Applesauce Cookies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
These perfect moist, spiced Applesauce Cookies come together in just minutes and make an excellent after-school snack or sweet treat. Made with applesauce, these cookies are lower in sugar but full of flavor!
This Applesauce Cookie Recipe is the perfect snack when you are craving something sweet.
These cookies are perfectly spiced and have just the right amount of sweetness without the overwhelming sugariness you get from some cookies. The addition of applesauce makes the texture light, almost cakey, with crisp edges like the perfect top of a muffin.
The best part is how easily they come together. Just mix the dough, scoop, and bake for a tasty treat. No need to chill the dough or roll and cut.
What really takes these simple, soft cookies to a whole new level is the addition of Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. It truly takes applesauce cookies from good to amazing!
Whether you need a cookie for your fall baking list (to go alongside these Caramel Apples and this Apple Bread recipe), a bake sale, or a sweet treat you can enjoy as an afternoon snack, these Applesauce Cookies are about to become your favorite cookie!
Why Make This Recipe
- Show-Stopping Flavor: If you’re a fan of banana bread or pumpkin bread, these cookies should be in your recipe box. They have a delicious spiced cake flavor but what takes these yummy cookies over the top is the deeper flavors of the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting. These flavorful applesauce cookies are the perfect treat for any sweet tooth!
- Great Recipe for Kids: These cookies are perfect for making with small helpers because of how easily they come together. Bakers of any age can mix up this easy recipe and maybe steal a bite of applesauce too.
- Delicious Fragrance: If you want your home to smell like the fall season, this Applesauce Cookie Recipe is for you. Nutmeg, cinnamon and applesauce will fill your home with a beautiful fragrance and craveable cookies too!
What Do You Need To Make This Recipe
- Flour: All purpose flour is just fine for these cookies.
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon and applesauce just go perfectly together.
- Nutmeg: Adds even more depth of flavor to these cookies
- Butter: I always recommend using unsalted butter for baking so you can control exactly how much salt goes into your recipe.
- Granulated Sugar and Brown Sugar: Some Applesauce Cookies call for less sugar or no sugar at all but I’ve found the combo of white sugar and light-brown sugar gives these cookies a light caramelized flavor that is so delicious.
- Applesauce: You can use store-bought applesauce or make your own. Fresh, homemade applesauce will be more fragrant and flavorful but it also may have more moisture so just be aware when using it. Any store-bought applesauce will work. I use sweetened applesauce!
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: You will be browning this, so no need to soften it!
- Cream Cheese: Use full fat for the creamiest texture and flavor
Tools
- Electric mixer
- Cookie Scoop
- Cookie sheet or baking sheet
- Cooling wire rack
How to Make This Recipe
Step One: Mix the Dry Ingredients
Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
Step Two: Cream the Butter and Sugar
Using an electric hand mixer, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs and vanilla and beat again until combined. Then add the applesauce and mix well again.
Step Three: Mix and Bake
Add the flour mixture into the applesauce mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be sticky.
Using a #24 cookie scoop (2.5 – 3 Tbsp), drop the cookie dough onto a parchment paper-lined large baking tray. Use your hand to press the dough ball down to about ½” thick.
Bake in a preheated oven for 9-11 minutes or until the bottoms have turned golden brown and the edges have set.
Move immediately to a cooling rack. While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting.
How to Make Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
Step One: Brown the Butter
Place the unsalted butter in a small pot over low-medium heat. Heat the butter until it melts and begins to bubble and foam. Keep heating over low heat, stirring frequently, until the bubbles stop and the butter has turned a brown color and is emitting a nutty smell.
Place the butter in a bowl and place in the fridge for about 60 minutes. Remove the butter from the fridge and use a spoon to stir it. Allow it to spend the next 10 minutes or so coming to room temperature (your butter should be about 68 degrees Fahrenheit internally before you begin the next steps of the frosting).
Step Two: Mix and Whip
In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat together the butter and the softened cream cheese until smooth. Add the vanilla and the salt and beat again until combined.
Add the powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time, beating between each addition.
Step Three: Pipe and Serve
Pipe the frosting on top of the cooled Applesauce Cookies. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of extra cinnamon.
Serve with a glass of milk and enjoy!
Expert Tips
- These cinnamon Applesauce Cookies have a cakey texture, thanks to the added moisture from the applesauce. That means the dough is also sticky and wet.
- You can enjoy these cookies without any frosting but the addition of the frosting makes them extra sweet and delicious.
- These cookies are even better the next day after the spices have had time to settle into the dough. Store them in an airtight container. They make a great addition to a kid’s lunch box!
Variations
- Mix-Ins: Feel free to mix extra flavor into your Applesauce Cookie Recipe like dried fruit, golden raisins, nuts, dark chocolate chips, or coconut. All of these go very well with the cinnamon and spices.
