Turkish Apple Cookies (Elmali Kurabiye) are delicious melt-in-the-mouth pastries made with crispy cookie dough filled with apple, cinnamon, and walnuts. These are the perfect autumn cookies that can also be enjoyed any time of the year. If you love the comforting and warm apple cinnamon flavor, you'll love these scrumptious cookies!
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This is the perfect time for apples and I love the smell of these Turkish Apple Cookies cooked with cinnamon and sugar. It is a great reminder of my childhood memories as my mom used to make these delicious Turkish cookies quite often!
This simple recipe was given to me by my mom years ago and it never let me down. The delicious and crispy pastry is very similar to my Apple and Blackberry Pie but much easier to shape. Lemon zest is optional and you can replace it with vanilla paste or orange zest if you prefer.
Why This Recipe Works?
- This apple cookie recipe is very easy to follow with step-by-step instructions and a video tutorial.
- They are incredibly soft and full of apple cinnamon flavor.
- You only need a few pantry ingredients that you might already have in hand.
- Same as Gluten-free Pumpkin Cookies, these apple cinnamon cookies freeze beautifully!
- Just like Easy Puff Pastry Apple Pie, the best part about this "Elmali Kurabiye" recipe is you can use any apple you’d like - it’s a fantastic way to make the most of apple-picking season.
Ingredients & Substitutes for Turkish Cookies
- Apples - You can use any sweet cooking apples such as Braeburn, Honeycrisp, Bramley, and Cox's. Peel or keep the skin on and grate them before cooking.
- Sugar - I use caster sugar for the apple filling but granulated or brown sugar would work perfectly too. Adjust the amount of sugar to your taste and the apples you use.
- Cinnamon - I love adding a spoonful of cinnamon powder to the apple filling for intense flavor. You can omit it if you find it too strong or use it just a little.
- Walnuts - Baking with nuts is a great way to add flavor and texture to your cookies. Use pecan or hazelnuts if you prefer. Lightly toast them for a more intense flavor before adding them to your baked goods.
- Butter - This recipe recalls softened butter. Keep your butter at room temperature for a couple of hours (depending on the room temperature) until it is soft.
- Yogurt - Use plain or natural yogurt with no sugar & flavor added. Yogurt gives the pastry a fluffy and light texture.
- Icing Sugar - It has a tiny bit of cornstarch and a powdery consistency which gives a more crumbly texture to the pastry.
- Lemon zest - It is the yellow outside of its peel without going to the white part which is bitter and unpleasant. It adds a tangy flavor and a citrusy smell to the cookies. You can replace it with vanilla paste or orange zest.
Step-by-Step Instructions
This is a very simple recipe and to achieve the best results, you need to follow a few simple steps:
Prepare the Apple Filling
Peel and grate the apples. Place a pan on medium heat and add the grated apples, cinnamon, and sugar to the pan and cook them until soft, for about 10 minutes.
Remove the pan from the heat and let the filling cool down while preparing the cookie dough.
Add the walnuts when the filling is cooled down and mix well.
Prepare the Cookie Dough
Preheat the fan oven to 170° C (340° F).
Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and add the softened butter, baking powder, icing sugar, yogurt, and lemon zest.
Mix them with your fingertips gently until combined. Return the mixture to a worktop and form a nice soft dough.
Shape the Cookies and Bake
Roll the dough into a log and then cut it into 5 equal pieces (approximately 140 grams each) and turn them into balls.
Lightly flour the worktop, sprinkle some flour on a dough ball and roll it out into a 20 cm (8") dia circle (approximately ½ cm thick).
Cut the circle into 8 equal triangles and place a teaspoon of apple filling on the wide side of each triangle.
Roll them up into a cylinder and place them on a baking paper-lined tray.
Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned. Sprinkle some icing sugar on top when they are still warm.
Please scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredients list with measurements, complete recipe method, recipe notes, and nutritional information.
Top Tips From the Chef
- To save some time, you can prepare the filling in advance and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days until you need it.
- Make sure the butter is at room temperature - not melted. Take it out of the fridge and leave it out on the kitchen top for a couple of hours until you need it.
- This recipe gives you 40 pieces of small bite-sized cookies. If you think it is too many cookies, you can half the recipe. Alternatively, you can freeze the leftover for up to 5 months in a freezer bag.
Recipe FAQs
The best way to store these lovely cookies is at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you want to keep them longer, refrigerate them for up to 5 days or freeze them for up to 5 months in an airtight container.
You can use any sweet cooking apples such as Braeburn, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Bramley, and Cox's.
Related Recipes
For more scrumptious autumn recipes why not try:
Did you make this recipe? Please let me know how it turned out! Leave a comment below and tag @cookingorgeous on Instagram and hashtag it #cookingorgeous.
I hope you enjoy the process of making these apple and cinnamon-filled cookies as much as you enjoy eating them! 🙂
Bon appétit! / Afiyet olsun!
