Caramel Apple Snickerdoodles
Caramel apple snickerdoodles – a fall twist on snickerdoodle cookies! These actually taste like caramel apple and remind me of those green caramel apple suckers
A few weeks ago I shared a recipe for turtle cookies (they are so delicious!) and in that post I vowed to share more cookie recipes. So I’m keeping good on my word!
Growing up I loved snickerdoodles – what kid doesn’t like any kind of cookie though?! But it’s been years since I’ve had one.
The mixture of cinnamon sugar that the cookie is rolled in is spot on and irresistible. Plus one of the draws to snickerdoodle cookies is the tanginess from the cream of tartar. The cream of tartar reacts with the baking soda to leaven the cookies and it also gives snickerdoodles their chewy texture.
I decided to take the traditional snickerdoodle recipe and give it a fall twist with 2 iconic flavors – caramel and apple!
So I got to work and baked and baked and baked. I baked 6 batches of caramel apple snickerdoodles to find the best recipe! I tried apple juice, apple cider and powdered apple cider drink mix to add apple flavor to the cookies.
The verdict?
The apple juice and apple cider didn’t really provide any apple flavor to the cookies after I baked them.
Apple Cider Drink Mix in Cookies
But the apple cider drink mix added nice apple flavor to the cookies! I also added caramel bits (the tiny caramel balls that Kraft makes for baking and melting for caramel apples) to the dough making these cookies truly caramel apple snickerdoodles!
The cookies actually remind me of those caramel apple suckers – the green ones that are dipped in caramel – mmmmm!! The cookies have a sweet and sour taste and I think they smell like sour apple candy!
Why Chill Cookie Dough
I also experimented with chilling the dough in the bowl, chilling the dough in balls and not chilling the dough. Not chilling the dough at all produced cookies that spread out more.
But I couldn’t really see a significant difference between chilling the dough in the bowl versus chilling the dough in balls. The dough chilled in balls maybe seemed to produce a slightly taller cookie – but again, nothing that made a significant difference.
I chilled the dough for 30 minutes in the fridge before scooping them into balls and baking them.
These little fall cookies are irresistible.
Total Time Required
- 5 minutes to prep the dough
- 30 minutes to chill the dough
- 10 minutes to bake
- 10 minutes to cool
Tips
- Properly measure the all purpose flour using the spoon and sweep method.
- Use room temperature butter for easier creaming of the butter and sugar.
- Refrigerate the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Use a cookie scoop to form cookie dough balls.
- Bake cookies on a silicone baking mat.
More Fall Recipes
Caramel Apple Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
Cookies
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- 2 tsp cream of tartar
- 1 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2 packets apple cider drink mix, .74 oz each
- 2 sticks unsalted butter, softened, 1 cup
- 1 ½ cups granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- ½ cup caramel bits, like Kraft brand
Topping
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Equipment
Instructions
- In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, cream of tartar, baking soda, salt and apple cider drink mix. Set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer for 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs. Mix in the caramel bits with a spatula. Slowly add the flour mixture to the wet mixture, mixing until the flour is just combined.
- Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- In a small bowl, mix together the cinnamon sugar topping.
- Remove the dough from the fridge. Using a small cookie dough scoop, scoop dough and roll it into a ball. Roll the ball into the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place them on a baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. Bake for 9-11 minutes or until the tops become a little crackly. Allow the cookies to cool for 5-10 minutes before moving them to a cooling rack or eating them!
Apple and cinnamon and caramel go so well together- love how you added those elements to the spicy delicious snickerdoodles! :)
I love this recipe!! I also added a finely chopped granny Smith apple to the wet dough at the psame time I added the caramel bites. Before adding the dry mixture to it.
This made it turn out literally just like a caramel apple, with some sugar and cinnamon added!!
cookies sound wonderful
cookies sounds wonderful..hope i can find all ingredients
Aw I wish we had things like caramel pieces and powdered apple cider in nz would of loved to make these
We don’t have them in Canada either, I just used some regular apple cider and cut some soft caramels into little bits. They are probably more caramel than caramel apples but i tried lol :)
Canada needs to get these products!!
