Turn your orchard haul into something truly delicious with these fall recipes.
The temperatures are starting to drop, the leaves are beginning to turn and after a summer of no-bake desserts, it’s finally time to fire up the oven again. Apple season is here. Whether you’re baking with fresh-picked apples or whatever is in the fruit bowl, these 26 recipes are the ones our readers love.
“So moist and yummy! Chock full of apples. Super easy. Doesn’t need frosting of any kind. Added a little bit of ginger. Perfect fall treat!”
Yossy Arefi’s apple-packed cake is a bit of a choose-your-own-adventure recipe: Peel or don’t peel. Keep it simple or add a cinnamon-sugar topping that bakes up into a crunchy crust. And if you’re feeling extra, add a drizzle of cream cheese icing to take it into cinnamon roll territory.
Recipe: Apple Cake
“Loved by all; every last bite gobbled up!”
Samantha Seneviratne’s recipe for this no-fuss favorite starts with a hefty oat-pecan crumb mixture, which yields a great textural contrast between crunchy topping and soft baked fruit. She recommends using both sweet and tart apples. Serve with a big scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Recipe: Apple Crumble
“My mother did cook — but it is her baked apples that I remember best. And this is the one dish I continue to make.”
Cored apples filled with dried apple and crystallized ginger are baked and basted with honey and apple cider (or juice) in this comforting dessert from Dorie Greenspan. You can also stuff your them with raisins if you like.
Recipe: Baked Apples
“I’ve been making this for years and love it.”
Apple lovers, this quick bread is for you. Samantha Seneviratne’s recipe includes apples three ways: as applesauce and unpeeled shreds in the loaf and as apple cider in the glaze. That drizzle is so good you might want to double the amount to dress up your morning oatmeal or pancakes.
Recipe: Cinnamon Apple Quick Bread With Apple Cider Glaze
“I am not the biggest fan of apple pie … until now.”
Kierin Baldwin, formerly the pastry chef at The Dutch in New York, is a proponent of pre-cooking your pie filling to avoid any raw, crunchy apples in the center of your dessert. This recipe, adapted from hers by Sam Sifton, calls for simmering the apples in butter, sugar and warm spices until soft and waits for the mixture to cool completely before baking it in the pie. (For everything you need to know to make the perfect pie crust, see our pie guide.)
Recipe: Apple Pie
“What a lovely, lovely loaf! Wonderful texture, soft crumb, perfect mouth-feel.”
Imagine this loaf with a cup of tea and a feel-good comfort show. Sign me up! Yossy Arefi’s recipe is packed with applesauce and chopped apples, plus lots of cinnamon and nutmeg. She recommends using tart, firm baking apples for best results.
Recipe: Apple Bread
“This is a winner in my house: The crust shattered beautifully, the sesame was present but not overpowering and the cardamom was delightful. Will absolutely make again.”
Andy Baraghani’s beautiful apple dessert uses sesame two ways. There’s a nutty, almost halva-like tahini spread that sits beneath the cardamom-scented apples, and a sesame-sugar finish to the dough edges for a nice crunch and a bit of sparkle.
Recipe: Tahini Apple Tart
“Made these for a Thanksgiving potluck and they were a huge hit. Got a ton of compliments and was asked if I could make these every year!”
Apple cider doughnuts inspired these fluffy, miniature cakes from Samantha Seneviratne. They feature apple cider that’s been reduced, a bit of apple butter and a coating of cinnamon sugar. Good old cream cheese frosting makes the ideal filling.
Recipe: Apple Cider Whoopie Pies
“Hands down one of the easiest and most delicious apple cakes anyone can possibly make.”
This 50-year-old recipe has stood the test of time. None of the ingredients are difficult to find — in fact, most are probably in your pantry. It uses neutral oil rather than butter for an airy cake studded with walnuts, raisins and slivers of apple. There is no icing, and no need for one.
Recipe: Teddie’s Apple Cake
“Fantastic, easy and fast dessert, and it looks impressive on the table.”
Galettes are the charming no-fuss cousin of pies and tarts. Wonky crust shape? Who cares. Leaking fruit juices? No dramas! With so few ingredients and only a bit of sugar, the apples really shine in this simple recipe from Samantha Seneviratne. (And if you’re looking for something a little sweeter, try her other galette, topped with apple cider caramel.)
Recipe: Apple Galette
“Dinner guests said it was ‘exceptionally good’.”
Yossy Arefi’s crisp recipe proves that the pairing of caramel and apples is beloved for a reason. The caramel’s sweet, buttery richness lends a perfect sweetness to the tart apple filling. The best part: You’ll be left with plenty of sauce to serve over ice cream. A gift for future you.
Recipe: Skillet Caramel-Apple Crisp
“Of all the holiday desserts at the meal, this was the most popular and the one everyone wanted to take home with them.”
Genevieve Ko delivers all the pleasure of apple pie without the need to roll out dough. Instead, it’s pressed into a 9-by-13 pan lined with foil (which makes lifting them out of the pan a breeze), before being topped with the apple filling and a walnut, cinnamon and cardamom crumble. A real crowd pleaser, this dessert can be made in advance and frozen immediately for up to one month.
Recipe: Apple Pie Bars
“My kids LOVE this recipe! I don’t own a doughnut mold, so I made muffins.”