Turkish Apple Cookies (Elmali Kurabiye)
Equipment
Ingredients
For the Apple Filling
- 3 medium apples (any apples you like cooking with) (400 grams)
- ¼ cup sugar (50 grams)
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 80 grams walnuts (finely chopped)
For the Cookie Dough
- 250 grams butter (room temperature)
- 1 tablespoon natural yoghurt
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 400 g plain white flour / all purpose flour
- 1 lemon zest
- 30 g icing sugar (plus extra for dusting)
Instructions
Preparing the Apple Filling
- Peel and grate the apples.
- Place a pan on medium heat and add the apples, cinnamon, and sugar to the pan.
- Cook the apples until soft, for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the heat and let the filling cool down while preparing the cookie dough.
- Add the walnuts when the filling is cooled down and mix well.
Preparing the Cookie Dough
- Preheat the fan oven to 170° C (340° F).
- Place the flour in a large mixing bowl and add the softened butter, baking powder, icing sugar, yogurt, and lemon zest.
- Mix them with your fingertips gently until combined.
- Return the mixture to a worktop and form a nice soft dough.
- Roll the dough into a log and cut it into 5 equal pieces (approximately 140 grams each) and turn them into balls.
- Lightly flour the worktop, sprinkle some flour on a dough ball, and roll it out into a 20 cm (8") dia circle (approximately ½ cm thick).
- Cut the circle into 8 equal triangles and place a teaspoon of apple filling on the wide side of each triangle.
- Roll them up into a log shape and place them on a baking paper-lined tray.
- Bake for 20 minutes, until lightly browned.
- Sprinkle some icing sugar on top when they are still warm.
Video
Notes
- To save some time, you can prepare the filling in advance and keep it in the fridge for up to 3 days until you need it.
- Make sure the butter is at room temperature - not melted. Take it out of the fridge and leave it out on the kitchen top for a couple of hours until you need it.
- This recipe gives you 40 pieces of small bite-sized cookies. If you think it is too many cookies, you can half the recipe. Alternatively, you can freeze the leftover for up to 5 months in a freezer bag.
Nutrition
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OLIVER
Great Recipe
Ayla Clulee
Thank you Oliver 🙂
Kadir Bora
Elinize emeğinize sağlık, teşekkürler...
Ayla Clulee
Rica ederim Kadir Bey, umarım deneyip begenmissinizdir.
Saygilarimla
Ayla
Zula
Hi, I have just made this cookies. They are delicious! However it was difficult to work with the dough which was tearing very easily. It was very hard to roll the triangles in without the dough tearing.
Is this dough supposed to be that soft and "fragile"?
The only thing I changed is that I added greek yoghurt instead regular yoghurt.
Ayla Clulee
Hi Zula,
I am glad you have found the cookies delicious! And thanks for your feedback.
The type of yogurt as well as the humidity in the air affects the consistency of the dough. Next time if you don't have natural yogurt and you have to use Greek yogurt again, try to adjust the consistency of the dough by adding more flour. You should have a soft but workable dough (i.e. a dough that doesn't break easily). I hope you find this helpful for the next time and please feel free to reach out if anything is unclear.
Best wishes and Happy New Year
Ayla
Zula
Ayla,
Thank you so much for your kind reply.
I am making those cookies again tomorrow so I will adjust flour accordingly. Thanks!
They are exceptionally delicious! They also freeze very well. Thawed in microwave they tasted just like freshly baked!
Zahar
Melt in the mouth cookies, as it is described! A new favourite in the household.
Mary Ann
These are the best apple cookies ever. I’ve made them a few times and always get many compliments!
Monika
My daughter and I just made these. They are wonderful! This is going in my good fill-in recipe book. Thank you!
Ayla Clulee
Thank you so much, Monika, we really appreciate the review.
Danielle
I made these cookies today, they turned out so good. I followed every step as mentioned and I am so proud and so thankful to you.
Ayla Clulee
You’re welcome, Danielle! Thank you for your review.
Gina
This recipe was so easy to make and turned out amazing. I loved the cinnamon-nuts-apple combination.
Darlene
These are absolutely amazing! Will have to double the recipe next time because I couldn’t keep the entire family out of them! Thank you for this recipe, it will definitely be in the top 3 of my favourite cookies.
Melanie
Delicious!! This is a wonderful recipe! Thank you for sharing!
Feyza
I can’t believe how easy and fun these cookies were to make.
I will definitely be referring back to this recipe next time as well.
Jane
Made these for Easter and I love them and so did everyone else! So delicious ,Thanks for the recipes
Amber
Just made these cookies this morning, turned out great I like that its not that sweet and perfect in taste. As it said. It’s a keeper!
I used gala apples.
Elena
This looked good, so I made it. It was a HUGE hit with my husband “coffee club” and the girls at work.
Eleni
Love that these cookies are not too sweet with great apple and walnut flavour. Highly recommend!