Caramel Apple Crumble Cookies

caramel apple cookie with bite out of it.

Caramel Apple Crumble Cookies

These chewy caramel apple oatmeal cookies are so delicious and surprisingly easy! They have a buttery, brown sugar oatmeal cookie base with just a hint of cinnamon, loaded with tart apple chunks, and gooey caramel in the center.

Course Cookies

Cuisine American

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 13

Total Time 23

Servings cookies

Calories 225

Author Alyssa--In Fine Taste

Ingredients

Cookies:

1 cup butter (226 grams) room temperature (salted or unsalted)
1 cup light brown sugar (205 grams) packed
¾ cup granulated sugar (150 grams)
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour (390 grams) spooned and leveled
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cornstarch (6 grams)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
2 cups old fashioned or rolled oats (260 grams)
1 ¼ cups Granny Smith apple cut into ½" chunks
25 soft caramel candies (like Werther's)

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
Cream together butter and both sugars for 1 minute. Then add eggs and vanilla and cream together for 3 minutes until pale and fluffy.
Add in cinnamon, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, and flour. Mix on low until the dry ingredients are fully dispersed and there are no pockets of flour.
Chop up the apple into ½ inch chunks, no smaller. If they are cut any smaller they will release too much juice and make the cookies soggy.
Stir in oats and apples until evenly mixed into dough.
Scoop ¼ cup of dough into balls. Stick your finger into the center of the dough ball to create a hole. Place an unwrapped caramel in the hole so just a little bit of the caramel sticks out the top.
Place cookie dough balls on lined baking sheet, leaving plenty of room for them to spread, about 6 to a sheet. Bake for 11-13 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.

Video

Notes

Why are my cookies soggy? These caramel apple oatmeal cookies contain fresh apple. When the apple is sliced up and baked it releases its natural juices. The juices in the apple can make your cookies super soft and even soggy.

To prevent your apple and caramel cookies from becoming too soft and soggy, make sure you aren’t chopping the apple up too small. We want the apple pieces to be in about ½ inch chunks, no smaller. I know it can be tempting to chop them up smaller so you get little bits of apple in every bite, but take it from my own experience, it will result in soggy cookies.

Cinnamon. If you love cinnamon, you can add an extra ½ teaspoon of cinnamon to the recipe. Or try swapping the cinnamon for apple pie spice.

Can I use quick oat instead of rolled or old fashioned oats? Quick oats, also called instant oats, are precooked, dried, and designed for quick cooking. They are quite a smaller, thinner, and do not have the same texture as rolled or old fashioned oats. This recipe is designed to rolled or old fashioned oats (sometimes called whole oats). They will give these cookies the best texture and yield the best results.

Nutrition