These vegan apple pie crumble cookies channel all the goodness of conventional apple crumb pie in an lovely, handheld measurement. They characteristic flaky rounds of vegan pie crust, candy and tender cooked apples, and a buttery streusel topping. The top result’s an individually portioned mini-pie and cookie hybrid that’s good for vacation gatherings, cookie swaps or packing containers, or potlucks.
That is my season of handheld desserts.
It begins with at present’s vegan apple pie crumble cookies.
Think about this: the goodness of vegan apple pie with streusel topping, condensed into an lovely, particular person portion.
Don’t get me improper, I really like a basic vacation pie or galette. Nonetheless, I additionally dwell alone, and I prepare dinner for a two-person household on holidays: simply me and my mother.
A complete pie makes much less sense for me than the cookies that I’m writing about at present. Transportable and neatly portioned previous to baking, they are often simply delivered to my yoga studio, distributed to neighbors, and given to buddies.
They’re additionally simple to freeze, individually or in a bit of batch. If I make them for me and my mother for Thanksgiving, for instance, I’d freeze half of them to be loved on Christmas Eve.
In different phrases, the cookies are uniquely good for sharing, contributing, and giving.
In my thoughts, that makes them an embodiment of the spirit that I attempt to preserve alive on this season of the 12 months.
Let me inform you a bit of extra about how this recipe got here to be.
Pie crust cookies?!
There’s a bakery in NYC known as Janie’s Life-Altering Baked Items.
The founder, Janie Deegan, has an inspiring story. After fighting dependancy and being unsheltered in her twenties, she was capable of finding skilled achievement and a method of giving again in opening a bakery.
Immediately, Janie’s Life-Altering Baked Items is thought for it’s pie crust cookies. They’re simply what they sound like: spherical, hearty cookies that characteristic the identical parts as a slice of pie, beginning with a flaky crust backside.
I first realized of this bakery as a result of I had a good friend who labored there. I beloved the bakery’s social mission, along with the truth that it appeared to present pleasure to so many New Yorkers. I solely wished that it offered vegan cookies.
Since I couldn’t style a vegan pie crust cookie baked by Janie herself, I made a decision to experiment with a recipe of my very own.
I might have chosen many pie flavors, however I went with my favourite kind of pie, which is apple.
Conveniently, the vegan apple pie that I like finest really has a streusel topping, reasonably than a prime layer of crust.
One of these pie will be known as Dutch apple pie or apple crumb pie. And it’s an ideal supply of inspiration for an apple pie crumble cookie.
Crumble cookie parts
Simply as apple crumb pie options three layers, so too do these crumble cookies.
Vegan pie crust
The primary layer is flaky pie crust. I make mine vegan with plant-based butter, and I’ve used the identical components for years now.
You could find a single-layer model of the pie crust alongside my vegan pumpkin pie recipe and a double-layer model as a part of my basic vegan cherry pie.
Cooked apples
One distinguishing issue between this recipe and my apple pie is that I prepare dinner the apples previous to baking them.
There are a couple of causes for this. The primary is that the cookies will bake for a a lot shorter interval of time than pie. Stovetop sautéing is critical to make sure that the apple within the completed cookies is tender and totally cooked.
As well as, one of many joys of conventional apple pie is that the apples get very juicy because the pie bakes. All of that juiciness would make the open-faced cookies into a multitude.
As an alternative, cooked apples are simply moist sufficient to work in a spherical of baking. The apple pie cookies will gesture at juicy, acquainted pie filling, but nonetheless maintain their shapes.
Streusel topping
A pair years in the past, I went by means of a brief, autumnal culinary hyperfixation with vegan streusel. I used to be on a mission to make the perfect streusel I might.
I examined numerous proportions of flour, sugar, and butter—melted and stable—in an effort to get the streusel excellent.
I used to be making an attempt to keep away from streusel that will soften the second it hit a heat oven. Since vegan butter tends to have a decrease melting level than common butter, this was no small feat.
In the long run, I created a 5-minute vegan streusel recipe that I really like. It’s now the one streusel that I exploit; it finds its manner onto my apple pie, after all, but additionally my espresso cake and blueberry crumb muffins.
And it performs a starring function in these apple pie crumble cookies.
The way to make vegan apple pie crumble cookies
A full and trustworthy disclosure: these cookies are a bit of concerned.
