These crispy apple cookies are easy to make and just 3 ingredients. They don’t need any wheat flour, eggs, butter or oil. The cookies are crispy and lightly sweetened. They are great for breakfast, snack or dessert.
Most cookies that involve apples are soft. I love that these cookies are crispy instead. They are not too sweet and can be customized with different mix-ins too.
Ingredients
- Applesauce
- Oat Flour
- Peanut Butter
You only need three ingredients to make the cookie base. You can enjoy them just as they are but you can also add mix-ins, like fresh apple pieces, to add more flavor to these cookies.
Applesauce: This recipe uses sweetened applesauce. It will also work with unsweetened but your cookies may not taste sweet enough. Applesauce adds sweetness to these cookies and helps the dough turn crispy in the oven. It also adds a little apple flavor to the cookies.
Oat flour: Oat flour is used to firm up these cookies and help them become crispy. When combined with the peanut butter and applesauce, the cookies will bake up with a texture like biscuit cookies.
Peanut butter: These cookies are made with natural peanut butter. This is peanut butter that only has peanuts and salt in the ingredient list. Make sure the peanut butter does not have any added oils because the cookie dough will not firm up if you don’t use natural peanut butter.
How to Make Apple Cookies
The applesauce and peanut butter are first mixed together until uniform. The oat flour is then added in until a thick dough forms. Scoop the dough with a cookie scoop and place onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Press down on each dough until it forms a thick round disk. The thinner you make your cookies, the crispier they will be. The cookies are then ready to be baked.
Cookie Texture and Sweetness
These cookies have a light crispy texture, similar to biscuit cookies, though they are not quite as firm as some biscuit cookies. They are very lightly sweetened.
Optional Mix-Ins
These cookies can be enjoyed just as they are, like in the photo above. They will taste like lightly sweetened biscuit cookies. However, if you prefer more apple flavor, I recommend adding fresh chopped apples or dried apples to the cookie dough. You don’t want to add too many though because the juices from the apples will cause the dough around it to not be as crisp.
You can also add other mix-ins like dried fruit, nuts or chocolate chips.
More Apple Recipes
3 Ingredient Crispy Apple Cookies
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup (64 g) sweetened applesauce
- 1/2 cup (128 g) natural peanut butter
- 1/2 cup + 2 tbsp (64 g) oat flour see note
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F (177°C). Line a large cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- Add applesauce and peanut butter to a large mixing bowl. Stir with a spatula until the ingredients are fully mixed and the mixture is uniform in color. Stir in oat flour until flour is fully incorporated and a thick dough forms. If adding any mix-ins, add them in now.
- Using a 1 tbsp cookie scoop, scoop dough onto a prepared cookie sheet, spacing them 1.5 inches apart. Use the palm of your hand or the back of a spoon to press down on the dough ball until it becomes a round disk between 4/16-5/16 inch thick. The thinner the dough the crispier the cookies will be. Smooth edges as needed. Repeat with the remaining dough.
- Bake cookies for about 15 minutes or until the edges are browned. Let cookies cool completely on cookie sheet before removing.
Notes
- Oat Flour: When measuring out oat flour for this recipe, use the spoon and level method. Use a spoon to scoop the oat flour into the measuring cup and level off with a knife.
- If you don't have oat flour, you can also process rolled oats in a food processor or high powered blender until it becomes the consistency of flour.
- These cookies are lightly sweetened and have a very light apple flavor. The applesauce is used mainly to add sweetness and to help the cookie dough turn crispy. For more apple flavor, you can add chopped fresh or dried apples.
- Adding Fresh Apples (Optional): If you do add chopped fresh apples, make sure not to use too much. I used 1/4 cup of apples chopped into 1/4 inch cubes in the photos in the post that show apples mixed in. Adding too much apple will make the cookie dough soft and prevent it from crisping up. If you are adding apples, you will also need to increase the baking time by 1-3 minutes.
- If you prefer sweeter cookies you can also use other mix-ins like chocolate chips or other dried fruit.
- The cookies have a crispy texture, similar to a biscuit cookie.
- Make sure to use natural peanut butter with no added oil in the ingredient list. The dough will not firm up correctly with peanut butter that contains added oils.
Nutrition
The nutrition information provided are only estimates based on an online nutritional calculator. I am not a certified nutritionist. Please consult a professional nutritionist or doctor for accurate information and any dietary restrictions and concerns you may have.
Hello,
I love your simple recipes!
Do you think that I could use cocoa butter instead of nut butter? Thank you very much!
Sorry, but we’re not sure how it will work in this recipe.
Thank you for the recipes, I am enjoying it
You are welcome!
Where, oh where can I find peanut buttter – or any nut butter WITHOUT oil? I have literally looked everywhere and all have some type of oils.
Hi, I’m not sure where you are located but it is very common here. All major grocery stores carry natural peanut butter along with regular peanut butter.