Apple Crumble Cookies

Soft cookie meets apple crumble. These Apple Pie Cookies are loaded with brown butter, spiced apple filling, white chocolate chips and a crunchy crumble topping. They were made as an experiment after cooking the Apple Crumble Cake (which was so good). The team devoured that cake so we wanted to see if we could get a similar flavour and texture in a cookie. These a a little simplier than the cake but still have some key steps you'll need to follow.

Brown butter is the foundation of these cookies. When you melt unsalted butter and continue cooking it past the point where the water evaporates, the milk solids caramelise through the Maillard reaction, turning golden and developing a deep, nutty flavour that plain melted butter doesn’t have. The browned butter is cooled over iced water and then whipped until it turns light and pale again. That whipping step reintroduces air into the fat and gives it the texture of softened butter, which is what you need for creaming with sugar.

Ingredient Notes

Brown butter: Brown butter is made by cooking unsalted butter until the water cooks off and the milk solids caramelise to a golden-brown colour. You’ll know it’s ready when the foam subsides, brown flecks appear at the bottom of the pan, and the kitchen smells nutty and slightly toasty. Use a light-coloured saucepan so you can see the colour change clearly. After browning, the butter must be chilled until firm before being whipped over ice: this is what converts it back to a creaming consistency. If it goes into the dough liquid or even just soft, the dough will be greasy and the cookies will spread too thin.

Green apples: Granny Smith is the right apple for this. Green apples have firmer flesh and higher pectin content than most red varieties, which means they hold their structure through the stovetop cook and then the oven without breaking down. Red apples like Fuji or Pink Lady have more sugar and softer flesh: they turn to mush during cooking and make the filling overly sweet in a cookie that already has a generous amount of sugar in the dough. Peel and dice the apples finely and evenly so they cook at the same rate. The cornflour in the filling thickens the released juice into a light glaze that coats the pieces and keeps the filling contained in the indent.

Cornflour: The 2 teaspoons of cornflour in the apple filling acts as a starch thickener. When the filling reaches temperature on the stove, the cornflour gelatinises and binds the apple juice into a thick, glossy coating rather than a watery runoff. This is what keeps the filling sitting neatly in the cookie indent during baking instead of soaking into the dough or pooling on the tray. To know the cornflour has fully activated, look for the juices to shift from cloudy to glossy and the mixture to thicken noticeably. Cool the filling completely in the fridge before using: a warm filling will soften the cold dough on contact and make it difficult to shape.

Equipment

• Chopping board
• Peeler
• Medium saucepan
• Large mixing bowl
• Hand beaters or stand mixer
• Whisk
• Small food processor
• 3 large baking trays
• Baking paper
• Rounded tablespoon or cookie scoop
• Plastic wrap