Loaded with fresh apple flavor and plenty of warm spices, these soft and chewy apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies are absolutely perfect for the fall season. Finished with a warm, sweet maple icing, they’re the quintessential autumn cookie!
I originally published this recipe in 2016 and have since added new photos and updates to the recipe to improve the texture and reduce the spreading. The changes are reflected in the recipe card below.
In the fall months, apple desserts are often overshadowed by pumpkin pie and all things pumpkin spice. While these fan-favorite brown butter pumpkin oatmeal cookies always hit the spot, today’s apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies are just as satisfying and deliver big on those fall flavors (sans pumpkin!).
Speaking of favorite desserts, have you tried salted caramel apple pie yet? It’s my #1 favorite dessert of all time!
Tell Me About These Apple Cinnamon Oatmeal Cookies
- Texture: These apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies are soft and chewy with moist centers and crisp edges. Every hearty, wholesome bite is loaded with chewy oats, tender bits of apple, crunchy walnuts, and topped with creamy maple icing. So much texture in just 1 cookie!
- Flavor: You’ll enjoy many fall flavors in each bite including apple spice, cinnamon, and maple—same flavors you can find in these healthy apple muffins. If you’re looking for a maple cookie to try, these maple brown sugar cookies are a popular choice.
- Time: After taking the 10 minutes at the start to reduce the applesauce, the apple oatmeal cookie dough comes together quickly. And there’s no dough chilling required, so you can bake these cookies right away!
Choosing the Right Ingredients
Here are some of the key ingredients and why they work in this recipe:
- More oats than flour = a chewier cookie: You need 2 cups of whole oats and 1 and 1/4 cups of flour to achieve the perfect chew.
- Sugars: You’ll need both granulated sugar and brown sugar in this recipe. I prefer dark brown sugar here for a little extra molasses flavor, but light brown sugar works just as well.
- Applesauce: Look for the unsweetened variety. And if you have some leftover, try a batch of these applesauce muffins. Reducing the applesauce on the stove deepens its apple flavor while removing extra liquid, so your cookies bake up soft—not soggy.
- Egg yolk: Using just the yolk of the egg adds richness and helps to bind the ingredients, without adding too much extra liquid to the dough (since we’re adding applesauce).
- Walnuts: I love adding walnuts to these apple cookies (so much great texture!), but you can leave them out if you prefer.
- Finely diced apple: Make sure you cut the apple into teeny-tiny chunks—not slices like I recommend for apple pie. I usually grab a Granny Smith apple for this recipe, but you can use any crisp, juicy variety you prefer. (And if you’re interested, here are the best apples for baking.)
- Spices: Cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg add just the right warmth and depth of flavor.
You also need baking soda, salt, vanilla extract, and room-temperature butter.
Key Step in This Recipe: Briefly Cook the Applesauce
When I first shared this recipe back in 2016, there was no need to cook down the applesauce. But the cookies often spread too much, turned out a little cakey, and lacked bold flavor. My team and I have since discovered that spending just 10 minutes reducing the applesauce on the stove makes all the difference.
Just as we reduce fresh strawberry puree for strawberry cake and mashed banana for the banana walnut cookies in Sally’s Baking 101, we’ll cook the applesauce on the stove before using it. Simmer until it’s reduced by about half—this easy step concentrates the apple flavor and removes excess moisture.
Left, below: applesauce before reducing. Right, below: applesauce after reducing.
From there, it’s just a matter of whisking the dry ingredients, creaming the butter and sugars, mixing in the wet ingredients (including the reduced applesauce), and bringing everything together. Here is the cookie dough… and there is no need to refrigerate it before baking! It will be a little sticky:
Use a medium cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough (about 1.5 Tbsp/35g of dough each) onto lined baking sheets.
A drizzle of maple icing is the perfect finishing touch on these apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies. Melt butter with pure maple syrup, and then whisk in confectioners’ sugar and a pinch of salt. Drizzle over the cookies. It’s the same icing we use for fan-favorite maple brown sugar cookies.
If you have a little more time, salted caramel frosting would also be delicious… or try the brown butter icing from these brown butter apple blondies… YUM!
Success Tips for Apple Cinnamon Cookies
- Reduce the applesauce first: This is the key to making sure these cookies don’t overspread. We want to concentrate the apple flavor without adding too much moisture to the cookie dough.
- Bake right away: The oats will soak up a lot of the moisture if you let the cookie dough sit too long. You’ll get a better cookie if you bake them right away. Impatience finally pays off!
