I’ve had some free time to get baking in the kitchen lately and one of the ingredients I love working with is apples, with JAZZ™ apples being one of our favourite varieties. Apples are great as a healthy snack (even the three year old loves them!) and just so versatile when it comes to cooking or baking. You can find a way to eat apples any time of day, whether it’s breakfast with a fresh crisp apple, lunch with JAZZ™ Apple Nachos, dinner with Pork and JAZZ™ Apple Casserole, dessert with JAZZ™ Apple Cake or even a drink like JAZZ™ Apple Punch! If those all sound delicious to you, then you should check out the JAZZ™ Apple Recipe Book which contains 10 recipes including my yummy easy to make recipe for JAZZ™ Apple Cinnamon Spice Cookies. It’s totally free to download!
Download Jazz™ Apples Recipe Book here.
JAZZ™ Apples are a fusion of a crisp, tangy Braeburn and the sweet, juicy Royal Gala, giving a unique taste, both crisp and sweet. Beautifully shaped, with an inviting red skin, they naturally complement a wide variety of meals, but I’m especially fond of cooking with them in dessert.
When I was asked to come up with a recipe to feature in the JAZZ™ Apples Recipe Book I was pretty excited. I wanted to use JAZZ™ Apples in something that was simple enough for the whole family to make – I think it’s really great to get the kids involved in cooking, and also something that you don’t need to be a master baker for. I’m a big fan of keeping things simple. I wanted a recipe that could be served as a dessert, but also that could be used as a snack or eaten whilst on the go. The result? Super simple, incredibly tasty and it ticks all the boxes, JAZZ™ Apple Cinnamon Spice Cookies!
What equipment you will need
Weighing scales – to weigh the ingredients.
Stand mixer, hand mixer or good old fashioned bowl and wooden spoon – Having an electric mixer of any kind is not critical for cookie dough. It is folded and lightly mixed rather than beaten at high speed. If you do use an electric mixer, use a paddle rather than a whisk if possible, you want to avoid heating up the ingredients or beating too much air into the mix. This is a very dense dough.
Baking Tray – A flat baking tray is preferred but it can be any size if you’re willing to do these cookies in batches.
It’s a simple recipe with simple requirements, so every family should be able to join in without needing any particular equipment.
JAZZ™ Apple Cinnamon Spice Cookies Recipe
Ingredients (makes 18-24 cookies)
- 200g plain flour
- 100g light brown sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- 110g butter
- 1 ½ (approx 130g*) chooped JAZZ™ apples
- 1 medium egg
- 1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon salt
*JAZZ™ Apples are fairly uniform in size and shape, but if you’d like an exact measurement (I know how frustrating a recipe can be that doesn’t have it) I’d recommend around 130g of chopped JAZZ™ apple but the exact weight isn’t critical.
Method
- Preheat fan assisted oven to 190C.
- Beat together the sugar, egg and butter (softened at room temperature) then stir in the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt until well mixed into dough. I used my VonHaus Mixer but this is a really easy recipe to mix by hand. You don’t want to overbeat it or fluff it like cakes as it’s a soft, chewy dense cookie, so mixing evenly and folding gets the job done. A bowl and wooden spoon will be just fine for mixing, which is great to get the kids involved.
- Core the JAZZ™ apples, chop into small chunks and then stir evenly into the dough mix. You don’t need to peel the apples before using them, the skin softens in the cookie and adds a bit of delicious texture, as well as being full of nutrients.
- Chill the cookie dough for 30 minutes.
- Grease or line your baking tray and use your hands, a spoon or a medium ice cream scoop to uniformly place the dough. Remember if you use your hands you’re warming up the dough again so don’t work it much! Don’t pat or spread the cookie dough out, you can pile it up in a little tower and it will naturally spread when baked.
- Bake in the oven for 8-10 minutes, remove and allow to cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes or if serving fresh and hot with ice cream, transfer straight from the oven into a bowl and top with your favourite flavour!
Well that was nice and easy wasn’t it? With a 15-20 minute prep time (plus 30 minutes chill) and just an 8-10 minute cooking time it’s easy to whip up a batch of these super quick. This dough also freezes really well, so you can make a double or triple batch, roll up the extra dough in clingfilm and pop it in the freezer. Let it defrost in the fridge for a few hours and you can whip up fresh cookies any time without the prep work.
Do I really need to chill the dough?
Chilling cookie dough for 30 minutes can make a significant difference. 30 minutes of chill will have your cookies look smaller and fatter and also means they’ll brown less. Chilling will increase the flavour, so you’ll get more of that sweet apple and the contrasting cinnamon and nutmeg spice.
That being said, if you’re in a rush, you can skip the 30 minutes of chill time for a larger, slightly crunchier and more mellow cookie. It’s still absolutely delicious, but to get the most out of this recipe I recommend popping the dough in the fridge in clingfilm or an airtight container for 30 minutes.
Serving Suggestion – Ice cream!
If you want to serve this as a proper dessert, fresh cookies from the oven pair amazingly with ice cream. Drop a dollop of ice cream on top or on the side whilst piping hot. If not straight out of the oven, no worries, you can heat up the cookies for just 30 seconds in the microwave. Of course they also make for a snack suitable for any time of day (okay, perhaps not just before bed) and are ideal for packing for car journeys and giving plenty of energy.
I hope that you’re looking forward to some JAZZ™ Apple Cinnamon Spice cookies and this recipe was easy for you to follow, let me know if you have any feedback on this recipe in the comments, or any other suggestions for using JAZZ™ apples for baking.
For more ideas, don’t forget to get your free recipe ebook here, I plan on making JAZZ™ Apple Cake next!
This collaboration was in partnership with JAZZ™ apples, who asked me to come up with my personal recipe for inclusion in their book.
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