Soft, chewy and full of flavor, these apple oatmeal cookies are quick and easy. Fresh diced apples are dotted throughout these cinnamon-spiced oatmeal cookies. Add in some dried cranberries for a punch of tartness and extra chewiness if you want. These easy chewy cookies get better with time and stay soft for days.
What makes these cookies so good?
The sweet spice of cinnamon mixes with oatmeal for a chewy cookie that stays soft for days due to fresh diced apples. The addition of dried cranberries gives the cookies another textural element and some brightness to contrast with the sweetness of the apples.
Speaking of these cookies staying fresh; have you heard of the trick of placing a cut apple inside a bag of brown sugar that has hardened? The moisture from the apple will infuse into the hard brown sugar making it soft and usable again.
This same principle is what makes these cookies soft and good for multiple days after making them. But, they still have that nice chew to them! Best of both worlds.
Tips for the best cookies
These apple oatmeal cookies are pretty simple and straightforward to make.
They involve the typical creaming technique for the butter and sugars and then mixing in the dry ingredients. Then you add the oatmeal, apples and cranberries and wah-lah, you have delicious cookie dough.
Follow these tips for the best possible apple oatmeal cookies!
- Don't overmix! This is said time and time again in recipes but it's for a good reason! Overmixing develops the gluten in the flour too much leading to a tough and chewy cookie (not the good chewy!). It also can incorporate too much air into the dough which can cause the cookies to rise quickly in the oven but then deflate leaving a super flat cookie. Mix until there are just a few streaks of flour before adding the oatmeal, apples and cranberries. Once those get all mixed in the streaks of flour will disappear.
- Small diced apples. Chop your apples into about ¼ inch pieces so that they will incorporate easier into the dough and ensure you have multiple apple pieces in each cookie.
- Sweet but tart apples. Cookies are inherently sweet so adding the right type of apple to counteract all the sweetness is key. I prefer something with a little tartness to it and used Honeycrisp apples for these cookies. Other good options would be Pink Lady (also known as Cripps Pink), Braeburn, or Golden Delicious.
- Don't overbake. With most cookies, you want to slightly underbake rather than overbake as they will still cook slightly on the hot sheet pan when you take them out of the oven. Look for slightly golden brown edges and then remove them from the oven to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes.
How to get perfectly round, even cookies
If you want perfectly even and round cookies, here are a few tips to achieve that.
First, use a cookie scoop to scoop the dough onto the cookie trays. I have this cookie scoop and it makes gloriously large cookies with soft middles and chewy edges. Using a scoop portions the dough into the same amount for each cookie.
For perfectly round cookies, it just takes one additional step after the cookies bake. Find a large round cookie cutter bigger than the cookies once they've baked. As soon as the cookies come out of the oven, place the cookie cutter over the cookie and scoot it around the cookie pushing the edges back into a perfect circle.
That's all you need to do for picture-perfect cookies!
How to store the cookies
As mentioned earlier, these cookies last a bit longer than other cookies due to the apple keeping them moist. Store them in a covered air-tight container on the counter for up to 5 days.
As with most cookies, they can also be frozen after they've been baked. Just let them cool and then stack them in an airtight container to freeze. Let them come to room temperature on the counter.
How to freeze cookie dough
For fresh-baked cookies on demand, consider freezing the unbaked cookie dough. To do this, simply scoop the cookie dough into balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet or plate in the freezer.
Freeze for 1 hour until firm and then transfer the dough balls to a zip-top bag and freeze for up to 3 months. The cookies will need an additional minute or two of bake time if baking from frozen.
Use old-fashioned oats for the best results. Quick-cooking oats can soak up too much moisture leaving the cookies too soft.
Yes! The cranberries are optional but I find they are a great contrast to the sweet apples. If you leave them out, don't increase the oats or apples.
For more cookie recipes, check out:
- Lemon Crinkle Cookies with White Chocolate
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies
- Salted Toffee Chocolate Chip Cookies
Tag me on Instagram @themarblekitchenblog if you make this and leave a star rating and comment below! Thank you and enjoy!
Apple Oatmeal Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups (150 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¾ teaspoon baking soda
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup brown sugar packed
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 ½ cups old-fashioned rolled oats
- ¾ cup chopped apples peeled and chopped into ¼ inch pieces (about 1 small apple or ½ of a large apple)
- ½ cup dried cranberries optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and set aside.
- Cream together butter and sugars in a stand mixer or hand mixer, on medium speed for 3 minutes.
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix well.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until just combined.
- Stir in the oatmeal, apples and cranberries (if using) until combined.
- Scoop the dough onto the prepared cookie sheet using a large cookie scoop or about 3 tablespoons of dough per cookie. Space the cookies at least 2 inches apart.
- Bake for about 12-13 minutes until lightly golden brown.
- Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes and then cool completely on a wire rack.
Notes
- For smaller cookies, scoop 1.5 tablespoons of dough onto the cookie sheet. Bake for 9-10 minutes. This should yield about 22-24 cookies.
Pam Hanson says
These cookies are delicious! Nice fall recipe - I love the little apple cubes in there.
I doubled the recipe and glad I did - so my family could enjoy them, as well as co-workers.
I've found some delicious-looking recipes on your site for a Thanksgiving brunch I'm hosting.
Thanks, Tara!
Pam Hanson
Tara Kringlen says
Thanks Pam! I'm so happy you enjoyed them!
Greg Jacobs says
What an absolute waste of paper and no care for the environment.A 6 page recipe that could be 3 pages and then 7 pages of crap. Please start giving a damn about the environment.
Tara Kringlen says
Hey Greg. So the "print" button at the top of the post will print the entire post if you want more detailed info and troubleshooting on how to make the recipe. In the actual recipe at the bottom of the page, there is a "print recipe" button. That will only print the recipe which in this case is just one page. I've removed the print button at the top of the page now so there is no confusion and people don't accidentally print a lot of paper when they just want the recipe. If you want the full post, you can just use your computer or phone's print function. If you just want the recipe, make sure you use the "print recipe" button inside the recipe card! Hope you at least got to make the cookies!
RIEDINGER-OTT Clarisse says
Hi Tara,
Thanks a lot for this wonderful reciepe. I made these cookies and we enjoyed them a lot...
Have a nice day,
Clarisse (from France)
foodblog Clarisseencuisine.wordpress.com
Tara Kringlen says
Thanks for the kind comment Clarisse! So happy you enjoyed them!
Mary Lee says
I’ve never left a recipe rating before, but I had to on this one. These were so delicious! And so easy to make. I added chopped walnuts and was so pleased with the cookies. Thank you for sharing your recipe!
Tara Kringlen says
Thank you so much Mary!