Is anyone else swooning over all the Fall flavors more this year than previous years like I am?! Well, my overzealous love for all the Fall treats led me to one of the best cookie recipes I’ve made to date… Caramel Apple Cider Cookies! Now you’re swooning, too, huh?! 😉
I could not be more excited with how these soft, melt-in-your-mouth cookies turned out! They are so easy to make, and I love that they include real apples in the cookie batter.
You’ll start by making the caramel sauce. My caramel sauce is so easy to make at home and it also happens to be vegan and dairy-free. It’s made with simple ingredients like plant butter, peanut butter, maple syrup, vanilla, and plant milk. And yes, you guessed it- it makes the most amazing topping on these delicious apple cookies.
By using caramel as the frosting I was also able to cut back on the sugar content in these cookies. Skip all the powdered sugar, your body will thank you later, hehe. And not to mention it’s freaking delicious!
Inside the apple cider cookies we have a homemade apple mixture made with real apples. Now, it’s not completely liquid apple cider, it’s more of an applesauce consistency to help these cookies stay moist and set up just right. I combined real Fuji apples with allspice, nutmeg, and cinnamon to give it that apple cider flavor.
By using plant butter and flax eggs in the cookie batter these cookies are vegan friendly, diary-free, and gluten-free! I also use peanut butter in both the cookie batter and the caramel sauce, but you can easily swap out the peanut butter for another nut butter or even sunflower seed butter to make them nut-free too. They are so soft, and I’ll bet you won’t be able to just eat one.
I chose Fuji apples for these cookies because they are the sweetest of the apples and they work perfectly in baking recipes. You can read more about the history of Fuji apples here.
I hope you enjoy these Caramel Apple Cider Cookies! I would love to see your recreations so be sure to tag us on Instagram or Facebook!