I can’t find apple cider mix anywhere, so is there any substitution for that? I thought of apple cider but that’s liquid so I wasn’t sure whether the structure would change.
Hi Fiona! You should be able to purchase it on Amazon!
You did not say if you could substitute liquid apple cider or how much
Hi Jean, I tried apple cider and it didn’t produce the same flavor. So I would not suggest it!
Can I use Spiced Apple Cider instant drink and cut caramel squares in little pieces? Couldn’t find caramel bits.
Yep! You can cut the squares into smaller pieces!
I’m not sure if I’m just totally blind, but did you mention how many cookies the ingredients would make?
Hi Katie! Yep, it’s underneath the title in the recipe box – 26-30 cookies!
I wasn’t able to find little pieces of caramel for baking so I just picked up some individually wrapped caramels. I froze the caramel for a while before throwing it in a blender so I could chop it up really fine. The caramel mixed into the dough really well this way. This is by far the best cookie recipe I’ve ever tried.
I made these and they smell and taste amazing! However, when I took them out of the oven, they went really flat. They still taste good though, I wonder why they went flat?!
Hi Clair! I’m sorry to hear that happened. Did you refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes like noted in the directions? That’s to help solidify the fat in the dough so that the cookies spread less when baking.
When you say caramel bits ate you talking about the kraft caramel bits?
Yes! Like these: https://amzn.to/32cNnJd
I just tried making these today and lessened the sugar to 1 1/4 cups instead. They still turned out amazing.. Thank you for sharing your recipes!! My first love from this site is always going to be the Oreo cookie recipe.
Hi, would I be able to refrigerate the dough for 4 days before baking? Just trying to prep for a Thursday bake since today is Sunday.
Hi Lorie! It think it would be okay, but I would let the dough sit at room temperature for a little bit before baking since it will have been in the fridge for 4 days.
Have you ever tried to freeze the dough?
I haven’t but I believe it would work well!
How to Freeze Cookie Dough
Portion the dough into cookie dough balls. Press chocolate chips into the outside of the dough.
Place them on baking sheet lined with a silicone mat. You can place the dough balls close together since you won’t be baking them.
Place the baking sheet in the freezer until the cookies are frozen solid, about 1 hour.
Remove the baking sheet from the freezer and transfer the frozen cookie dough balls to a ziplock freezer bag. Label the bag with baking directions.
Freeze the cookie dough for up to 3 months.
To bake: remove the dough from the freezer. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF. Bake according to the recipe. Frozen cookies may need to bake for 1-2 minutes longer.
These are really good. They spread quite a bit so be sure not to crowd them. At least 2 inches between them or you’ll get square cookies.
Cut up caramel squares. Made this recipe cooked on baking pad. My cookies turned out flat. Any ideas?
Hi Karen! How did you measure the flour?
This is my favorite type of snickerdoodle now! The caramel bites are delicious!
These sound amazing! I have original apple cider drink mix packets (not sugar free). Would you lessen the granulated sugar? Sounds like the perfect Fall cookie.
I’d use the original apple cider drink mix packets and keep the sugar in the recipe the same!
I found all the ingredients at Walmart cream of tart is in spice isle and Carmel bits r in baking isle used a bag instead of 1/2 cup of Carmel’s oops there in oven now easy to make
Came out really good. I don’t make cookies often so I wasn’t sure how small a small cookie scoop is so I went with 50 grams.. Definitely way too much I’ll do 15 or 25 grams next time.
Can little apple bite size pieces be added in?
You could, I haven’t personally tried this. I do have an apple pie cookie that has apple pieces: https://thefirstyearblog.com/apple-pie-cookies/
Followed recipe exactly. Cookies rose nicely in oven and went flat after cooling off. I did the 30 minutes covered in fridge method before rolling into balls. Taste good, just do not like fluffy like a snickerdoodle should.
:(, my son’s favorite cookie is snicker doodles and he loves cider. I tried these and I did refrigerate them for 30 minutes. Turned out super flat and no crinkles like snicker doodles. It was a good idea.