Mulled Apple Cider Cookies

Make these cookies, and your house will smell delicious for days.

This is an old recipe of mine that I’ve tweaked a little to up the spice and apple flavors. These guys are a little on the labor-intensive side, but the taste--and aroma--are well worth the work. In this version, I use a super-thick reduction of apple cider and mulling spices, ground-up graham crackers, and--of course--a crispy coating of turbinado sugar.

The key ingredient here is mulling spices. They impart a rich, aromatic, and decidedly autumnal flavor. I happened to have mulling spices on hand from when I wrote the “first edition” of this recipe last fall. If you don’t have mulling spices in your kitchen cabinet, or if you can’t find them at a reasonable price in the store, try combining your favorite fall spices--cinnamon, clove, allspice, cardamom, etc.--with some orange peel. (Note, though, that I haven't tried this recipe with ground-up mulling spices.) Or you could try using Mandarin Orange Spice tea bags--a whole bunch of them--as replacements for the mulling spices. (This is something I do with my Sweater Weather Cookies.)

Simmer the apple cider-mulling spice mixture until the 3 cups of liquid reduces down to 1/2 cup of liquid—a mere sixth of the original volume (if I did my math right). You won’t believe how much flavor this concentrated little bit of liquid of can hold.

Makes 3 dozen cookies. (To see this recipe in process, check out Picturing Mulled Apple Cider Cookies.)

Creamables	1 stick butter 1/2 cup white sugar 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
Wet Ingredients	1 egg yolk 1/2 cup reduced mullled cider 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
Dry Ingredients	2 cups diced apples 1 1/2 cups oatmeal 1 cup finely ground graham crackers 1 cup flour 2 teaspoons cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon clove
Topping	turbinado sugar

1. Simmer 3 cups of apple cider with 1/4 cup of mulling spices until reduced to 1/2 cup of liquid (about 20-25 minutes). Strain the reduced liquid to remove the mulling spices. Set aside thickened liquid to cool.
   
2. In your Kitchen Aid or a large mixing bowl, cream together the creamables.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients and then add to the creamables. Mix together until smooth.
4. In another large mixing bowl, add the dry ingredients. Using a spatula, fold together until evenly distributed. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the creamables and wet ingredients. Mix until evenly combined.
5. Refrigerate dough for 30-45 minutes.
6. Preheat oven to 350º.
7. Shape dough into balls--about 2 tablespoons each.
8. Roll each dough ball in turbinado or raw sugar.
9. Place sugared dough balls about 2 inches apart on Silpat- or parchment paper-lined cookie sheets.
10. Bake at 350º for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. Remove the cookie sheets from the oven and let stand for 2 minutes. Then place cookies on wire racks to cool.

Comments

[April]

These were SOOOOOO good!! I'm going to have to try to make them at home. Yummy!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Thanks, April. I'm so glad you liked them. There are only a few left!

[Em]

I can cross two more cookies off my list. I told my mom about your cookies and she made the pumpkin cream cheese ones, and I begged her to send me some in the mail, and I got them today. They'd flattened a bit from the mailing, but were still very tasty. I got the ingredients to try the recipe out myself.

And today I made the mulled apple cider cookies. They did make the house smell great! And boy did they take a long time. My apple cider took longer than 25 min to simmer down, and by the time I was about to combine all the ingredients, I realized I didn't have enough time to make them before I had to leave. So I left it for 7 hours later when I got home, and was afraid that the diced apples would be funky, but decided to go for it anyway. And my creamables and wet ingredients mixed together looked absolutely nothing like what you had pictured, so I was really afraid I'm messed it up. The dough was VERY moist, so I added a bit extra oatmeal thinking that there was no way that was normal. However, they turned out to be incredible! I will be making them again for a party later on in the month. Can't wait to try the new cranberry one.

[Hallie]

Wow, you just made me believe in blogs so much. I've been looking for an apple cider cookie recipe for a few weeks, and you saved me. I want to make these tonight! Thank you, thank you!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Thanks, Hallie! I hope you like the recipe. :-)

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Em. I think the apples got juicy on you and made the dough a little too wet. If that happens, you can always put the dough in the fridge for about an hour to firm it up. Also: use a wide, flat pan with a big surface area to reduce the cider. It will boil down and evaporate faster than if you use a deep pot with a small opening.

[Ann Marie]

I stumbled upon this blog because I was searching for apple cider & oatmeal cookies. Normally what I do when I get a vision is find a recipe that's similar to what I want and tweek it, but this was exactly what I was looking for, I'm not changing a thing. I am giving this a try today for the first time, right now my cider is reducing and I can't believe how good it smells in the house. I hope this works out because I'm supposed to bring them to a party tonight.... Talk about waiting till the last minute!

[Ann Marie]

I know I am a few days late, but those cookies went over SO well! EVeryone at the party just loved them and people have already asked for the recipe!

[Oatmeal Cookie Guy]

Hi, Anne Marie. Thanks so much for writing in! I'm so glad you found my site and that those Mulled Apple Cider Cookies were such a hit. They really do taste great and make the house smell amazing. Thanks again, and I hope you try out some more of my recipes.

[Juli Jeanne]

Such amazing cookies!!!!!!! I added dried cranberries and they were so gooooooooood! Brought them to a photoshoot and the models LOVED them!!!

Juli
Surrendered Souls Pinups

[Erin]

I can confirm that these are just as delicious when a half cup of reduced Christmas Wassail is used in lieu of the half cup of reduced mulled cider. These were a huge hit!

[Jamie]

Hi there! I'm having trouble with this one....Do I boil tea bags in 3 cups of water and simmer the water with the tea bags until it reduces to 1/2 cup (if so, how many tea bags)? Or like the sweater weather cookies put the actual contents into the batter - which seems really odd to me!

Thank you! I LOVE, LOVE your recipes!

[Ann Marie]

I'm back again, I subscribe to a recipe sharing site called justapinch.com. Would it be ok if I shared this recipe. Of course I would give you credit nd like to your site but I just feel like the more people who get this the better!