Want to bake cookies without any added sweetener? In this recipe, grated apples provide a pleasantly mild sweetness and a moist texture. Baked until golden, the cookies are a little firmer outside and soft inside.

Instead of peanuts we use pumpkin seeds, and instead of wheat flour, rye flour – which makes the cookies a little softer and moister. The seeds give the dough a slightly nutty flavour. With only five ingredients, these cookies are quick to make, by hand or in the Thermomix.

Apple Pumpkin Seed Cookies with Rye Flour

Fruity cookies with rye flour, finely ground pumpkin seeds and apples – no added sugar, made by hand or with a Thermomix.

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Prep Time 20 minutes mins

Cook Time 18 minutes mins

Cooling time 30 minutes mins

Total Time 1 hour hr 8 minutes mins

Servings: 20 cookies

Course: Dessert, Snack

Ingredients Equipment Instructions Notes

Ingredients

  

• 100 g butter sweet cream butter, for melting
• 150 g pumpkin seeds unsalted, ideally unroasted
• 300 g apples approx. 2 apples, weighed without cores, e.g. Braeburn
• 200 g rye flour type 960, or light spelt flour type 700
• 4 g baking powder approx. 1 tsp

Equipment

• 1 food processor or a blender, for the method without a Thermomix
• 1 grater
• 1 mixing bowl
• 1 Thermomix optional
• 1 baking tray
• 1 wire rack

Instructions

 

Without a Thermomix

1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (conventional, top and bottom heat) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
2. Melt the butter over low heat and let it cool briefly.
3. Grind the pumpkin seeds finely. Add the melted butter and blend just until you have a fairly even, slightly grainy mixture.
4. Wash, quarter and core the apples. Coarsely grate them with the skin on.
5. Mix the grated apple, pumpkin seed butter mixture, rye flour and baking powder in a bowl to a soft dough. Leave the dough to rest for about 10 minutes.
6. With rye flour the dough is a little sticky. If it is too wet to shape, work in 1–2 tbsp extra flour. Don’t knead the dough longer than necessary.
7. Shape the dough into 20 equal balls, place them on the tray with space between them and flatten slightly.
8. Bake the cookies on the middle shelf for 15–18 minutes until the edges are lightly golden.
9. Let the cookies rest briefly on the tray, then leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.

With Thermomix

1. Put the pumpkin seeds in the mixing bowl, chop 10 sec/speed 8 and transfer to another bowl.
2. Wash and core the apples and cut them into pieces. Put them in the mixing bowl, chop 3–4 sec/speed 4 and transfer to another bowl.
3. Put the butter in the mixing bowl and melt 3 min/50 °C/speed 2.
4. Add the rye flour, baking powder, pumpkin seeds and apples and mix 15 sec/reverse/speed 3.
5. Leave the dough to rest for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180 °C (conventional, top and bottom heat) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
6. Shape the dough into 20 cookies, place them on the tray with space between them and flatten slightly.
7. Bake the cookies at 180 °C (conventional, top and bottom heat) on the middle shelf for 15–18 minutes until the edges are lightly golden.
8. Let the cookies rest briefly on the tray, then leave them to cool completely on a wire rack.

Notes

The nutritional values are estimated per cookie (20 cookies, rye flour type 960) and may vary depending on the flour, butter, pumpkin seeds and apples.

Tips & Notes

With rye flour the dough is a little stickier. Slightly damp hands make it easier to shape the balls. If it is too soft, work in 1–2 tbsp flour – the juicier the apples, the softer the dough.

Instead of rye flour you can also use the same amount of light spelt flour (type 700) – the cookies will be a little firmer. Pumpkin seeds can stay a little grainy after grinding; that’s normal.

The cookies aren’t very sweet. For a naturally sweeter version, use ripe, sweet apples.

Use ingredients that are as fresh as possible and enjoy the cookies soon after they have cooled, or freeze them in portions.

Pumpkin seeds are rated 0 in the SIGHI food list, but they contain spermidine (a biogenic amine). Individual tolerance can vary.

Based on: peanut apple cookies from the German magazine “tina Koch&Back-Ideen”, issue 10/2024 – ingredients and method adapted for this version.