It’s Fall, ya’ll! That means it’s pumpkin and apple season! Since we just tackled the Crumbl Pumpkin Cake Cookies, we thought it would be festive to move on to the Crumbl Caramel Apple cookies in mini version! This deliciously soft, apple spice cookie is topped with a creamy, caramel frosting and an apple-flavored streusel. It’s everything good about apple season in cookie form!
If you’d like to try one of our other Crumbl cookie copycat recipes, may we suggest: Peanut Butter and Jelly Cookies, Cookie Dough Cookies, Blue Monster Cookies, Dark Dream Cookies, Sea Salt Toffee Cookies, Carrot Cake Cookies, Rocky Road Cookies, Peanut Butter Oreo Cookies, Cornbread Cookies, Lemon Glaze Cookies, Funfetti Milkshake Cookies, Crumbl Turtle Cookies, Chocolate Ft. York Cookies, Crumbl Dirt Cake Cookies, Muddy Buddies, Mini Twix, or the Churro Cookies.
HOW TO GET THE APPLE FLAVOR
We are using two ingredients that will give these cookies the apple spice flavor that they need. The first ingredient is freeze dried cinnamon apples. You can find these pouches of freeze dried fruit in your local grocery. I recommend chopping the dried apple in to very small pieces. Since I didn’t want to turn the apples into powder, I opted NOT to use a food processor or blender. They just need some chopping.
The second ingredient is how we get the apple spice all in sweet little packets. Yep, grab those Apple Cider Drink Mix pouches at the store and you’ll just need two.
MINI COOKIES ARE BEST IN OUR OPINION
GIANT cookies are great for special occasions but we prefer to make mini cookies at home.
Yes, it’s so that we can have 3 cookies instead and never have to share a cookie but that is neither here nor there.
Crumbl is known for their GIANT cookies. They are so big, in fact, they list each cookie as 3-4 servings in their stores. I don’t know about you, but we don’t share our cookies well.
This Caramel Apple recipe makes 36 cookies because I recommend making them MUCH smaller than Crumbl would. Instead of a “shareable cookie”, this is a bite-sized cookie that you won’t feel so guilty eating. Three bites and it’s gone. I would assume Crumbl uses at least 1/4-1/3 of a cup of cookie dough for each cookie and I suggest about 1 tablespoons of dough in order to make these a more manageable (and adorable!) size.
CARAMEL APPLE COOKIE INGREDIENTS
For full information on ingredients and quantities, please see the recipe card below.
CARAMEL FROSTING INGREDIENTS
For full information on ingredients and quantities, please see the recipe card below.
HOW TO MAKE CRUMBL CARAMEL APPLE COOKIES
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use parchment paper or a silpat mat to line a baking sheet.
2. Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are blended.
3. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
4. Add in flour, baking soda, and apple cider mix packets. Stir until all combined. Add flour and 1/2 cup freeze dried apples and mix on low until completely combined.
5. Scoop out dough and roll into balls. Scoop out about 1 TBSPs of dough for smaller cookies (or 1/4 cup dough for BIG cookies). Place dough balls on prepared pan (12 cookies to a pan if smaller cookies) and slightly flatten with your hand to about 3/4 inch thick.
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6. Bake for about 11-12 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing to cooling rack. NOTE: If you decide to make the bigger cookies, you’ll need to bake them for 13-15 minutes.
7. While cookies are cooling, make the caramel frosting.
CARAMEL FROSTING DIRECTIONS
1. In stand mixer, cream butter and cream cheese for about 2-3 minutes until smooth.
2. Add in the vanilla, caramel sauce and powdered sugar and mix on high for about 3 minutes until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time to get the consistency you are looking for. If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
3. Put the frosting in a piping bag with a round tip OR you can put the frosting in a gallon size Ziploc bag and cut off one corner of the bag. Use the frosting bag to pipe frosting in a spiral on top of the cooled cookies.
STREUSEL DIRECTIONS
1. Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, 1 TBSP apple cider mix and 1/4 cup chopped dried freeze apples. Mix well. Sprinkle streusel on top of each frosted cookie.
Mini Crumbl Caramel Apple Cookies
Ingredients
Cookie Ingredients
- 1 cup butter softened
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 cups flour
- 2 packets Apple Cider Drink Mix
- 1/2 cup Freeze Dried Cinnamon Apples chopped
Caramel Frosting
- 4 oz cream cheese
- 4 oz butter
- 3 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 3 TBSP caramel sauce
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Streusel
- 1 cup graham crackers
- 2 TBSP butter melted
- 1/4 cup freeze dried cinnamon apples chopped
- 1 TBSP Apple Cider Drink Mix
Instructions
COOKIE INSTRUCTIONS
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use parchment paper or a silpat mat to line a baking sheet.
- Cream the butter, sugar and brown sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes). Scrape the sides of the bowl to make sure all ingredients are blended.
- Add in the egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
- Add in flour, baking soda, and apple cider mix packets. Stir until all combined. Add flour and 1/2 cup freeze dried apples and mix on low until completely combined.
- Scoop out dough and roll into balls. Scoop out about 1 TBSPs of dough for smaller cookies (or 1/4 cup dough for BIG cookies). Place dough balls on prepared pan (12 cookies to a pan if smaller cookies) and slightly flatten with your hand to about 3/4 inch thick.
- Bake for about 11-12 minutes. Remove from oven. Cool cookies on cookie sheet for 10 minutes before removing to cooling rack. NOTE: If you decide to make the bigger cookies, you’ll need to bake them for 13-15 minutes.
- While cookies are cooling, make the caramel frosting.
CARAMEL FROSTING DIRECTIONS
- In stand mixer, cream butter and cream cheese for about 2-3 minutes until smooth.
- Add in the vanilla, caramel sauce and powdered sugar and mix on high for about 3 minutes until smooth. If the frosting is too thick, add milk a teaspoon at a time to get the consistency you are looking for. If frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar.
- Put the frosting in a piping bag with a round tip OR you can put the frosting in a gallon size Ziploc bag and cut off one corner of the bag. Use the frosting bag to pipe frosting in a spiral on top of the cooled cookies.
STREUSEL DIRECTIONS
- Combine graham cracker crumbs, melted butter, 1 TBSP apple cider mix and 1/4 cup chopped dried freeze apples. Mix well. Sprinkle streusel on top of each frosted cookie.