- Don’t over-bake: You want the centers of the cookies to look very soft and even a little underbaked when you take them out of the oven. They’ll continue to set as they cool on the baking sheet. Over-baking them until the centers look totally done will result in dry cookies.
- Save some for day 2! Like banana bread, these cookies have even more flavor on the second day… if you can wait that long to eat them!
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Description
These soft and chewy apple cinnamon oatmeal cookies are exploding with sweet apple flavor. Filled with cinnamon and apple spices, loaded with applesauce and apple chunks, and topped with a creamy maple icing, they’re absolutely perfect for the fall season. Do not skip reducing the applesauce on the stove (step 1); it is key to the texture and flavor.
Cookies
- 2/3 cup (160g) unsweetened applesauce
- 2 cups (170g) old-fashioned whole rolled oats
- 1 and 1/4 cups (156g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 cup (113g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1/2 cup (100g) light or dark brown sugar (I use dark)
- 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup (90g) finely diced apples
- 1/2 cup (63g) chopped walnuts (optional)
Maple Icing
- 2 Tablespoons (28g) unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup (80ml) pure maple syrup
- 1 cup (112g) sifted confectioners’ sugar
- pinch salt, to taste
- Reduce the applesauce: Place the applesauce in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a low boil and then simmer, stirring occasionally, until the amount is reduced by half (to 1/3 cup/80g). On my stove, this takes about 10 minutes. Transfer the applesauce to a heat-proof bowl and set aside to cool to room temperature.
- Make the cookies: Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Line large baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Whisk the oats, flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg together in a large bowl. Set aside.
- Using a handheld or stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the butter, granulated sugar, and brown sugar on medium speed until creamed together, about 5 minutes. (Here’s a helpful tutorial if you need guidance on how to cream butter and sugar.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl with a silicone spatula as needed. Add the reduced applesauce, egg yolk, and vanilla, and beat on medium-high speed until combined. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl as needed.
- Add in the dry ingredients and beat on low speed until combined. Finally, beat in the chopped apples and walnuts (if using). The cookie dough will be thick and sticky.
- Using a medium cookie scoop, scoop mounds of cookie dough (about 1.5 Tbsp/35g of dough each) and arrange 3 inches apart on the prepared baking sheets.
- Bake for 14–16 minutes or until lightly browned and set around the edges. The cookies will look very soft in the middle but will continue to set as they cool. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Make the icing: In a small saucepan over low heat, melt the butter and maple syrup together, whisking occasionally. Once the butter has melted, remove from heat and whisk in the sifted confectioners’ sugar. Taste. Add a pinch of salt, if desired. Drizzle over cookies. Icing will set after about 1 hour.
- Store cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 days, or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: You can make the cookie dough and chill it in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Allow to come to room temperature then continue with step 5. Baked cookies, with or without icing, freeze well for up to 3 months. Unbaked cookie dough balls freeze well for up to 3 months. Bake frozen cookie dough balls for an extra minute, no need to thaw. Read my tips and tricks on how to freeze cookie dough.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Small Saucepan | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Baking Sheets | Silicone Baking Mats or Parchment Paper | Medium Cookie Scoop | Cooling Rack | Fine Mesh Sieve (for sifting confectioners’ sugar)
- Oats: Use whole rolled oats for the best texture. Quick oats are cut finer, which makes them more powdery. They’ll absorb more moisture, causing the dough to bulk up so the cookies don’t spread properly, and can leave the cookies tasting dry.
- Brown Sugar: I recommend dark brown sugar for a deeper flavor, but you can use light brown sugar instead.
- Apple: Make sure you cut the apple into teeny-tiny chunks. I usually use a Granny Smith apple for this recipe, but you can use any crisp, juicy variety you prefer. (And if you’re interested, here are the best apples for baking.)
- Can I Use Apple Butter Instead of Reduced Applesauce? We haven’t tested it, so are unsure if the cookies will spread too much since apple butter is thinner than the reduced applesauce. If you use it, you may want to refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour before shaping and baking. Apple butter is also sweetened, so expect a sweeter cookie. And if you try it, let us know how it turns out.
- Update in 2025: My team and I made 4 small updates to the recipe to reduce the spreading and improve the texture. The changes are reflected in this recipe. To make the old version, reduce the flour to 1 cup (125g). Reduce the applesauce to 1/2 cup (120g) and skip reducing it on the stove (step 1). Use 1 whole egg instead of 1 egg yolk. Reduce the butter to 1/4 cup (56g) and melt it. Whisk it together with the wet ingredients in step 4, instead of creaming it with the sugars.
