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These Caramel Apple Cookie Cups are like mini homemade apple pies in cookie form! Chewy cinnamon brown sugar cookies are baked in a cup shape and filled with homemade caramel sauce and soft cinnamon apples! The perfect fall dessert!
Cookie cups are such a great treat. They’re a fun spin on classic cookies that allow you to add more textures, layers and flavors to cookies with ease. All you have to do is spoon your favorite fillings into a deliciously chewy vessel that was just as easy to make as a basic cookie.
And these particular cookie cups are perfect as we move into fall. The cookies themselves are moist and tender, the apples are soft and tender, and the salted caramel sauce is always a hit. The whole thing is spiced with some cinnamon and nutmeg and the final cookie is heavenly. The prefect cross between cookie and pie!
These cookies are great served warm or at room temperature. The caramel will be more melty the warmer they are, which can get messy but is also delicious. Having them closer to room temperature gives a gooey texture without them being too melty.
What You’ll Need
Without further ado, let’s get into the ingredients you’ll need to make these festive fall cookies happen.
For the Cookie Cups
- All-Purpose Flour: Be sure to measure accurately so that you don’t end up with a dry cookie. I personally use a food scale, but if you don’t have one, you can use the scoop and level method.
- Baking Soda: For the ultimate chewy cookie.
- Cinnamon: For extra spice and fall flavor.
- Cornstarch: This helps create a tender texture.
- Salt: For flavor.
- Unsalted Butter: You’ll want this to be at room temperature so that it will cream properly with the sugars.
- Brown & White Sugars: The combination gives the best of both moisture and flavor.
- Egg: Make sure it’s large in size. Eggs help bind everything together.
- Vanilla Extract: For flavor.
For the Caramel Apple Topping
- Caramel Sauce: You can make this while the cookies bake and cool, or you could even make it ahead. It stores well in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.
- Diced Apples: I recommend Granny Smith apples. The tart flavor compliments the sweetness of the cookie and they stay a little more crunchy when cooked.
- Cinnamon & Nutmeg: The perfect spices for apples!
- Brown Sugar: To coat the apples a bit and add a touch of sweetness.
- Butter: Adds moisture to the pan and adds flavor.
Each component of these lovely apple cookies is super easy to pull off. And putting everything together is so satisfying!
Make the Cookies
- Prep for Baking: Coat a cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray and preheat the oven to 350°F.
- Cream Butter & Sugars: Cream the butter and sugars together for 2-3 minutes, until the mixture is light and fluffy.
- Add Egg & Vanilla: Add the egg and vanilla extract and beat until well combined.
- Add Dry Ingredients: Add all of the the dry ingredients mixture and mix until well combined. The dough will be thick.
- Form Cookie Cups: Make balls of about 2 tablespoons of dough. Press the dough into the bottom and about halfway up the sides of each cupcake divot, forming a cup shape.
- Bake: Bake the cookie cups for 10-12 minutes.
- Let Cool: Remove your cookies from the oven and allow them to cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then transfer them to a cooling rack to finish cooling. If the centers aren’t cupped enough to add the fillings, use the end of a wooden spoon or the bottom of a tablespoon to press the centers down a bit.
Make the Caramel Sauce and Apples
- Prepare Caramel: Make the caramel sauce according to the instructions in the recipe linked in the ingredients section. Allow the caramel to cool to about room temperature or a bit warmer. If you’ve made it in advance, remove it from the fridge and let it come to room temperature while the cookies are cooling.
- Cook Apples: Combine apple ingredients in a pan over the stove and cook until fork tender, then let cool for 5-10 minutes.
Assemble
- Add Caramel to Cookies: Add about half a tablespoon of caramel sauce to each cookie cup.
- Add Cooked Apples: Divide the apples between the cookie cups, about a large tablespoon of apples per cookie. Drizzle additional caramel sauce on top, if desired.
- Serve: I recommend serving these a little warm. The gooey caramel and warm apples are delicious!
Tips for Success
These simple suggestions will help guide you through the process of making these cookies. Don’t forget to give them a read!
- Use Tart, Firm Apples: Any time you’re cooking apples with cinnamon and sugar, it’s a good idea to pick an apple variety on the tarter and firmer side. Tart apples won’t get overly sweet amid the sugar and caramel, and firm apples will not become soggy when cooked. Granny Smith, Gala and Pink Lady are all great options.
- Don’t Skimp on the Creaming Time: A well-creamed butter and sugar mixture acts as the base for your cookie dough, so you definitely don’t want to skimp on the creaming time. Keep on beating until the mixture lightens in color and texture.