- Different Frosting: Feel free to use different frostings on this recipe if you’d prefer a different flavor profile. I like the variety of tastes that the Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting adds, but plain Cream Cheese Frosting or even Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting would be a delicious addition!
- Spices: Adding more fall-flavored spices to this recipe, will make for a cookie with an even bigger flavor punch. Try adding spices, like cloves, allspice, ginger or anise.
FAQs
You can store these leftover cookies in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days. I would not recommend keeping these cookies on the countertop at room temperature because of the cream cheese frosting.
You can also freeze leftovers in an airtight container for up to three months. Before eating your frozen cookies, allow them to come to room temperature on the countertop for 2 to 3 hours. Do not leave the cookies at room temperature for longer than three hours.
Applesauce is a great addition and baked goods for replacing fats, such as butter or oil. There are plenty of Applesauce Cookie Recipes that use applesauce as their only form of fat in the recipe.
This recipe specifically is meant to have an applesauce flavor, but it is not the healthiest Applesauce, Cookie Recipe you can find on the Internet. There is still butter in this recipe, and the applesauce is added for a delicious and unique flavor.
Did you enjoy this Applesauce Cookie Recipe? If so, make sure to check out these other recipes I picked out just for you:
- Pillsbury Halloween Cookies
- How to Make Butter Cookies
- Fast and Easy Maple Cookies Recipe
- Hot Buttered Rum Cookies
Applesauce Cookies with Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting
Equipment
- Electric Mixer
- Cookie scoop
- Cookie sheet or baking sheet
- Cooling wire rack
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp Salt
- ½ tsp Nutmeg
- ⅔ cup butter, softened to room temperature
- ½ cup granulated sugar, plus more for topping
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp Vanilla
- ½ cup applesauce
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 8 oz cream cheese, softened to room temperature
- 1 ½ tsp vanilla
- ¼ tsp salt
- 3 ½ cups powdered sugar
Instructions
Cookie Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Sift together 3 cups flour, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/2 tsp salt, and 1/2 tsp nutmeg. Set aside.
- Using an electric hand mixer, cream together 2/3 cup butter and 1/2 cup of each sugar until light and fluffy.
- Add the 2 eggs and 1 tsp vanilla and beat again until combined. Then add 1/2 cup applesauce and mix well again.
- Add the sifted ingredients into the applesauce mixture and mix well with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula. The dough will be sticky.
- Using a #24 cookie scoop (2.5 – 3 Tbsp), drop the cookie dough onto parchment paper-lined cookie sheets. Use your hand to press the dough ball down to about ½” thick.
- Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the bottoms have browned slightly and the edges have set.
- Move immediately to a cooling rack. While the cookies are cooling, make the frosting.
Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Instructions
- Place the 1/2 cup unsalted butter in a small pot over low-medium heat. Heat the butter until it melts and begins to bubble and foam. Keep heating over low heat, stirring frequently, until the bubbles stop and the butter has turned a brown color and is emitting a nutty smell.
- Place the butter in a bowl and place in the fridge for about 60 minutes. Remove the butter from the fridge and use a spoon to stir it. Allow it to spend the next 10 minutes or so coming to room temperature (your butter should be about 68 degrees Fahrenheit internally before you begin the next steps of the frosting).
- In a large mixing bowl, use an electric hand mixer to beat together the butter and 8 oz softened cream cheese until smooth. Add the 1 1/2 tsp vanilla and the 1/4 tsp salt and beat again until combined.
- Add 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar about 1 cup at a time, beating between each addition.
- Pipe the frosting on top of the cooled applesauce cookies. Sprinkle each cookie with a pinch of extra cinnamon.
- Serve and enjoy!
Notes
- Flour: All purpose flour is just fine for these cookies.
- Cinnamon: Cinnamon and applesauce just go perfectly together.
- Nutmeg: Adds even more depth of flavor to these cookies
- Butter: I always recommend using unsalted butter for baking so you can control exactly how much salt goes into your recipe.
- Granulated Sugar and Brown Sugar: Some Applesauce Cookies call for less sugar or no sugar at all but I’ve found the combo of white sugar and light-brown sugar gives these cookies a light caramelized flavor that is so delicious.
- Applesauce: You can use store-bought applesauce or make your own. Fresh, homemade applesauce will be more fragrant and flavorful but it also may have more moisture so just be aware when using it. Any store-bought applesauce will work. I use sweetened applesauce!
- Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: You will be browning this, so no need to soften it!
- Cream Cheese: Use full fat for the creamiest texture and flavor
- These cinnamon Applesauce Cookies have a cakey texture, thanks to the added moisture from the applesauce. That means the dough is also sticky and wet.
- You can enjoy these cookies without any frosting but the addition of the frosting makes them extra sweet and delicious.
- These cookies are even better the next day after the spices have had time to settle into the dough. Store them in an airtight container. They make a great addition to a kid’s lunch box!
