Apple Peanut Butter Cookies
Apple Peanut Butter Cookies, warm and tender from the oven, are the perfect way to enjoy a crisp fall or winter day!
Apple Peanut Butter Cookies for a Fall Treat
We’re a peanut butter lovin’ family through and through, and one of our favorite snacks is apples dipped in peanut butter. So it’s no surprise that these Apple Peanut Butter Cookies get quickly devoured around here!
When fresh local apples become available each fall, you can bet that we’re baking these tender, buttery cookies. They’re great for fall gatherings and are a fun casual dessert for Thanksgiving!
Minnesota has a great number of famous apple varieties to its name, and so many of them are favorites with our family – think Haralson, Honey Crisp, Zestar!, and SweeTango. So when we have fresh apples available from local orchards each fall – such a treat! – I bake with them every chance I can get.
These cookies call for both shredded and diced apples. The shredded pieces give overall apple flavor and texture to the cookies, while the diced bits offer more pronounced bites of apple goodness.
These apple peanut butter cookies were an instant hit with our family when I first introduced them several years ago, and remain a recipe that we all look forward to.
Apple Peanut Butter Cookies
The cookies bake up super tender with a beautiful buttery crispness to their exteriors. Light in peanut butter flavor, I find them extremely hard to resist – especially as they sit on the counter to cool. I pretty much just pour myself a big glass of cold milk and let myself enjoy.
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Apple Peanut Butter Cookies
Ingredients
- 1 c. creamy peanut butter
- 1 c. unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 c. sugar
- 1 c. packed brown sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 3 c. all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. kosher salt
- ½ c. peeled and grated apple I use the large holes on a box grater, and then lightly chop any long strands of apple with a knife – I like to use Haralson or Granny Smith
- ½ c. peeled and diced 1/4″ size apple – I like to use Haralson or Granny Smith
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375° F.
- In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl 2 to 3 times. Add peanut butter and incorporate. Beat in eggs and vanilla.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Add dry ingredients to the peanut butter mixture and mix until fully incorporated. Fold in the grated and diced apple.
- Drop about 2 tablespoons of dough onto baking sheet, about 2” apart. I like to use a medium scoop (mine is 1-5/8" in diameter), loaded just a bit generously. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.
Notes
Nutrition Information:
This apple recipe is part of a collaborative apple recipe project with other food bloggers on social media. By searching the hashtag #aisforalltheapples on Instagram, you’ll find over 80 apple recipes!
Here are a few more apple recipes you might like:
- Grandma Barb’s Apple Bread
- Apple Bundt with Brown-Butter Vanilla Bean Glaze
- Cinnamon Streusel Apple French Toast Cups
- Cinnamon Swirl Apple Coffee Cake from A Kitchen Addiction
- Goat Cheese, Apple, Honey, and Rosemary Thins from Reluctant Entertainer
- Caramel Apple Pie Toffee Bars from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
This post was originally published September 2012 and has been a popular reader favorite. Photographs and some of the text were updated October 2017.