- Cook the Apples to Your Preferred Softness: The longer you cook the apples, the softer they’ll become. You can always spoon out an apple chunk, let it cool and test it to know whether or not they’re ready.
- Add the Apples to Individual Servings: Rather than adding your apple topping to all of the cookies at once, you can spoon it on as you serve them. If you end up having extras, it’s better to store the apples separately and warm them up as you serve them.
Serving Suggestions
Want to add even more yumminess to your caramel apple cookies? Try one of these simple serving ideas.
- Top with Whipped Cream: My easy Homemade Whipped Cream is the ultimate topper for any treat, including these apple pie cookie cups. You only need 3 ingredients to make it!
- Serve with Ice Cream: Enjoying these cookies warm with some creamy vanilla ice cream on the side is always a great idea. This is definitely my preferred serving method for a holiday – it takes it up a notch!
- Add Chopped Nuts: Topping your cookies with chopped pecans or walnuts is a wonderful way to add crunch and flavor. You can toast the nuts first if you’d like.
These cookies should be stored in an airtight container. You can either keep them at room temperature for up to 24 hours, or in the fridge for 3-4 days. The apples can be refrigerated separately for easy reheating, if you like. You can warm up each cookie in the microwave for 5-10 seconds, then warm up the apples and top the cookies. Alternatively, if they are fully assembled, you can heat them up for 5-10 seconds.
Can I Freeze These?
While these cookies are freezer-friendly with the caramel on top, I don’t recommend freezing your cooked apple slices. Their texture won’t be the same after they thaw, so I suggest whipping them up just before serving.
To freeze the cookies, place them into a freezer-safe container with a sheet of parchment or wax paper in between each layer to avoid sticking. Thaw them out in the fridge and serve. Freeze for up to one month.
- Chewy Snickerdoodle Cookies
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- Southern Pralines Pecans
- Easy Brown Sugar Cookies
- Prep Time: 1 hour
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 18-20
- Category: Dessert
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: American
Description
These Caramel Apple Cookie Cups are like mini homemade apple pies in cookie form! Chewy cinnamon brown sugar cookies are baked in a cup shape and filled with homemade caramel sauce and soft cinnamon apples! The perfect fall dessert!
Ingredients
For the Cookie Cups
- 2 cups (260g) all-purpose flour (measured accurately)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp cornstarch
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 3/4 cups (168g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup (112g) packed light brown sugar
- 1/2 cup (104g) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
For the Caramel Apple Topping
- 1 recipe caramel sauce
- 3 cups (320g) diced apples (2–3 Granny Smith apples)
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
- 2 tbsp (28g) light brown sugar
- 2 tbsp (28g) unsalted butter
Instructions
- Spray a cupcake pan with non-stick cooking spray. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, cornstarch and salt. Set aside.
- Add the butter and sugars to a large mixer bowl and beat for 2-3 minutes, until light in color and fluffy in texture.
- Add the egg and vanilla and beat until well combined.
- Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until well combined, but don’t over mix. The cookie dough will be thick.
- Makes balls of about 2 tablespoons of dough. Press cookie dough in bottom and about 1/2 way up the sides of each cupcake cup, forming a cup shape.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until cookie cups are lightly golden around the edges.
- Remove from oven and allow to cool for about 5 minutes, then remove to a cooling rack to finish cooling. If the centers aren’t cupped enough to add filling, use the end of a wooden spoon or the bottom of a tablespoon to press the center down a bit while they are still warm and fresh out of the oven.
- While the cookies bake and cool, make the caramel sauce according to the instructions. Allow to cool to about room temperature.
- When the cookies and caramel sauce have cooled, make the apples. Add the apples, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar and butter to a pan and cook for about 10 minutes, or until just fork tender. Remove from heat to cool for about 5-10 minutes.
- To assemble the cookie cups, add about half a tablespoon of caramel sauce to each cookie cup.
- Divide the apples between the cookie cups, about a large tablespoon of apples per cookie. Drizzle additional caramel sauce on top, if desired. Serve.
- I recommend serving the cookies slightly warm. You can also refrigerate them and then bring them back to room temperature to serve, or heat them up for 5-10 seconds. You don’t need to heat them too much – the caramel sauce melts quickly. You can also store the cookies with the caramel in them in the fridge and the apples separately and then reheat individually before serving. Cookie cups should be stored in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 24 hours or in the fridge for 4-5 days.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 Cookie Cup
- Calories: 283
- Sugar: 21.5 g
- Sodium: 81.6 mg
- Fat: 16.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.7 g
- Protein: 2.2 g
- Cholesterol: 52.6 mg
Categories
More Festive Apple Dessert Ideas
Apple desserts are obligatory for fall, and the following recipes are the best of the best! You have to try them out next.
