The spiced apple scent of Apple Oatmeal Cutout Cookies is amazing! You will just have to bake some yourself so that you can enjoy the spiced apple scent and tea infused flavor of these chewy oatmeal sugar cookies!
Why you'll love this recipe
A thirty year old newspaper clipping led me to this Apple Oatmeal Cutout Cookies recipe. The only cut-out cookies I had ever made were sugar cookies or shortbread. A rolled out oatmeal cookie sounded like it was worth a try.
The cookies are just as tasty as I had imagined they would be. I tweaked the recipe a bit to add the apple flavor. A possibly surprising ingredient that adds that flavor boost is butter infused with Hot Apple Cider Tea!
Infusing butter with tea leaves or herbal mixes, is an easy way to add lovely aroma and flavor to baked goods. I learned the simple infusing method while baking Peach Tea Shortbread Cookies.
Tea leaves are seeped in melted butter. When the tea leaves are strained out, the butter retains the flavor and scent of the tea.
The baked cookies are highly aromatic, minimally sweet, and have a distinct apple spice flavor. The texture is firm with a bit of chew from the rolled oats.
Straight out of the oven, however, the cookies are rather beige. Adding color with icing is a plus to the flavor and to eye appeal.
The method I used for adding that punch of color is the second recipe surprise. To create a watercolor look (I was thinking Eric Carle), I coated the cookies in white icing, then painted the color on top. The painting is so quick and easy, that it makes a great project to do with kids!
Be sure to do the computer age version of clipping and filing this recipe. Decorated Apple Oatmeal Cutout Cookies are super tasty to snack on and make beautiful gifts for Rosh Hashanah or for teacher appreciation.
How to make tea infused butter
This is an overview of the instructions. The full instructions are in the recipe card below.
- To make the infused butter, melt the butter with the tea in a small saucepan over low heat.
- Allow the mixture to seep for 10 minutes before straining and discarding the tea.
- Chill the butter until firm.
Directions for baking and decorating
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- To make the cookie dough, cream the tea infused butter and sugar, then add the egg, vanilla, flour, and oats.
- Chill the dough for one hour before rolling and cutting out shapes with cookie cutters.
- Bake the cookies on parchment lined cookie sheets. Cool completely before icing.
- To make the icing, mix together confectioners’ sugar, corn syrup, milk, and vanilla.
- Pipe the icing to coat each cookie. Allow the icing to dry for at least 6 hours.
- In small shallow bowls, mix a few drops each of food coloring and extract. Paint the coloring onto the cookies.
Tips
- This is not a dough that can be refrigerated overnight. The dough toughens and and doesn’t roll out without crumbling. I suggest sticking with the times given in the recipe.
- A decorating alternative, if you don’t have time for fully iced cookies to dry overnight, is to color the icing red, yellow, or green and drizzle it over the cookies.
- Though the Republic of Tea Hot Apple Cider Tea is ideal for adding spiced apple flavor to these cookies, any favorite tea can be used for infusing.
- Tea infused butter stays fresh in the refrigerator for at least one week. It can be used in baking and is delicious on toast or pancakes.
- Not interested in the extra step of making infused butter? Use plain butter plus 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead.
- The kind of oats used is important. This recipe calls for old fashioned rolled oats. Do not use instant oats or quick cooking oats because the cookies will be too soft to hold the cut out shape.
- Cut out in other shapes and flavored however you wish, these oatmeal cookies offer delicious variety to standard roll out cookies year round.
Storage
Store at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 10 days.
More related recipes
For another great cookie combining apples and oats, next time try Oatmeal Apple Raisin Cookies.
Apple Cider Stamped Cookies are crunchy butter cookies flavored with apple spice. This is another great recipe for stamping and embossing.
Balloon Sugar Cookies are a colorful celebration cookie. Easily decorate the cookies without any special tools.
Fall Leaves Sugar Cookies are so beautiful that no one will believe they can be made with preschoolers!
Sugar Cookie Lemon Slices are lemon flavored sugar cookies iced to look like sliced fruit.
Gingerbread Pirates take the simple gingerbread man up several notches on the cute scale! Great treats for pirate themes or Talk Like a Pirate Day.