In contrast to a batch of oatmeal raisin cookies, peanut cookies, or chocolate chip cookies, there are a number of processes concerned in making apple pie cookies.
The excellent news is which you can make them in levels, with choices for freezing alongside the way in which.
The opposite piece of excellent information? The cookies are scrumptious, and your effort will likely be completely worthwhile.
Step 1: Sauté your apples
I make baked apples on a regular basis, including them to oatmeal and toast and even yogurt bowls. The apples for the crumble cookies get an identical preparation, however on this case, stovetop sautéing is finest.
You’ll do that in a frying pan or skillet, utilizing some vegan butter, cinnamon, lemon juice, and vanilla for seasoning. It ought to take about twenty minutes.
After sautéing, you’ll be able to retailer the cooked apples within the fridge for as much as two days earlier than assembling the crumble cookies.
You may as well freeze them for as much as eight weeks, when you prefer to plan your baking initiatives upfront.
Step 2: Put together the pie crust
The entire common pie crust making guidelines apply in making this easy vegan pie crust:
- Lower your butter into flour in items concerning the measurement of peas
- Maintain the butter chilly
- Use ice chilly water
- Use a tiny little bit of white vinegar for additional flakiness (non-compulsory however good)
The one actual distinction is that you just’ll use vegan butter. Any vegan butter that’s offered in stick kind must work within the recipe.
Step 3: Put together the streusel
This recipe requires a half batch of my basic vegan streusel topping. I’ve included every little thing within the recipe card right here, only for readability and ease.
Making the streusel is as simple as will be: add melted vegan butter to a combination of flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, then enable it to kind good, pea-sized clumps.
The streusel will also be made forward of time. Retailer it in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as three days or freeze it for as much as six weeks.
Step 4: Roll the pie crust and reduce it into rounds
When all the crucial parts are accounted for, it’s time to make crumble cookies.
The primary a part of meeting is to roll your pie crust right into a disk that’s simply in between 1/8 and 1/4in thick (3/16in, or 5mm).
Use a spherical cookie or biscuit cutter (or a mason jar lid) to chop the crust into circles which might be about 2 3/4 or 3-inches (7-7.5cm) in diameter.
You’ll use as a lot of the dough as potential, re-rolling scraps as wanted. The recipe ought to yield about 15 cookies.
Step 5: Prime the pie crust rounds
Subsequent, you’ll prime every circle with about two tablespoons of the apple combination, adopted by two tablespoons of streusel topping.
I discover it’s best to maintain a round cookie or biscuit cutter in place across the pie crust base as I work. It helps to catch stray items of streusel crumb.
If you happen to don’t have such a spherical cutter, that’s okay; simply fetch your stray bits and place them atop the cookies once more proper earlier than baking!
Step 6: Bake
Lastly, you’ll bake the crumble cookies. They want about 25-Half-hour within the oven, or till the underside crust and prime crumbs are each golden brown.
I like to recommend permitting the cookies to chill for no less than 90 minutes earlier than serving them, with the intention to allow them to set.
If you wish to ship or field the cookies up, make sure that they’ve cooled solely earlier than you accomplish that.
Storage
As soon as the crumble cookies are utterly cool, switch them to an hermetic container and retailer them at room temperature for as much as three days. You may as well freeze them for as much as six weeks.
Can I exploit a unique fruit for the filling?
Sure, I’m positive which you can!
Full disclosure, I’ve solely ever tried this recipe with apples. However I see no cause why it couldn’t work with cooked down peaches, plums, cherries, or pears.
You probably have success in making an attempt one other fruit, I’d love to listen to about your expertise within the feedback.
What a couple of gluten-free possibility?
As soon as once more, I’ve to present the compulsory disclaimer that I haven’t tried making these cookies gluten-free.
Nonetheless, I’ve made the pie crust and the streusel (individually) with a gluten-free, all-purpose flour mix, and each of them turned out.
I see no cause why a gluten-free model of the cookie shouldn’t work out, too. The GF flour that I belief essentially the most is the King Arthur measure for measure mix.
