These cookies are pure apple butter flavor packed into a small, chewy bite. They have crisp, crackled edges, soft centers, and a generous amount of warm apple pie spice both inside the dough and on the sugar coating. This is a small-batch recipe, making just a dozen cookies, so it’s an easy one to whip up whenever a craving hits.
Quick facts
- Prep time: 10 minutes
- Chill time: 1 hour
- Bake time: 13 minutes
- Total time: 1 hour 23 minutes
- Makes: 12 cookies
- Calories: about 62 kcal per cookie
Why You’ll Love These Cookies
- Bold spice flavor. Apple pie spice goes into the dough and into the sugar coating, so every bite is fragrant.
- A pretty crinkled top. The tops crack as they bake and cool, giving them a rustic, bakery-style look.
- Barely any butter. Apple butter does most of the work, so only 2 tablespoons of butter are needed for the whole batch.
- Small batch. A dozen cookies is perfect when you don’t want a huge tray sitting around.
- Easy to scale up. The recipe doubles or triples well for sharing.
- No parchment needed. These bake directly on the metal sheet without sticking.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/4 cup (60 grams) jarred apple butter
- 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 cup (120 grams) all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon apple pie spice
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon apple pie spice + 1/4 cup (60 grams) sugar, for rolling
A Few Notes on the Ingredients
Butter: Let it soften to room temperature so it blends smoothly into the apple butter and sugar.
Apple butter: Either homemade or store-bought works well here, as long as it’s thick, smooth, and rich rather than thin or watery.
Egg yolk: This recipe only calls for the yolk, not the whole egg. Save the white for something else, like a meringue or pavlova. If you double or triple the recipe, add two or three yolks rather than switching to whole eggs.
Apple pie spice: Most jarred blends combine cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice, and some also include ginger or cardamom. Since this is the main flavor in the cookie, pick a blend that smells good to you.
Why These Cookies Crackle
The crinkled top isn’t an accident. A few things work together to create it: there’s a good amount of sugar in both the dough and the apple butter, the baking soda reacts with the batter’s acidity to create extra bubbles as the cookies bake, and the oven runs hotter than a typical cookie recipe. That higher heat makes the dough spread quickly, and the fast spread is what causes the surface to crack as steam escapes. Those cracks are part of what makes the texture so good.
How to Make Apple Butter Crinkle Cookies
Part 1: Mix the Dough
1. Combine the base. In a medium bowl, add the room-temperature butter, apple butter, and granulated sugar.
2. Beat until smooth. Use an electric mixer on high speed to beat the mixture until it’s well combined, about 30 seconds.
3. Add the yolk. Beat in the egg yolk until the mixture looks smooth and uniform.
4. Add the dry ingredients. Sprinkle the flour, apple pie spice, and baking soda evenly over the top. Mix on low speed just until it comes together. If the dough looks dry, keep mixing a bit longer until it forms a cohesive dough.
Part 2: Chill and Shape
5. Refrigerate. Chill the dough for 30 minutes, then preheat the oven to 375°F.
6. Portion the dough. Divide it into 12 tablespoon-sized balls.
7. Roll in spiced sugar. Roll each ball in the mixture of sugar and extra apple pie spice until fully coated.
8. Arrange on the pan. Space the balls evenly on a baking sheet. There’s no need to grease the pan or line it with parchment.
Part 3: Bake and Cool
9. Bake. Bake for 13 minutes, until the edges look set and slightly more golden than the centers.
10. Rest, then cool. Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
Tips for the Best Cookies
Use a good-quality apple butter. Since it’s a main flavor source, choose one that’s thick and richly spiced rather than thin or bland.
Don’t skip the chill time. Thirty minutes firms up the dough enough to scoop and roll cleanly.
Bake at the higher temperature. The hotter oven is what gives these cookies their signature crackled tops, so don’t lower it to a standard 350°F.
Watch for golden edges. Pull the cookies when the edges look slightly darker than the centers. They’ll continue to set as they cool.
Skip the parchment. These are designed to bake directly on the metal sheet without sticking.
Make Ahead, Storing, and Freezing
Storing: Keep the baked cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.
Freezing dough: You can freeze the raw dough balls and bake them straight from frozen, adding 1 to 2 extra minutes to the bake time.
Freezing baked cookies: These freeze well too. Warm them back up in a toaster oven when you’re ready to enjoy them.
Chilling longer: If you want to prep ahead, the dough can chill tightly wrapped in the refrigerator for up to 2 days. Let it sit at room temperature for 20 to 30 minutes before scooping, until it’s soft enough to work with.
Scaling up: This recipe doubles or triples easily for a bigger batch. Just remember to scale the egg yolks along with everything else, using two yolks for a double batch and three for a triple batch.
Nutrition (per cookie, approximate)
Calories: 62 | Total fat: 2g | Saturated fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 20mg | Sodium: 28mg | Carbohydrates: 8g | Protein: 1g
These are estimates, so use a nutrition calculator for exact numbers if that matters to you.
Final Thoughts
These little cookies pack a lot of apple butter flavor into a small, chewy bite, with a crackled top that makes them look as good as they taste. The short chill time and quick bake make this an easy recipe to turn to anytime you want something warm and spiced. Try a batch this fall and let me know how they turn out.