Apple Pie Cookies with Cheesy Crust

What really makes these cookies special is the filling to crust ratio. In traditional pies and turnovers, there is considerably more filling than crust. These cookies are almost the the opposite with twice as much crust as the apple pie filling. Since the crust is the star of the show, it can’t be just any regular crust.  We need a Forking EPIC crust to be our cookie base! 

Apple pie gets an upgrade with some scrumptious cheesy crust. The sharpness of the cheddar and the nutty flavor of the Swiss cheese gives these ever so slightly sweet cookies the perfect partner for our perfectly spiced apples. The crust on these cookies is slightly crispy on the edges and soft and tender on the parts touching the ooooey gooey apples.  

Here is how to make these Forking EPIC Apple Pie Cookies with Cheesy Crust...

The quality of ingredients is important to this recipe. Your butter should be real 100 percent butter (sweet cream or salted - I like the salted for this recipe) and your cheese should be the sharpest cheese you can find. I find that you definitely get what you pay for as far as butter and cheeses go. 

Grate butter and cheeses using the large holes on your grater

This recipe was made using HEAPING measuring cups full of cheese that has been pressed into the measuring cup

Using the paddle attachment, cream butter on high speed for 2 minutes. Add cheeses and continue to mix on high speed until everything is incorporated and mixture is creamed, scraping sides of bowl with rubber spatula - apx 5 minutes 

Add salt, stevia, and water and mix for another 1 minute on high speed. Reduce speed on mixer to low and slowly fold in flour. Mix for one minute, scraping sides of bowl, until mixture forms a ball. 

Use your hands to form the dough into a ball. The texture should feel just like Play Dough. If yours is too dry, add an additional tablespoon of cold water. If youe dough is too wet, add an additional tablespoon of flour. Work dough with your hands until it Is soft & easy to work with and with no dry cracks. Separate dough into two equal sized balls and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate while you prepare the apple pie filling.

I used Fuji apples for this recipe, but you could use whatever apple is available in your area. I like Fuji’s for these cookies because they are tart AND sweet while still loaded with that apple flavor so many apples have lost these days. 

Peal apples and dice them into small pieces

Melt butter over medium heat. Add lemon juice

Add apples, ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon. Stir over medium heat

Add coconut sugar and honey

Simmer mixture until the liquid has thickened into a nice gravy. Stir often to prevent burning and to check to see if all the moisture has cooked away

You know its ready when your apple mixture passes the Spatula Test - If the mixture does not run back into the center of the of the pan when you drag the spatula along the bottom of the pan thru the apples. In this picture you can see that the mixture is running back into the center. I have just a small triangle of the pan showing when the spatula reaches the other side of the pan.  

This picture shows that the apples are almost ready, but we still have that telltale triangle shape of pan showing. We are looking for more of a rectangle shape because the apples are not running back to the center of our drag. 

There it is!! See how the shape of the spatula is holding in the center? That is how you know the apple pie filling is ready for the cookies. We don’t want them too runny because it will make our cookie crust soggy. If you cook the mixture past this point it will quickly burn and get too chewy. So watch your mixture closely, stirring constantly until its ready. This process usually takes about 10 minutes. Remove pan from heat and allow to cool in the freezer while you prep the crust for the cookie assembly

Dust a piece of parchment paper with flour & roll one of the dough balls through flour so that it is evenly coated. Press the ball into a flat circle, using your fingers to fold in any cracked edges. The dough should be easy to work with. Like as easy as Play Dough is to work with. It should not be too dry or too wet. Add drops of water or sprinkles of flour to adjust yours so that it has the right consistency.

Tip- Make sure there is a nice dusting of flour on the parchment paper before you roll the pie crust into an oval about 8 inches across 

Use rolling pin to roll out your dough into an oval about 8-10 inches accross. Use your fingers to press and check that the dough is equally thick all the way across. Be sure that it doesn’t get too thin along the edges because we are going to be cutting this into smaller circles. This will be the base for your cookie. We do not want to roll it too thin or else it will not hold our apple pie filling. If we make it too thick, the finished cookie will be way to thick once we add the filling and top crust.

Spread COOLED apple pie filling onto rolled out pie crust

 On another piece of flour dusted parchment paper, coat 2nd dough ball in flour & make sure the paper is lightly coated with flour before you roll the dough into the same shape and size as the first dough ball. Use a pizza cutter or blunt knife to cut the dough into 1/4 to 1/2 inch strips - Make sure they are evenly sized

Lay strips along the top of the apples equally spaced - making sure to use the longest pieces for the center 

Fold every other strip in half. It’s ok if the strips break, we can just press them back together again - Like Play Dough!!

Lay a long strip along the center and unfold the dough strips back over the new horizontal dough strip we added

Fold the vertical strips that stayed flat in the last step back over the new horizontal strip.

Add a new long strip accross the center, next to the first dough strip - leaving a bit of space in between. Fold vertical strips back into place. Repeat this process until you’ve gotten to the edge. Then, turn your pan so that you can do the other half of your lattice top by repeating all of the above steps

It doesn’t have to be perfect to be pretty. You will most certainly have some broken strips of dough. No worries! Just press them back together.

I had several breaks but it was super easy to press them back into the desires shape. 

Use a cookie cutter to cut your cookies. I found that if the cookies are too big, they will be too big to easily hold their shape. If the cookies are too small, you can not see the pretty lattice we just worked so hard to make. I found that this 3 inch circle was the perfect fit for this cookie

Cut cookies starting on the edges and work your way to the center. Use a smaller cookie cutter to get the spots that your 3 inch cutter is too big to cut.

Place 3 inches apart on parchment lined cookie sheet

Save these bits! You are going to need them for the next step

Press left over scraps from cutting the cookies along edges of cookies. This is what will keep all that yummy apple filling from bubbling out in the oven. Brush tops of cookies with an eggwash made with 1 egg white and a splash of water. (I forgot to do this step! I wish I had remembered to do this step because them they would have been even prettier!) Sprinkle tops with nutmeg before baking.

Bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees, rotating pan half way thru. Cool on the pan for 3 minutes before moving to wire racks. I love these cookies fresh out of the oven. (I could say that about all cookies actually!!)

If you want - Use a sharp paring knife to trim way the edges that might have gotten too crispy. This isn’t necessary, but if you want them prettier you can quickly trim away the edges like I did.

Aren’t these just the prettiest cookies? They are a lot of work, but I think the finished project is worth it, don’t you?

I wish I could share some of these with you!