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Apple Butter Snickerdoodles are an easy snickerdoodle recipe made with apple butter and warm cinnamon. These snickerdoodles soft and chewy and are the perfect fall cookie recipe.
Apple Butter Snickerdoodles
Are you guys apple butter lovers? Apple butter wasn’t ever really on my radar until a few years ago. Since I’m not a huge plain applesauce fan (I like it mix into ice cream or desserts but not plain) I’d never thought to try apple butter.
In case you’re wondering, apple butter is made by cooking apples and apple cider longer than you would for applesauce. Since it cooks so long, the sugar in the apples caramelizes which turns the butter a deep brown. The extra amount of sugar also makes the apple butter have a longer shelf-life than applesauce. Basically, it’s more like apple preserves than applesauce. Where you might eat applesauce with a spoon, apple butter is something you’d spread on toast.
The smell of apple butter right out of the jar is amazing so my favorite way to use is to bake with it.#ofcourse
I first used Apple Butter when I made pie bars and then I made some peanut butter energy bites with apple butter as the sweetener. THEN I made these Apple Butter Snickerdoodles!
Apple Butter Snickerdoodles are another perfect fall cookie recipe; they’re soft and chewy with lots of apple and cinnamon flavor.
Apple Butter Uses in Baking
Apple butter works like applesauce in that you can substitute it for oil and butter, if you want. It gives recipes a super rich depth of flavor, and pretty much smells like fall in a bottle, which is why it’s perfect for snickerdoodles.
After all, snickerdoodles are the quintessential fall and winter cookie, are they not? (You’ve already shown me you love my pumpkin spice snickerdoodles, so this is a natural progression.) With the rich butter flavor and the warm cinnamon, they’re perfect for this time of year. And they marry so well with apple butter!
Where do you buy apple butter?
If you’re looking for this delicious spread, you can find it at most grocery stores. It will either be with the jams and jellies and peanut butter or near the applesauce. Occasionally it ends up in the baking aisle but most often I find it in the jelly section.
You can also make your own apple butter easily!
What makes a snickerdoodle a snickerdoodle?
I know that plain old snickerdoodles are what you normally see, but making new flavors is so much fun. In fact, I have several different recipes on this blog and each one is delicious.
A snickerdoodle is a snickerdoodle not just because it’s rolled in cinnamon sugar, but because it also has cream of tartar in the dough. That gives the cookies a bit of tang and makes them telltale snickerdoodles.
How to make Apple Butter Snickerdoodles
- Whisk flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Mix in eggs, vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and apple butter.
- Beat just until mixed. Add in flour mixture and mix until just blended together. Chill your dough at least 4 hours.
- This dough MUST be cold before baking. Because of all the butter and apple butter, the cookies will spread quite a bit if you skip the chilling!
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat baking mat.
- Place 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar in a small bowl.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough (mine were done using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop) and roll them in the cinnamon sugar.
- Place on your cookie sheet. I recommend only scooping 2 cookie sheets at a time, then re-chill the dough for while those two trays bake.
- Bake cookies for 11-12 minutes for slightly underdone, 13-14 minutes for fully done. I like my cookies half raw, but if you don’t, cook them for the full 13-14 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheets.
Tips for Cookie Success
- The dough MUST be chilled. With the butter and the apple butter, if you bake a warm dough you’re going to get flat cookies. If you like flat cookies, go for it. But if you want a puffy cookie, please follow the chilling instructions.
- The apple butter is more of an underlying flavor – when you take a bite you’re hit with the warm cinnamon and then the slight apple flavor totally hits you.
- These cookies would be perfect with a glass of hot apple cider, or a caramel latte.
- My favorite brand of apple butter is Mussleman’s because it has more flavor than generic.
If you love snickerdoodles, try my other favorite recipes:
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Apple Butter Snickerdoodles
Ingredients
- 3 cups (372g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cream of tartar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter softened
- 1 ¼ cups (250g) granulated sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
- ½ cup Apple Butter
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
For the topping:
- ⅓ cup (67g) granualted sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
Instructions
- Whisk flour, baking powder, cream of tartar and salt in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- Cream butter and 1 1/4 cups sugar in a mixer until fluffy. Mix in eggs, vanilla, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, and apple butter.
- Beat just until mixed. Add in flour mixture and mix until just blended together. Chill your dough at least 4 hours.
- This dough MUST be cold before baking. Because of all the butter and apple butter, the cookies will spread quite a bit if you skip the chilling!
- Preheat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment or a silpat baking mat.
- Place 1 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/3 cup sugar in a small bowl.
- Scoop balls of cookie dough (mine were done using a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop) and roll them in the cinnamon sugar.
- Place on your cookie sheet. I recommend only scooping 2 cookie sheets at a time, then re-chill the dough for while those two trays bake.
- Bake cookies for 11-12 minutes for slightly underdone, 13-14 minutes for fully done. I like my cookies half raw, but if you don’t, cook them for the full 13-14 minutes. Cool slightly before removing from cookie sheets.
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Last Updated on September 10, 2021
Applesolutely doodlicious!!! I made apple butter for the 1st time and needed a recipe to use some of it in. Came across this AWESOME recipe and gave it a try. The 1st batch out of the oven lasted less then 15 mins between 3 of us.
I was leary on making them because of the 4 hour chill time but decided to try them with less chill time. I chilled dough for a hour, prepared cookies on the parchment lined cookie sheet & popped them in the freezer for 10 minutes. Baked for 13 minutes and they were perfect!
Simply delicious! Light and very tasty. It’s a keeper.
Thank you!
Do you really mean to use baking powder and cream of tarter? Or should I use 2tsp of baking soda??
Thank you
I was wondering the same but followed the ingredients exactly and the cookies were delicious and perfect.
Thanks for some great recipes, been trying to find apple butter recipes and I’m still trying to find peach and strawberry jam that doesn’t use pectin.
Thanks for sharing! Do they keep long?
Love this concept! Never thought about upgrading what is already a great cookie! Anyway to use my home made apple butter, I’m game!!!
Easy to make, family loves!
I mean… what’s not to love? Snickerdoodles, apple butter!
This looks so good! I love to get apple butter but then can’t decide how to use it all up. What a great way!
Why would it say 1.5 hours total if the dough needs to chill at least 4 hours????Â
This completely throws off the timing and now I have to come up with something else…. please correct so others do not fall for it…
Absolutely wonderful cookies! I followed the directions exactly and they turned out perfectly! Thank you for the recipe!
In step 6, you should say to mix the sugar and cinnamon together, not just to place them in a bowl. Of course, most people will understand, but there are a few who won’t.
Looks like the total time was updated to include chill time, but I’m still a little perplexed by the times listed. How can bake time be 10 min when the recipe clearly indicates 11-14 minutes. Plus the 11-14 minutes is per batch and I doubt many can bake 28 cookies at a size of 2 tblsp each in a single batch.
Hi Dorothy (my name is Dorothee and I live in Germany),
when I found your recipe a few weeks ago I bake it very often. THANK YOU VERY MUCH for sharing this recipe. I used my home made Apple Butter since we had an abundance of apples this year. All my neighbors are waiting for a new batch. In Germany most people have no idea what snickerdoodles are and they even don’t know what they miss!!!
Now I hope my English isn’t too bad and I also hope for new recipes from your kitchen.
Greetings from far away and HAPPY NEW YEAR, Dorothee
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