This warm and comforting skillet cookie brings together a warm apple crumble and a gooey skillet cookie. Made with nutty brown butter, the cookie base is rich and dotted with spiced apple pieces throughout. A buttery oat crumble bakes to crisp perfection on top, adding just the right amount of crunch to every bite. Serve it straight from the skillet with a scoop of vanilla ice cream for the ultimate cozy dessert.
Why You’ll Love This Skillet Apple Crisp Cookie
- Texture: Warm and gooey texture, with a lovely crunch along the edges and on top from the buttery streusel. You can bake the cookie for longer for a chewier texture, or leave it slightly underbaked for a melty and soft center.
- A great fall dessert: If you are looking for a great way to use apples for fall, then look no further than an apple skillet cookie. Sure you could make apple crisp or pie (because I love a crunchy topping I personally am a fan of the Dutch Apple Pie), but why not take the effort down 10 notches and make a massive cookie instead?
- Warm and cozy flavors: I’m guilty of adding extra cinnamon to pretty much any dessert that requires cinnamon. This apple skillet cookie is flavored with lots of warm spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. An extra pinch of salt balances out the richness.
Ingredients for Apple Crumble Skillet Cookie
- Fresh Apples: Opt for apples that are tart and crisp such as Honeycrisp or Granny Smith. You’ll also want to make sure to chop the apples into small dices so that they cook through and get evenly distributed throughout the cookie.
- Unsalted Butter: Cultured, unsalted butter yields the best flavor but any stick of unsalted butter will do.
- All-Purpose Flour: For the best results measure flour using a scale instead of measuring cups.
- Light Brown and Granulated Sugars: Brown sugar gives the cookie a caramel-like flavor.
- Egg and egg yolk, at room temperature: To quickly bring eggs to room temperature soak them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes. It is super important that the eggs are not cold as that will impact the dough’s texture.
- Pure Vanilla Extract: Don’t be afraid to add an extra splash of this. 🙂
- Baking Soda: Acts as a leavening agent
- Spices: Ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger.
- Fresh Lemon Juice: A tiny bit of lemon juice brightens up the flavor of the apples, similar to a pie or crisp recipe.
To bake you will also need a 10″ cast iron skillet. I used this enameled Staub fry pan. Note that if you have either a larger or smaller skillet it will impact the thickness and baking time of the cookie.
Tips for Success
- Keep a close eye on the butter: when browning butter, its important to keep a close eye on it to ensure that it does not burn. Once you start to smell a nutty aroma then keep your eyes peeled for amber flecks. Take the butter of heat quickly and transfer it into a heatproof bowl. Speaking from experience, burnt butter doesn’t taste great.
- Use room temperature ingredients: I mention this already in the ingredients section, but want to re-emphasize the importance of using room temperature eggs.
- Don’t overmix the dough: When incorporating flour, fold it in until it is just combined.
- Bake until edges are golden: it is hard to tell when a skillet cookie is done. Unlike regular-sized cookies, it isn’t as simple to eyeball the center to make sure you’ve cooked it enough. What I like to look for is crispy, golden edges and a center that is still soft but not shiny and raw looking.
- Add flaky salt to serve: while ice cream is the standard topping for skillet cookies, a dusting of flaky sea salt (such as Maldon) is the secret for both balancing and bringing out the brown butter and apple flavors.
FAQs
- How should I store leftover apple crumble skillet cookie?
- Note: if you plan to have leftovers make sure it’s free of any ice cream. Once you top the cookie with ice cream it will not keep well.
- At room temperature: Store in an airtight container on the counter for up to 1 day.
- In the fridge: Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days. Reheat in the microwave or in the oven.
- Do I have to use a cast iron skillet?
- You do not need to use a cast iron skillet if you don’t want to or don’t have one. This will also work in a 8″x8″ pan or 9″ round cake pan. You’ll just have cookie bars or a cookie cake instead!
- What are some other mix-ins that I can add?
- Chopped pecans, walnuts, chopped white chocolate, or cinnamon chips would all be great in this skillet cookie.
- Can I skip the streusel/crumb topping?
- You can skip the crumb topping to save yourself some time! Your apple skillet cookie will just be missing some of the crunch on top, .
Did You Make This Recipe?
If you love apple desserts, you may also love:
Feel free to also tag me on Instagram @toppedwithhoney or leave a comment down below. Happy baking and hope you enjoy your brown butter apple crumble skillet cookie!
Yield: One 10" Cookie
Brown Butter Apple Crumble Skillet Cookie
Brown butter skillet cookie full of cinnamon spiced apples and topped with streusel before baking. It comes out rich, gooey, and perfect with a scoop of ice cream.
Prep Time
20 minutes
Cook Time
25 minutes
Total Time
45 minutes
Ingredients
Cookie Dough
- 215g (1 cup) unsalted butter
- 150g (¾ cup) granulated sugar
- 165g (¾ cup) light brown sugar
- 1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, room temperature
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- 300g (2½ cups) all-purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¾ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¾ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup chopped apples, tossed with ½ tsp cinnamon
Streusel
- 74g (â…“ cup) light brown sugar
- 80g (â…” cup) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp sea salt
- 85g (6 tbsp) melted butter, salted or unsalted
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and lightly grease a 10" cast iron skillet.
- Prepare the streusel. In a medium bowl, toss the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt together. Then, pour the melted butter on top and use a fork to work it into the flour until a crumbly mixture forms and there are no streaks of flour remaining. Set this aside to cool.
- Brown the butter. Cut the butter into slices and place into a heavy bottomed pan over medium heat. Start melting the butter, stirring constantly. The butter will begin to sizzle and pop. Continue stirring and heating the butter until you see medium brown flecks and smell a nutty aroma. Once it is there, remove from heat and pour the butter into a heatproof mixing bowl to cool for 5 minutes.
- Prepare dry ingredients. In the meantime, in a medium bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and salt together until combined. Set this aside for now.
- Mix the wet ingredients and sugar. Once the butter has cooled slightly, add to it the brown sugar and granulated sugar and whisk them together for 30 seconds until the sugar is combined. Next, beat in the egg, followed by the egg yolk, and then vanilla extract. Continue whisking until the mixture is very smooth and glossy, around 30 seconds-1 minute.
- Add the dry ingredients. Dump in all of the flour mixture and use a flexible spatula to gently fold the flour in until it is almost fully combined. Then, add the apples and continue folding until flour is fully combined. Avoid over-mixing.
- Press the cookie dough into the cast iron skillet, forming an even layer. Then crumble the streusel on top of the dough, scattering it around to spread it out. Transfer the skillet into the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, until edges are brown. For a more gooey cookie, bake for the lower end of the time range
- Remove the giant apple skillet cookie from the oven and allow it to cool for at least 10 minutes. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream and optional caramel sauce. Enjoy!
Notes
- Apple Selection: For the best results, use a crisp apple that won't turn into mush when you bake it. Honeycrisp, golden delicious, or pink lady work well here.
- Skipping brown butter: you can also make this recipe with melted instead of browned butter. If you do so, reduce the amount of butter by 2 tbsp.
- Room temperature eggs: room temperature eggs are important to the dough's texture. To quickly warm eggs, soak them in a bowl of hot water for 5-10 minutes.
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