Our Favorite Holiday Cookies — From Scratch

It’s that time of year again, when we show our friends, neighbors, and families how much we appreciate them with a special gift. These gestures of appreciation don’t have to cost much — and mean all the more when we make them with our own hands.

This holiday season, spend an afternoon baking cookies from scratch with your family, and then deliver them — wrapped up on a platter or in a tin — to the people who mean a lot to you. Consider giving a batch to someone who least expects it, like your mail carrier or the principal or nurse at your child’s school. You’ll feel good inside and out when you see the smile spread across his or her face.

Looking for some tasty new cookie recipes to try this year? Many of us at Musselman’s Apple Sauce consider ourselves cookie connoisseurs — and collect recipes we find and love on our Apples in Cookies board on Pinterest. Here are a few of our favorites, all of which bake in the wholesome, sweet taste of apples, apple cider, apple butter, or apple sauce. Happy baking!

Ginger Sandwich Cookies with Apple Butter Cream Filling

Your neighbors will savor every crumb of this one-of-a-kind holiday cookie. It combines the flavors of the holidays — ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, molasses, and apple butter — with a creamy inside that tastes perfect with a mug of apple cider or hot tea. View the recipe.

Applesauce Chocolate Chip Cookies

Trust us when we tell you that this isn’t just another chocolate chip cookie recipe. Sure, the recipe on the back of the morsels bag might be yummy, but this one replaces butter with applesauce — and cuts some of the calories of the traditional variety. Loved by kids and adults alike, these cookies turn out crispy on the edges and chewy in the middle. View the recipe.

Magic Apple Cookie Bars

Crunchy, chewy, hearty, and sweet, these Magic Apple Cookies Bars combine the fun of a cookie with the fill of a granola bar. To bake a batch, just mix old-fashioned oats and graham cracker crumbs with apples, butterscotch chips, coconut, and nuts. View the recipe.

Caramel Apple Cookie Bites

If your kids are part of the cake pop craze, know that these Caramel Apple Cookie Bites are similar (but don’t require a cake pop pan). Essentially a ball of cooked dough dipped in melted caramel and doused with chopped walnuts, they make perfect bite-sized treats, though we warn you that it’s hard to eat just one. View the recipe.

Know other cookie recipes with apples, apple butter, or apple sauce? Share them on our Apples in Cookies Pinterest board — we’re always looking for new ideas (or even age-old recipes that just taste great)!

Remember to enter Musselman’s Celebrate Family Sweepstakes this week. You might win a $100 gift card to Amazon, and we’ll donate $1 to the National Breast Cancer Foundation.