Cider doughnuts are not just the stuff of fall day-trip dreams. They can also be made at home with Erin Jeanne McDowell’s baked (not fried!) version. For the most traditional result, a doughnut pan is recommended, but you can also bake these off in a muffin pan.
Recipe: Baked Apple Cider Doughnuts
“Made this with leftover raisin challah for brunch. My, oh my! Will surely make this again.”
Melissa Clark’s deluxe bread pudding features pillowy challah, caramelized cubed apples and sliced almonds for crunch. You can prep the dish up to two days ahead of time and store it, covered, in the fridge. Pop it into the oven an hour and a half before you want to eat for a crowd-pleasing make-ahead breakfast.
Recipe: Honey-Apple Bread Pudding
“These were like a warm hug.”
These sweet, spiced muffins are the ideal breakfast or snack on-the-go. Use whichever apple you like best. Samantha Seneviratne brushes the muffins with melted butter while they’re hot out of the oven, then dips them in cinnamon sugar for a tender doughnut-like vibe.
Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Muffins
“My search is over. This is the perfect apple crisp.”
The best thing about Genevieve Ko’s recipe is how customizable it is. Choose a variety of apples. Skip peeling them if you want more texture. Use whatever fall spices you love. Chop up the nuts you have on hand. Serve hot or cold. There’s no way to go wrong.
Recipe: Apple Crisp
“A friend told me that he licked the plate before he returned it to me!”
Melissa Clark’s gingery, spice-filled Bundt cake with grated apples and toasted pecans is like autumn in cake form. While it’s still warm, she soaks the cake in a bourbon syrup (any brown liquor will work). It’s great to have with brunch, perhaps with a small nip of whiskey alongside it.
Recipe: Apple Bourbon Bundt Cake
“Best apple anything I have ever had.”
Thinly sliced apples sit atop a cinnamon caramel in this gorgeous tart from Samantha Seneviratne. To achieve its full loveliness, it’s important to use little apples, since larger ones won’t fit within the borders as neatly. Samantha uses David Tanis’s basic short-crust recipe for the pastry, but a store-bought frozen tart shell works fine in a pinch.
Recipe: Apple Tart
“Took it to a potluck dinner, where people raved and devoured it — even the host, who never eats dessert.”
Erin Jeanne McDowell’s buttery skillet cake is filled with caramel-infused apples and topped with an easy caramel frosting. Yes, you read that right: easy caramel. The trick is to melt soft caramel candies in the microwave until liquid, then fold that into a simple buttercream.
Recipe: Apple Skillet Cake With Salted Caramel Frosting
“All was perfect and each guest got to take one of the extras as a party favor. Home run!”
Bigger isn’t always better. These bite-size versions of the classic, adapted from the pastry chef Claudia Fleming, are a total winner. In her simplified recipe, a muffin tin is used to layer caramel, sliced apples and store-bought puff pastry. After baking, the adorable tarts are popped out, glossy on top and buttery on the bottom.
Recipe: Mini Apple Tartes Tatin
“Divine, and the house smelled heavenly!”
Yossy Arefi’s easy, lightly spiced applesauce cake comes together quickly in one bowl. It’s baked in the ever-reliable and transportable 9-by-13 pan, which means, you can serve right from the dish at a potluck or picnic. A few swoops of fluffy cinnamon cream cheese frosting dress it up.
Recipe: Apple Sheet Cake With Cinnamon Cream Cheese Frosting
“This was fantastic. It turned out like a pro pie.”
Melissa Clark’s recipe is popular, and for good reason. Gently spiced with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, tinged with brown sugar and loaded with apple butter, it’s as deeply flavored as an apple pie can be. The pie is covered with a picture-perfect, buttery wide-lattice top crust.
Recipe: Double Apple Pie
“This to me is the perfect dessert for a rainy fall day! It is easy, simple and scrumptious.”
Vallery Lomas made a one-bowl dessert that’s as delightful as it is easy. The recipe calls for melting the butter inside a hot baking pan before combining with the batter, which gives the one-bowl dessert a crispy exterior. Apple slices are nestled together and become jammy during the 70-minute bake.
Recipe: Easy Apple Buckle
“A great cake for snacking with coffee or tea.”
Each square of Erin Jeanne McDowell’s sheet cake gets a quarter of a baked apple. The quarters are placed atop the pound cake-style batter, which rises around them as it bakes. Finish with a dusting of cinnamon and powdered sugar.
Recipe: Cinnamon Apple Sheet Cake
“Out of this world. Somehow I got it to look exactly like the picture (sheer luck!) and it tasted as good as it looked. The crust was special!”
Believe it or not, this stunning tart is more straightforward than it looks. The crust is the pat-in-the-pan variety, and a mandoline makes quick and precise work of slicing. The key to the assembly, according to Yossy Arefi, is to stand the slices up, rather than laying them flat.
Recipe: Rose Apple Tart
“Delicious! I highly recommend adding a generous amount of cardamom to the batter for additional Scandinavian flavor.”
If you love cinnamon, this recipe, which Florence Fabricant adapted from Nevada Berg, is right up your alley. It calls for a full tablespoon, which may sound like a lot, but it gives the cake a gorgeous scent and flavor, as well as a burnished top. In place of apples, fresh figs, pears or stone fruit also work well. It’s great as a morning cake, and delicious with a dollop of whipped cream for dessert.
Recipe: Norwegian Apple Cake
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