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Apple Oatmeal Cutout Cookies
Equipment
- apple cookie cutter
- food decorating paint brush
Ingredients
Infused butter
- 1 cup + 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons apple tea leaves contents from 6 Republic of Tea Hot Apple Cider Tea bags
Cookie dough
- 1 cup infused butter see above
- ⅔ cup granulated sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup rolled old-fashioned oats
Icing
- 2 cups confectioners’ sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons milk plus a bit extra, as needed to thin the icing
- 1 ½ tablespoons light corn syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Decorating
- Food coloring gel red, green, yellow, brown
- Vanilla extract
Instructions
Infused Butter
- In a small saucepan over low heat, melt butter with tea leaves. When the butter is completely melted, remove from heat and allow to seep for 10 minutes.
- Remove the tea leaves from the butter by pouring the butter through a fine mesh strainer into a small mixing bowl. Discard the tea leaves. Refrigerate the butter until firm (2 hours- overnight).
Cookie Dough
- Preheat oven to 350° Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream the infused butter and sugar.
- Mix in the egg and vanilla.
- Add the flour and oats and mix until dough forms.
- Chill dough for 1 hour.
- Roll out the dough to ¼” between two sheets of parchment paper.
- Cut out apple shapes and transfer to prepared cookie sheet, about 2” apart.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes (less for smaller cookies).
- Remove from oven and transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool completely before icing.
Icing
- In the bowl of an electric mixer, combine sugar, milk, corn syrup and vanilla until smooth and glossy
- Add additional milk in teaspoon increments until the consistency of thin white glue.
- Spoon icing into piping bags fitted with a round tip (Wilton #5).
- Outline, then fill in the tops of the cookies with the white icing.
- Leave out overnight (or at least 6 hourfor the icing to firm completely.
Decorating
- For each color, in a small shallow bowl use a paint brush to mix a few drops of food coloring gel with a few drops of vanilla extract.
- Paint the cookies with the diluted food coloring.
- Allow the food coloring to dry completely (about 30 minutebefore packaging in cellophane cookie bags or in plastic containers in layers separated by wax paper.
- Store at room temperature in air tight containers for up to 10 days.
Notes
- This is not a dough that can be refrigerated overnight. The dough toughens and and doesn’t roll out without crumbling. I suggest sticking with the times given in the recipe.
- A decorating alternative, if you don’t have time for fully iced cookies to dry overnight, is to color the icing red, yellow, or green and drizzle it over the cookies.
- Though the Republic of Tea Hot Apple Cider Tea is ideal for adding spiced apple flavor to these cookies, any favorite tea can be used for infusing.
- Tea infused butter stays fresh in the refrigerator for at least one week. It can be used in baking and is delicious on toast or pancakes.
- Not interested in infused butter? Use plain butter plus 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract instead.
- Cut out in other shapes and flavored however you wish, these oatmeal cookies offer delicious variety to standard roll out cookies year round.
Nutrition
First Published: September 18, 2019. Last Updated: August 28, 2022. Updated for additional information and better reader experience.
Reeni
Ooooh I have never seen an oatmeal cut-out recipe! I love the idea - oats have so much flavor and are so good with apples. You are simply genius for infusing the butter with flavor from a tea bag! Aside from all that they are adorable too. I have cut-out recipes too!
Wendy Sondov
I had never seen an oatmeal cutout recipe either, Reeni, that's what intrigued me! Many people mix tea right into the batter, but I don't like the little crunchy leaves in my cookies. The infused butter works great!
Carlee
What pretty cookies! I also have a collection of recipe torn out of magazines etc. I keep thinking I need to go through them and cull them. But I have made cutout oatmeal cookie before, but infusing the butter beforehand is a really smart way to add more flavor. I am going to have to try that. The painted icing is really cool too, that's now on my short list of things to try after seeing yours!
Wendy Klik
Holy cow....makes me ashamed of the easy peasy cookies I shared LOL. These are so gorgeous and so much fun. I can only imagine the reactions when they were served.
Colleen - Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck
Super adorable! I love the brushed on color!
Wendy Sondov
Thanks, Colleen! Painting on the color is so much easier than dealing with lots of colors of icing!
Cindy
I have never heard of a rolled out oat cookie. My mind is reeling with possibilities! And I love the tea infused butter idea. So creative. I always learn something new from you Wendy.
PS. You totally nailed the Eric Carle vibe.
Wendy Sondov
Thanks, Cindy. Oats in rolled out cookies was a new one for me too, but something I will happily make again. Some people put ground up tea leaves right into the batter, but I don't like the crunch of tea in cookies. Infusing gets you all the flavor with out eating leaves 🙂 I am honestly amazed that there is anything at all you learn from my blog, because I always consider you as my go-to person for interesting ingredients, cooking methods, and flavor combinations!