25 Apple Desserts to Make This Fall

It’s apple picking season and my heart is set again on Honeycrisps, my favorite, despite the seemingly endless varieties grown each year here in the U.S.

If you end up with an apple bounty we've compiled great tasting recipes to help you use them up.

Crowd-pleasers like apple slab pie and apple crumble bars are great for hosting, while galettes and tortes are easy to assemble. If you're not sure which apple is best for which dessert we have you covered there too. Just hop on over to our Fall Guide to the Best Baking Apples. It will tell you everything you need to know about popular apple flavor profiles and how best to use them.

So gather your corer and peeler, and stock up on vanilla ice cream because all of these recipes are screaming for a scoop.

Buttery Apple Torte

Elise Bauer

Sauté sliced apples in butter and fold them into an airy cake batter. This is a great way to use the apples that have been hanging out on the kitchen counter a bit too long. A tip: Add a pinch of nutmeg to the dry ingredients.

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Apple Turnovers

Alison Bickel

Who doesn't love a pie that you can walk around and eat? These apple turnovers are made with flaky puff pastry, so crumbs might be an issue, but they're so worth it. You can usually find frozen puff pastry sheets in the frozen desserts section, but if that proves to be a challenge, use pie dough instead.

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Apple Cobbler

Elise Bauer

The buttermilk biscuit topping on this cinnamon apple cobbler is flecked with candied ginger. It’s unexpected and delicious. I love to add 1/4 teaspoon of ground ginger to the spice mixture for even more zing.

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Grain-Free Apple Honey Cake

Coco Morante

This cake is not only grain-free, but it's also gluten and dairy-free. If you’d like more texture in the cake, use almond meal instead of almond flour.

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Apple Pie Bars with Crumble Topping

Irvin Lin

Pie bars are perfect for when you want to serve pie to a large crowd, but don’t want the trouble of making more than one pie. A bonus: the crumble topping can be made a week in advance and frozen until you’re ready to bake.

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Caramel Apples

Elise Bauer

Caramel apples should be made at least once each fall. Ours is a family affair: my kids love helping me prep and dip the apples in the caramel. Just before the caramel sets, jazz them up with a sprinkle of toasted coconut flakes, graham cracker crumbs, or mini chocolate chips.

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Apple Crostata

Elise Bauer

I love to use tart Granny Smith apples in this rustic Italian crostata, especially under a big scoop of vanilla ice cream. Make it even easier with store-bought pie crust.

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Gluten-Free Apple Tart

Sabrina Modelle

This gluten-free tart is the perfect vessel for just-picked soft apples. I like to use a combination of Granny Smith and Gala. Try coconut sugar instead of maple syrup, or if you're not following a paleo diet, use brown sugar.

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Apple Carrot Cupcakes

Elise Bauer

These cupcakes are described as a carrot cake and an apple cake’s love child, and it fits. The spiced cupcake is moist and fluffy, and they’re filled with carrots, apples, nuts, and shredded coconut. The cream cheese frosting is a must.

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New England Apple Cheddar Galette

Elise Bauer

The grated sharp cheddar laced in the crust and sprinkled on top of this apple galette adds just the right amount of savory. Make sure to begin baking at 400°F (so that the dough puffs up) then lower to 375°F (to cook it all the way through without burning).

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Apple Slab Pie

Cindy Rahe; Pie crust photos: Elise Bauer

This sheet pan dessert is a crowd-pleaser. The filling is so easy to make—no cooking required. This pie keeps on the countertop for a couple of days, so make it ahead of your festivities.

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Apple Butter

Ciara Kehoe

This silky, lightly spiced, and caramel colored Apple Butter doesn’t need any added sugars—the apples’ natural sweetness slowly concentrates on the stove over a couple of hours. This may feel like a long time, but it’s mostly hands-off simmering. Plus, your home will smell like fall.

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Apple Cider Glazed Donut Holes

Cindy Rahe

This isn’t an apple recipe per se, but we’d gladly roll out the red carpet for apple cider to usher in fall. Apple cider is used twice in these light and tangy donuts to pump up the apple flavor. They are in the batter and in the glaze.

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Baked Apples

Elise Bauer

These are perhaps orchard season’s coziest dessert. Whole apples are stuffed with brown sugar, cinnamon, and a tad of butter, and baked until you get the most apple-y apples. I’d serve them with (an apple-sized) scoop of vanilla ice cream.

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Applesauce

Elise Bauer

This is hands down the most productive and delicious way to use excess apples. I freeze leftover applesauce in individual portions rather than in one large batch to thaw as needed.

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Applesauce Spice Cake

Sally Vargas

What do a surplus of apples lead to? Applesauce, of course! Then what’s the best thing you can do with all that applesauce? Bake this moist Applesauce Spice Cake, of course!

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Dutch Apple Pie

Alison Bickel

Streusel topped apple pie is my personal favorite. I get the crumble of an apple crisp and the crust of an apple pie all at once! Level up by serving the warm pie with ice cream.

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Apple Walnut Gorgonzola Rustic Tart

Elise Bauer

Take apple baking to the savory side with this tart. Make your own dough or buy it. This is a great baking project for when you only have two apples to spare. Granny smith apples work best but any tart apple will do.

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Apple Coffee Cake

Elise Bauer

A thin layer of sliced apples tops an easy cake batter which is then covered with a streusel topping. Bake and eat while warm for an extra special Sunday brunch.

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Apple Cranberry Pie

Elise Bauer

Apples pair well with other fruits and this late fall pie is perfect for the holidays. This pie works well with almost any variety of apple. The slits in the top crust gives this pie a classic look that I adore.

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Apple Crisp

Alison Bickel

You don’t want to miss out on apple crisp this apple season. It feeds a crowd or, if you’re lucky, you'll have leftovers for breakfast.

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Apple Upside Down Cake

Elise Bauer

Here’s a way to get that caramel and apple combo without a candy thermometer. Homemade caramel sauce and sliced apples are baked and then covered in a cornmeal cake batter. Bake the cake, invert and pat yourself on the back for winning fall.

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Mile High Deep Dish Apple Pie

Elise Bauer

Everyone should have a recipe like this in their repertoire for the simple presentation factor alone—but the taste, of course, delivers.

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Caramel Apple Monkey Bread

Cindy Rahe

I suppose this treat gets its name from the fact that you can pull pieces off this bundt-like cake, as though you were a monkey eating with your fingers. Whatever the case, layers of fresh apples are nestled into this bread and drizzled with an apple cider caramel.

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Best Fresh Apple Bundt Cake

Elise Bauer

Ooh, here’s something interesting. Fresh apples, grated coconut, and walnuts or pecans, all in one cake. Mix up the apple types so you’ve got a more complex taste.

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