Learn how to make the best soft apple oatmeal cookies with this easy recipe. You can use dried or fresh apple and they taste great with toasted walnuts and cinnamon!
Preheat the oven to 350 °F (175 °C) and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place the walnuts on a sheet pan and toast them until golden brown (about 10–15 minutes). Set aside to cool completely.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, oats, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and the sugar for about a minute or until properly blended and smooth, then add the egg and vanilla, scraping down the bowl as needed with a spatula.
Add the whisked dry ingredients and toasted walnuts to the mixer, on low, until the cookie dough starts to come together, then add in the chopped apple.
Portion out the cookie dough and place 6 on each prepared baking sheet. Flatten the scoops down with your palm.
Bake the cookies until set, 10 to 12 minutes, depending on how well baked you like them. I leave them until the edges turn slightly golden brown.
Let the cookies sit on the sheet pan for a minute to firm up before transferring the cookies to a wire rack to cool.
Notes
For the apple, if you use diced fresh apples, use Gala apples, Honeycrisp, or even Granny Smith apples, which can withstand baking. With fresh apples, these soft oatmeal cookies are best eaten the day they are baked. The next day, the apple may release some moisture that can cause the cookies to become soggy. This will resolve itself by the next day (so 2 days after baking). If you use dried apple pieces, you won't have this issue.
If you don't love walnuts, try adding pecans or almonds. For a nut-free oatmeal cookie, use sunflower seeds or pumpkin seeds instead of nuts. If you skip the nuts entirely without replacing them, the cookies may spread more.
Store these cookies in an airtight container. If you used dried apple, consider adding a soaked terracotta brown sugar saver to the container to keep the cookies soft.