Hi, do you think this would work using the mini muffin pan? Thanks!
Yes, it should work.
I’ve made this twice this week! Absolutely a huge hit amongst coworkers and friends!
Awesome! So glad to hear that!
My boyfriend and I baked these tonight and they were stunning, so good !!
I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
can this be made gluten free?
I would imagine they could be. You should be able to use an all purpose gluten-free flour. I’m not super familiar with baking gluten-free so I’m not sure what else needs to be changed. But I imagine those substitutions would be available.
Could I use a mini muffin pan or do I have to use a regular muffin pan
The mini muffin pan will just be pretty small and you won’t be able to fit very many apples in each cookie cup.
I have a question, is a cupcake pan the same size as a regular muffin pan? I’m thinking about making these for our Canadian Thanksgiving! They look delicious!
Yes, the same. Enjoy them!
These made me popular. I’ve been baking like crazy being off work and I think this is my favorite so far. I’m so glad I stumbled upon this recipe! Thank you so much!
THESE ARE AWESOME!!!! Made them this weekend and everyone RAVED about them! I actually made them with King Arthur’s measure for measure gluten free flour, so I could enjoy them, too! They were so good, only I knew they were GF! Thanks for sharing this and all your other amazing recipes. I can’t wait to work through them over the next 3 months!!!
I’m so glad to hear you enjoyed them.
SO. GOOD. I made these last night (and may have just secretly had one for breakfast) and they are AMAZING. The cookie cup has an amazing texture and everything inside pairs so well with it. My cookies puffed up a lot while baking so there was so well in the center. I pushed the bottom of a shot glass into the cookies while still in the cupcake pan and it worked really well!
Thank you for sharing such an awesome recipe.
Awesome! I’m so glad you enjoyed them!
Hi Lindsay, I am new to your site, but so far everything I’ve seen I want to try :). I do have a question though. On the Apple Recipes, What kind of Apples do you use or suggest? Thanks for any help you can give me. I got a new daughter-in-law so her and I are going to try a lot of these recipes (ALL) lol.
Have a wonderful week.
It honestly depends on the recipe. For this one I believe I used Red Delicious. I have used Fuji, Gala, and Honeycrisp apples in other recipes. I hope that is helpful!
Hey there lindsay!
Im not a huge fan of cinnamon and apples what filling would you recommend for these ccookie cups rather than ccinnamon apple ffilling ,?
thankyou!
I have several different cookie cups on the blog with similar base cookies. Feel free to check them out for some other filling ideas. 🙂
I’ve made these twice in the last week (using a different caramel recipe simply because I already had it on hand) and oh my gosh. These are amazing. I bake A LOT and several members of my family have said these are the best thing I’ve EVER made. Thanks for the awesome recipe!!! Next time I’m going to top them with fresh whipped cream and an extra caramel drizzle.
I’m so glad you’ve enjoyed them!
My darling tells me this is the best caramel apple cookie cups he ‘s ever eaten.
hi this was so amazing. .super tasty .kids loved it .tks a lot ..where do u get this cute cake stand n dish ..
MMMmmm, Caramel Apple Cookie Cups looks so good. It will be something I will try.
It looks so yummy.
I will make it for my birthday son.
I hope he like it.
now i have a new recipe.
Oh these look like one of those meals I wouldn’t want to stop eating!!!
I like cookie recipes. So this post is great for me.
I will try to make this recipe next day.
Thank so much !
They look so sweet. My darling tells me this is the best caramel apple cookie cups he ‘s ever eaten. He luvs this cookie very muchhh!!!
Mouth watering!!!
I made these tonight for my husbands birthday (per his request from looking at the website). They turned out amazing. I loved them, he loved them and my picky kids loved them. No leftovers!!!
I’m so glad they were a hit! 🙂
DO NOT TRY THIS RECIPE!! it came out horrible!! the dough for the cups has way too much butter. it’s an impossible pain to get it formed in the pan without having to constantly put it back in the fridge and chill it, and then because there is so much butter in it, it didn’t stay in cup shape when it baked. it melted into nothingness. this recipe sucks.
I’m not sure where the error was, but it sounds like too much butter was added. I promise you the amount listed is correct and should actually yield a pretty thick cookie dough. I’ve made them several times and have not had that problem.
What exactly do you mean by “cream butter and sugars together …”
Creaming the butter and sugars means beating them with a mixer for about 3 minutes. You’ll actually notice a change in the texture and color of the mixture. It’ll go from a little smoother to quite fluffy and get lighter in color. This adds air to the mixture and makes a nice cookie dough.
I’ve made these twice in the last week!! These are now my favourite cookies of all time. Thanks for sharing!!
That’s awesome! Thanks Danielle!
