Turkish Apple Cookies - Elmali Kurabiye

Apple stuffed cookies are loaded with fall flavors, but they are not limited to the fall season. We make them all year round. As they keep well for several days, we never make a small batch. 

These are not overly sweet, so it is hard to stop eating after the first one. Especially if you are having them with coffee or tea. 

What Is Elmali Kurabiye?

These apple filled cookies are one of the classic Turkish pastries. Turkish moms often make these at gatherings and serve them along with several other tasty treats. It is no surprising to see a type of borek, pogaca, kisir and elmali kurabiye (cookies with apples) served all together at a table when you are invited to a traditional Turkish home.

You can find these apple cookies in many pastry shops in Turkey. The dough of these apple cookies must be buttery, a little crispy and melting in your mouth when baked.

The filling is always the same: A mixture of grated apples, cinnamon and walnuts. It is a very simple filling that is cooked in a pan.

The shape of them might change though. Some of them are so thin and small, some are thicker, some have little filling, some have a generous amount of it. So you are free to make such changes when you make them at home. 

About The Ingredients

For The Filling

Apples: You can use any type of apples, but the sweet ones work better. We sometimes peel them, sometimes leave their skin on. The filling looks more jammy without the skin. So it is up to you. 

Sugar: We don’t use too much sugar for this recipe, just 2 tablespoons. But you can use more if you like. Caster sugar, granulated sugar or brown sugar all work fine.

Cinnamon: It is the key ingredient that gives you the fall feeling when eating these cookies. You can use as much as you want. 

Walnuts: Traditionally, we use crumbled walnuts, but pecans or hazelnuts are ok too. You need to cook them with the apple mixture in the pan.

For The Cookie Dough

Butter: It has to be softened at room temperature. Don’t ever try to use cold butter. It is always better to let it sit on the counter until it is perfectly softened. So when you decide to make apple cookies, the first thing you should do is to remove the butter from the fridge.

Yogurt: It makes the dough moist and easy to roll out. Use plain yogurt. Greek style yogurt works fine.

Egg: It helps everything in the dough hold together well. So the dough won’t tear and you can roll it out easily.

Lemon zest: This is just to have a little refreshing touch. It is completely optional, so you can leave it out if you want.

Cornstarch (Cornflour): This helps the apple cookies come out with a crumbly and melt-in-mouth texture. This is not the same as cornmeal, so please don’t get confused.

Powdered Sugar (Icing Sugar): It combines well with the other ingredients, so you have a smooth dough. This is important when rolling it out. We don’t recommend granulated sugar for the dough. We use it both in the dough and for sprinkling over the baked apple cookies.

Baking powder: We use little of it, so the cookies won’t get double in size. They will just have a slightly fluffy texture.

Flour: We use all purpose flour. You can use a combination of all purpose flour and whole wheat flour if you want.

How To Make Turkish Apple Cookies

This is an easy-to-make cookie recipe but takes some time as there are three stages: Cooking the filling, preparing the dough and stuffing the dough with the filling.

Cook The Filling:

1. Heat a pan over medium heat. Cook the grated apples and sugar until soft and almost no juice left, about 10 minutes.
2. Add in cinnamon and walnuts. Cook for another 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and let it cool completely.

Prepare The Dough:

1. Whisk together the softened butter, yogurt, egg, lemon zest, powdered sugar and cornstarch.
2. Gradually add in the flour and mix using your hand or a stand mixer until everything holds together. You will have a soft, non-sticky dough. Roll the dough into a log and cut it into 10 equal balls. 

Shape The Cookies And Bake:

1. Dust the counter with a little flour. Place one of the dough balls on it and using a rolling pin, roll it into a circle (7 inch / 17 cm diameter and ⅕ inch / ½ cm thick). It doesn’t have to be perfect.
2.  Use a knife or pizza cutter and slice it into 8 equal pieces. Put about 1 teaspoon of the filling on the wide side of each triangle and roll them up. Place on the parchment paper lined baking sheet.
3. Repeat the same steps with the remaining dough balls. You might need to use 2 baking sheets. And bake in a preheated oven (350F / 180C) until lightly browned, about 20 minutes. Let them sit on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then transfer them onto a cooling rack. Sprinkle as much powdered sugar as you want on each. 

Tips

• You can make the filling ahead of time. It keeps well in the fridge for 3-4 days.
• Make sure the butter you use is perfectly softened. Otherwise, it won’t be easy to make the dough.
• These measurements give you 80 cookies filled with apple and walnut mixture. This might sound too many, but these are small and everyone eats at least three (or 4 or 5!) at a time. Also, they keep well for several days at room temperature. Alternatively, you can either use half of the measurements or freeze the unbaked cookies for later.
• The thickness is a matter of preference. If you want your apple stuffed cookies thicker, roll the dough into a smaller circle.

How To Store

Turkish apple cookies (elmali kurabiye) don’t need to be kept in an airtight container at room temperature. As these are a little crispy, we don’t want them to soften. So keep them in a container partly sealed. They keep well for up to a week. They might start losing their crispy texture a bit after the second day but they will still taste amazing.

To freeze, prepare the apple cookie rolls and place them on a parchment paper lined baking sheet and keep in the freezer unbaked for 40-50 minutes. Then put them in a freezer bag and keep them in the freezer for up to 2 months. You can bake them without thawing.

More Turkish Pastries

• Sigara Boregi
• Gözleme
• Sesame Cookies

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