Iced Applesauce Cookies

No one will be able to stop eating these applesauce cookies! Made with applesauce and oatmeal, they’re laced with an easy icing drizzle.

Hello and welcome to our new favorite cookie recipe…spiced Applesauce Cookies! These are so moist and irresistible, you’ll forget about everything else and you savory each chewy bite. (Sorry, not sorry.) The applesauce makes them ultra moist, and they’ve got a little oatmeal to balance the sweet. But make no mistake: these aren’t a health food. They’re more like a lighter version of an oatmeal cream pie: which is AOK in our book. Here’s what to know about them!

Ingredients for applesauce cookies

These applesauce cookies are perfectly spiced to perfection, and so moist you won’t believe how soft and chewy they are. I always reach for a soft cookie over a crispy one (chewy ginger molasses cookies, any day). So this type of cookie is my ultimate. Here’s what you’ll need for the tastiest applesauce oatmeal cookies:

All purpose flour
Old Fashioned rolled oats (aka oatmeal!)
Light brown sugar & granulated sugar
Cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves
Baking soda
Salt
Applesauce
Neutral oil
Egg
Vanilla extract

When it comes to a neutral oil, you can use grapeseed oil, organic canola oil, or vegetable oil: any oil that has a neutral flavor. Avoid olive oil since it’s rather strong! You can also substitute melted butter for oil if you wish.

Add icing for best results!

The best part about these applesauce cookies? The powdered sugar icing! This icing takes them up a notch: both in overall presentation and in flavor! The sweet icing adds just the right additional sweetness to each bite. (Side bonus: it reminds us of an oatmeal cream pie.) Here’s what to know about this easy icing:

Mix powdered sugar with milk until smooth (quantities here). Easy as that! Make it dairy free with dairy free milk.
Drizzle with a fork, not a spoon! Yes, that’s right. We always reach for a spoon: but it’s the tines of a fork that make the best icing drizzle! Trust us.
Add color if desired. We made a cute holiday version by splitting the icing and adding food coloring to make half red and half green.

Tips for making applesauce cookies

Here are a few tips for the baking portion of applesauce cookies. It’s very easy and similar to most standard cookie recipes. Just a few things to note are:

The dough will be very sticky. It’s stickier than what you’d expect for say, a chocolate chip cookie dough.
Observe the chill time. After you mix up the dough, chill for 10 minutes. Don’t skip this part: it helps so the cookies don’t spread when baking.
Use 2 spoons or a cookie scoop to shape drops. Don’t adjust the cookies once they’re on the tray. The dough is sticky, so it’s a little harder to work with and form into a round drop (the cookie scoop is easiest). But never fear: once your cookies are on the try, they’ll bake up nicely.

Vegan variation

Want a vegan variation on these applesauce oatmeal cookies? Luckily, they’re easy to make plant based! All you have to do is substitute the egg with a flax egg. A flax egg is ground flax seed that’s mixed with water. Let it sit and it forms a gel-like substance you can use as a binder in vegan baked goods. It might sound odd but use it once, and you’ll see how easy it is! It works well in quick breads, cookies and pancakes.

Why bake with applesauce?

Why bake with applesauce? Adding this fruit puree gives cake a rich, moist crumb to baked goods. Applesauce is a well-known substitute for butter and oil in baking recipes, an easy way to cut the overall calories. In these cookies it’s used for moisture and overall flavor (the oil is still necessary!). Even though it only uses 1/2 cup applesauce, you can taste it in every bite.

Storage info

These applesauce cookies store well and stay very moist in a closed container. Here’s what to know about storage:

Store at room temperature in a cookie tin for up to 5 days. If the cookies are becoming too moist, you can unseal the top and let it loosely cover the tin.
Freeze un-iced cookies for up to 3 months.

More recipes with applesauce

Applesauce is one of our favorite tricks in baking! If you love these applesauce oatmeal cookies (which we know you will), here are a few more recipes with applesauce you’ll enjoy:

Bake up our fan favorite Applesauce Cake (so moist and delicious!)
Make a batch of Applesauce Muffins or Pumpkin Cream Cheese Muffins
Throw applesauce into your Zucchini Bread
Use applesauce to make ultra gooey Fudgy Brownies

This applesauce cookies recipe is…

Vegetarian. For vegan, plant-based, and dairy-free, see the substitutes in the recipe.