My first thought was that these were made in mini muffin pans, but I believe I was wrong! Have you tried that or is there just too much going into the cookie to make that work?
Mini ones would probably be fine, you just wouldn’t use as much caramel and apples per cookie
Those caramel apple cookie cups look and sound amazingly delicious! Will definitely give them a try. Just shared the recipe on our Let’s Do Cake! facebook page!
Thank you.
Donna
Thanks for the share Donna!
Looks yummy… Have one question. Can I use cornflour instead of cornstarch? Are they same? Because I have never seen cornstarch is available here. Is there any alternative or else can I ignore adding cornstarch? Please advice.
Thanks.
I’m not sure where you live? I googled and it looks like cornstarch is called cornflour in some parts of the world, but here in the U.S. they are two different things.
[…] took to Pinterest to see if I had any delicious recipes I had been sitting on and came across these caramel apple cookie cups that I had been dying to make. They seemed perfect – easy to make, fall-themed, and I still […]
Hello I’m going to make these tomorrow but luv wanted to check the oven temp. It says 350degrees, is that F or C?
Thank you
It’s Fahrenheit.
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Aren’t these just the cutest little apple cups ever! I love the idea and have never made a treat like this before, thanks for the idea.. it’s one that I have to make. Pinned!
Thanks Thalia! Cookie cups are a lot of fun!
These look delicious! Did you use full sized or mini cupcake pans?
Thanks Pam! I used full sized cupcake pans.
I am totally obsessed with cookie cups lately too. And how cute are these?? Perfect for the upcoming fall weather. And who doesn’t love the caramel + apple combo? Genius!
Thanks Erin!
These look AMAZING!! Totally drooling right now! Thanks for sharing some link love too. 🙂
Of course! Thanks Liz! 🙂
These look delicious – can’t wait to try! Do you use mini or full size cupcake pans?
Thanks Chris! I used full size cupcake pans.
These are SO pretty Lindsay! All that drippy caramel – yum! And what a fun recipe. I love cookie cups and this is such a unique and fun way to fill them up! Pinned 🙂
Thanks Chelsea! 🙂
These look a-ma-zing! Do you know if they will freeze well?
I’m not sure how they’d freeze when all put together. The cookies should freeze fine, I’m just not sure how it’d be with the caramel and apples all together.
I’ll make them soon and freeze some and I’ll let you know 😉
What an awesome Autumn recipe, Lindsay! I love cookie cups, they are just perfect for holding delicious fillings like this caramel apple one! 😀 Double thumbs up on this one!
Thanks Jess!
Those look absolutely amazing Lindsay! I would say Wow over and over as well. 🙂
Thank you Lisa!
I’m so in love I can’t see straight!!!!! YES YES YES!!!
Thanks girl!
I love the idea of the cookie cups. Very innovative. Would be amazing with a whole host of other fruit. Hmm 🙂
Thanks Luca! You could definitely try other fruits!
These are adorable and look so yummy. I can imagine how amazing they taste right when you spoon on that filling while the cookies are at its crispiest. Pinned too!
Thanks Kim! Yes, when fresh they are the best! Thanks for the pin!
Holy moly. I want one of these right now!!! The cookie, the dripping caramel, the spiced apples! It’s all too much to take! Such a great idea! Pinned!
Thanks for the pin Lindsey! 🙂
I think these adorable little cookie cups will be the first thing I bake this fall – they look phenomenal!!
Thanks Angelyn!
Wow, these are seriously beautiful! I can’t wait to start baking with apples!
I can see my husband being impressed with these too! I don’t like apple pie very much because of the crust, but these cookie cups with brown sugar and cinnamon are definitely something I’d eat with reckless abandon…
Oh yea, if you aren’t into pie crust, the cookie would solve that! 🙂 Thanks Heather!
How adorable are these?! I can’t think of a more perfect way to kickoff fall baking ;). I so wish I could sink my teeth into one of them right about now. Caramel apples are the best, especially on top of cookie cups!! Pinned!
Thanks Kathi! Thanks for the pin!
I can’t see why he called them the best thing that you have made! These cookie cups look incredible!
Thanks Jessica!
These cookie cups are so cute! I love the idea of apple pie in these cups instead of pie crust. Such a fun twist on apple pie! 🙂
Thanks Beth!
Yes! Cookie cups are the best! I love love love apple pie filling. I went through a Costco sized bag of apples this past weekend!
Omg, the apples! So many!
Your husband is understandably wowed by these. Such a creative idea for cookie cups! They’re like little cookie pies full of autumn goodness. Must try!
They look so cute! I think I wouldn’t be able to stop eating them 🙂
Thanks Medeja! 🙂