Yields: 15 cookies
For the apples:
- 1 1/2 tablespoons vegan butter
- 1 lb peeled and diced Granny Smith apples (3 medium massive apples; substitute one other tart, agency apple selection)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 tablespoon water
For the cookie pie crust:
- 1 1/2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (180g)
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoons cane sugar (25g)
- 8 tablespoons chilly vegan butter, cubed (115g)
- 6 tablespoons ice water
- 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar (non-compulsory; flor a flakier crust)
For the streusel topping:
- 1/2 cup + 1 tablespoon unbleached, all-purpose flour (70g)
- 1/3 cup mild brown sugar (65g)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 tablespoons vegan butter (45g)
Put together the apples:
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Warmth the vegan butter in a frying pan or skillet over medium warmth. When it melts, add the apples. Sauté apples for 3 minutes, or till they’re turning into tender. Flip the warmth to low. Add the cinnamon, salt, sugar, lemon juice, vanilla, and water and stir. Cowl the apples and prepare dinner for one more 4 minutes, or till they’re nonetheless holding their form, however turning into tender and extra stewed (think about a chunky applesauce).
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Take away the apples from warmth, switch them to a storage container with a lid and canopy. Permit them to chill at room temperature for quarter-hour, then switch them to the fridge. Permit the apples to chill utterly, no less than two 2 hours and as much as 2 days.
Put together the crust:
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To make the crust, combine the flour, sugar, and salt in a big mixing bowl. Add the butter and use a pastry cutter or two knives to chop the butter into the flour, till the items of butter are concerning the measurement of peas. Alternately, you’ll be able to put the flours, salt, and sugar right into a meals processor, add the butter, and pulse till the components are mixed and the butter is the scale of peas.
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Combine the ice water and vinegar. Add the water into the flour combination in a skinny stream, utilizing a spatula to combine as you go. As quickly because the dough holds collectively with out being moist, and it simply sticks collectively if you squeeze a small quantity in your hand, it is prepared. In case your dough is simply too crumbly and is not holding collectively, add extra ice water by the tablespoon till it does.
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Switch the dough to a floured work floor and form it right into a disk. Wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate for no less than 2 hours. At this level, you’ll be able to preserve the dough within the fridge for as much as 2 days or freeze it for later use, when you like.
Put together the streusel topping:
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In a small bowl, stir collectively the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, and salt.
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Soften the vegan butter in a small saucepan over low warmth or microwave it for 10-15 seconds to soften it.
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Pour the melted butter into the middle of your dry components. Use two forks to softly combine the butter into the flour combination, forming pea sized crumbs and a few smaller crumbs as you go. Your purpose is for there to be no remaining dry flour and for the combination to be largely pea-sized crumbs, combined with some smaller and a few bigger crumbs.
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Switch the streusel to the fridge and preserve it chilly whilst you roll the cookie dough. Alternatively, you’ll be able to retailer the streusel in an hermetic container within the fridge for as much as 3 days or within the freezer for as much as 6 weeks.
Assemble and bake the cookies:
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Preheat your oven to 400°F / 200°C and line a half-sized baking sheet with parchment or silpat.
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Flour a piece floor and rolling pin. Roll the dough for the crust right into a disk that is simply in between 1/8 and 1/4in thick (3/16in, or 5mm).
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Use a spherical cookie or biscuit cutter, about 2 3/4 or 3-inches (7-7.5cm) in diameter to chop the crust into circles. These would be the base of your cookies. Proceed re-rolling spare dough till you’ve got used the dough up. You need to have 15 spherical cookie bases.
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Prime every cookie base with about 2 tablespoons of the apple combination, sufficient to kind a bit of mound that goes virtually, however not fairly to the sides of the circle. Then, prime the apple combination with a heaping 2 tablespoons of the crumb combination. I discover it best to put the round cookie/biscuit ring across the crust base earlier than including the crumbs—it prevents them from spilling out as quickly as they prime the apple filling. Press the crumbs gently onto the filling to assist them keep put; it does not must be good!
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Bake the cookies for 25-Half-hour, or till the underside crust and prime crumbs are each golden brown. Crumbs that fall off the cookies and land on the baking sheet might burn throughout baking, which is OK! The vital factor is that the cookie itself bake correctly.
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Switch the cookies to a wire cooling rack and funky for no less than 90 minutes earlier than having fun with. As soon as the cookies are utterly cool, switch them to an hermetic container and retailer at room temperature for as much as three days, or freeze for as much as 6 weeks.
Phew—that recipe is much less imposing than it seems, I promise!
If you happen to additionally dwell in a house the place making entire pies tends to be impractical, then I hope you’ll give the apple pie cookies a attempt.
And when you don’t, however you’re keen on sharing festive, nostalgic cookies with the family members in your life, I hope you’ll discover some pleasure in making it, too.
xo
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