adds just the right amount of extra sweetness to each bite. (Side bonus: It reminds us of an oatmeal cake.) Here’s what you should know about this easy glaze:
- Mix the icing sugar with the milk until smooth (quantities here). As simple as that! Make it dairy free with dairy free milk.
- Baste with a fork, not a spoon! Yes, it is true. We always reach for the spoon: but the tines of a fork are the best icing on the cake! trust us
- Add color if desired. We made a sweet Christmas version as a winter dessert by separating the icing and adding food coloring to make each half red and green.
Tips for making applesauce cookies
Here are some tips for baking applesauce cookies. It’s very simple and resembles most standard cookie recipes. Here are some points to consider:
- The dough will be very sticky. It’s stickier than you’d expect, say, chocolate chip cookie dough.
- Note the cool down time. After mixing, put the dough in the fridge for 10 minutes. Don’t skip this part: it helps keep the cookies from spreading while baking.
- Use 2 scoops or a cookie scoop to form drops. Don’t adjust the cookies once they’re on the tray. The dough will be sticky so it’s a little harder to work with and form a round blob (the cookie scoop is easiest). But fear not: once you’ve tasted your cookies, they’ll bake just fine.
Vegan variant
Want a vegan twist on these Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies? Luckily, they’re easy to make from plants! All you have to do is replace the egg with a flax egg. A flaxseed egg is ground flaxseed mixed with water. Leave it on and it forms a gel-like substance that you can use as a binder in vegan baked goods. It may sound strange, but use it once and you’ll see how easy it is! It works well in quick breads, cookies and pancakes.
Why cook with applesauce?
Why cook with applesauce? Adding this fruit puree gives the cake a rich, moist baked crumb. Applesauce is a popular substitute for butter and oil in baking recipes, an easy way to reduce overall calories. In these cookies, it’s used for moisture and general flavor (oil is still needed!). Even though he only uses ½ cup of applesauce, you can taste it in every bite.
storage information
These applesauce cookies keep well and stay very moist in a closed container. Here’s what you need to know about storage:
- Store at room temperature in a cookie pan for up to 5 days. If the cookies get too wet, you can open the top and loosely cover the pan.
- Freeze biscuits unfrozen for up to 3 months.
More recipes with applesauce
Applesauce is one of our favorite baking tricks! If you love these Oatmeal Applesauce Cookies (and we know you will), here are some other applesauce recipes you’ll enjoy:
This applesauce cookie recipe is…
Vegetarian. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free recipes, see Substitutes in the recipe.
The description
Nobody will be able to stop eating these Applesauce Cookies! Made with applesauce and oatmeal, they’re topped with a light drizzle of frosting.
- 1 ½ cups all purpose flour
- ½ cup Old fashioned oatmeal
- ½ cup light brown sugar
- ¼ cup granulated cane sugar
- 1 teaspoon Cinammon
- ½ teaspoon allspice (or ginger)
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground clove
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ cup applesauce
- 6 tablespoons neutral oil
- 1 Egg (or flaxseed egg for vegans)
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 2 x Recipe for powdered sugar icing
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium-sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients. In another medium bowl, combine the wet ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and stir until a sticky dough forms (it will be wetter than expected).
- Place the bowl in the refrigerator and chill for 10 minutes.
- Roll into ½ tablespoon balls (using a size 40 cookie spoon if you have one) and place on the baking sheet. Scoop or use 2 spoons to make evenly spaced drops on the paper – don’t try to adjust or move them once they’re on the sheet.
- Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool to room temperature before serving. If desired, use a fork to make a crisscross squirt of frosting with our 1 Minute Icing Sugar Frosting. Store at room temperature in a cookie jar for up to 5 days or freeze (without ice) for up to 3 months.
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Cooked
- Kitchen: Cookies
- Diet: vegetarian
Keywords: Applesauce Cookies
