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If you love all things apple cider, you’re going to love using your sourdough starter to bake these sourdough apple cider cookies. Celebrating all the spices you’ll find in apple cider and bringing them to life in a soft in the centre, crispy on the edges cookie, topped with a simple glaze to bring it all together.
Why you’ll love these cookies!
This recipe is based on my popular sourdough ginger molasses cookies. I changed the recipe to include a delicious apple cider reduction, as well as a gorgeous apple cider glaze. Seriously, I did not realize just how good these sourdough apple cider cookies would be. When I first tested the recipe, we ate the whole batch. Every single one! I’ve made so many batches since then and perfected the spice to cookie ratio! They make the sweetest fall cookie, perfect for welcoming in the crisp mornings and colorful leaves the season brings.
Ingredients
- Apple Cider – I’ve used my own homeade apple cider to create these cookies, but store-bought apple cider is perfect too. You’ll need to make a reduction for the cookie batter and then use regular apple cider to create the glaze. To make the reduction, I simmered 250 grams of apple cider in a pot on the stove until it reduced to a thicker consistency weighing around 50 grams.
- Butter – As always, I’ve used salted butter, but feel free to use unsalted if you prefer it.
- Dark Brown Sugar – I prefer making my cookies with dark brown sugar for a rich, almost caramelized flavor. You can use light brown sugar if you prefer, you just won’t get a dark color like mine.
- Egg
- Sourdough Starter – You can use active sourdough starter or sourdough discard to create these cookies, it won’t make too much difference to the final outcome.
- Vanilla Extract
- All-purpose Flour
- Baking Soda
- Salt
- Apple Pie Spice – I’ve created a simple apple pie spice blend using spices I already had, but you can use a store-bought blend with no issues.
- Granulated Sugar and Powdered Sugar – You’ll need this for the spiced sugar coating and apple cider glaze.
How To Make Sourdough Apple Cider Cookies
This recipe is pretty simple to pull together, there are just a few processes you need to ensure you go through for a successful bake.
Kate’s RECIPE Tip
Apple Cider Reduction
I’ve created an apple cider reduction by simmering down apple cider until it’s thick and syrupy. I’ve used a homemade apple cider, but you can use store bought with no issues. When simmering, you should end up with 50 grams (1/4 cup) of reduction for every 250 grams (1 cup) of apple cider.
If you are going to make multiple batches of these cookies over the fall season, I recommend making a large batch of apple cider reduction and keeping it in a jar in the fridge.
Once you’ve whisked together the dark brown sugar and soft butter, you’ll need to add the egg, sourdough starter and vanilla extract, continuing to whisk until you’ve created a fairly runny liquid.
To this, you’ll need to add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, apple pie spice and salt. When you bring the cookie dough together, make sure you don’t overmix, as you don’t want to develop the gluten in the flour too much. Everything is mixed in the one bowl, as if you needed another reason to love these cookies!
Cover the sourdough apple cider cookie dough and place into the fridge to chill and ferment. At minimum, you want to leave it in the fridge for 2 hours, but you can leave the dough in the fridge for up to 48 hours. You’ll notice a softer, almost velvety texture when you give the cookie dough plenty of fridge time!
Kate’s Pro Tip
Homemade Apple Pie Spice
I added 40 grams of cinnamon, 5 grams of ginger, 5 grams of allspice, 3 grams nutmeg and 3 grams cardamon to a small jar and mixed together. I then used this in my cookies. It’s also perfect to use when making sourdough apple pie!
When You’re Ready To Bake
When you’re ready to bake the cookies, gather your spiced sugar and fermented cookie dough. Use a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop out the cookie dough but try not to roll them into perfect balls because this will make them too smooth when they bake. What you want is scraggly, rough cookie dough balls so that when you drop them into the spiced sugar mixture the sugar gets into all the nooks and crannies.
I do recommend pressing the cookie dough balls down just a little though to ensure they don’t bake up too thick.
Bake the sourdough apple cider cookies for around 10 minutes in a moderate oven. The cookies will look a little puffy when you take them out of the oven, but they will settle and become soft and velvety in the centre as they cool. Swirl the cookies with a round biscuit cutter while they’re still warm if you want to make them into perfect circles.
To make the glaze, mix together the powdered sugar and apple cider. Dip the warm cookies into the glaze and then set them onto a wire cooling rack until the glaze sets. I find the cookies get a better finish when I dip them in the glaze, rather than drizzling it on top.
How To Store and Freeze
These cookies will last up to one week stored in an airtight container at room temperature. I find that a metal cookie tin is best for keeping the crispy edges. The glaze seems to protect them a little bit and keeps them fresher for longer.
I don’t recommend freezing the cookies once baked, but the cookie dough balls can be rolled in spiced sugar and frozen for up to 3 months. Allow them to sit at room temperature for around 10 minutes before baking as per the recipe instructions.
Sourdough Apple Cider Cookies
Equipment
- Baking Trays
- Cookie Scoop (I've used a 2 tablespoon cookie scoop)
Ingredients
Wet Ingredients
- 250 g Apple Cider, (reduced to 50 grams – see notes)
- 115 g Butter, (salted, 1 stick)
- 180 g Dark Brown Sugar
- 1 Egg, (large)
- 100 g Sourdough Starter
- 5 g Vanilla Paste, (or extract)
Dry Ingredients
- 280 g All Purpose Flour
- 5 g Baking Soda
- 4 g Salt
- 6 g Apple Pie Spice
Sugar Coating
- 50 g Granulated Sugar
- 3 g Apple Pie Spice
Glaze
- 135 g Powdered Sugar
- 20 g Apple Cider
Instructions
- To a large bowl, add the soft butter and dark brown sugar, whisking together until well combined.
- Now, add the egg, vanilla and sourdough starter and continue to whisk until fully combined. It will be a very runny mixture.
- Now, on top of the wet ingredients, add the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and apple pie spice and bring together to form a very wet cookie dough.
- At this stage, you'll need to ferment the cookie dough in the fridge for at least 2 hours, but you can leave it in the fridge for up to 48 hours. The longer it's there, the better flavor and texture your sourdough apple cider cookies will have when you bake them.
- When you're ready to bake, preheat your oven to 180ºC (350ºF). Grab a couple of cookie trays and line them with parchment paper.
- Using a cookie scoop, scoop balls of cookie dough, dropping them into the spiced sugar mixture. Roll them around so that the spiced sugar coats the entire ball and then place onto the trays. I like to flatten the cookie dough balls just a little bit, otherwise they tend to be too thick when you bake them.
- Bake the cookies for around 10-13 minutes. You want the edges to be golden and starting to crisp, while the centres are still soft. Remove them from the oven and allow them to cool on the tray.
- Once the cookies are cool, mix the powdered sugar and apple cider together to form the glaze and then dip the top of the warm cookies into the glaze, letting the glaze set before serving.
Notes
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