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.