Apple Recipes

The weather has not really shifted into fall temps quite yet, but the calendar tells us it’s September and you know what that means: it’s apple o’clock peeps and I’ve got all the apple recipes for all the occasions. Whether it’s portable apple pie bars or easy-peasy apple cranberry crumble or the best ever apple cider donut holes or two different apple snacking cakes, or a host of other yummy treats, you need look no further than right here for all the apple recipes you need.

Apple Recipes

Apple Pie Bars

Not only are pie bars super easy to assemble—the bottom crust is a riff on an easy press-in shortbread cookie dough and the top is made from the same dough—they are also spectacularly delicious. Because the filling is shallow, the bars have a magnificent crust-to-filling ratio: every single bite includes a crunchy bottom crust, soft-cooked apples, and a generous topping of lovely crumbly bits. RECIPE.

Apple Cranberry Crumble

I really love when softened, lightly sweetened, perhaps spiced, fruit is topped with a buttery sugary crown (no oats, please) and served up warm in big scoops in deep bowls (with a dribble — or several — of cold heavy cream), which is what you get with this apple cranberry crumble. RECIPE.

Apple Cider Donut Holes

These intensely cider-flavored donut holes are perfect for fall. Not only do they actually taste like apples, due to 1) reducing cider on the stovetop, down to an extremely concentrated amount and 2) a secret ingredient: apple cider vinegar (shhh, don’t tell), but these cuties are baked, not fried. Assembly is therefore a breeze, as well as cleanup (you’re welcome), and due to a dunk in melted butter post-bake and a roll in some spicy-sweet cinnamon sugar, most peeps won’t have a clue as to how easy-peasy these are to assemble. RECIPE.

Easy One-Bowl Apple Snack Cake

This apple snack cake has a soft and tender crumb and is loaded with fresh apples and generously coated with cinnamon. Prior to baking, the top of the cake is sprinkled with turbinado sugar, providing the prettiest sparkle and a perfect crunch. If apples are not your fave, substitute chunks of peaches, plums or even blueberries in their place, and omit the cinnamon if you like. RECIPE.

Apple Pie with Crumb Topping

If you are fond of crumb-topped muffins or coffee cakes or fruit crisps, a crumb-topped apple pie might just become your new favorite thing. I love the buttery, sugar-y crunch the crumb adds to the softened apples. I love the pie’s handsome good-looks and the speed with which the whole thing comes together (perhaps it is psychological, but only rolling out one, bottom pie crust, as opposed to a top and bottom, seems like a huge win). For me, this dessert is the perfect combo of everything I love in a crisp or cobbler. RECIPE.

Apple Snack Cake

This apple snack cake is one of those simple apple recipes that  beautifully showcases your bounty from the day spent in the orchard, or, if you’re me, the 20 minutes spent at the grocery store and is perfect for last minute baking (aka you forgot about the school bake sale) or for make ahead baking (aka it freezes beautifully). What can I say peeps, the cake is a winner and I think you’ll be pleased with it and all of its brown sugar-forward, super moist, fruity, crackly-topped goodness. RECIPE.

Overnight Baked French Toast with Apple Compote

This baked french toast is just a tad different than the one I grew up with. First, it is made with Challah, which is the eggiest, most pillowy and perfect bread for french toast. It is baked (which makes it seem like bread pudding – which I ADORE and which it really just IS . . . ) and so it is a night before kind of food event which in my mind is always the best. And, finally, it is baked up with an easy apple compote that takes it completely over the top. RECIPE.

Apple Fritters

I love these apple fritters for their simplicity. They are not super sweet, which is why the dusting of confectioners’ sugar post-frying is so key, and the addition of cornstarch in the batter makes them extra crispy. The amount of apples called for is generous, but this makes for the tastiest and most fruity of fritters. RECIPE.

Salty Caramel Apples

If I had my druthers, I’d only ever eat apples blanketed in caramel. The combo of the juicy, tart apple and the salty/sweet and chewy candy is unparalleled. RECIPE.

Apple Brown Betty(ish)

I know what you’re thinking: these pictures are of an apple crisp, not an apple brown betty (the crumble topping of an apple brown betty is traditionally made from bread crumbs), and you’re right. What my mother made for me growing up, and what I have photographed here, is most definitely an apple dessert of the crisp or crumble variety. However, I’m just going to take a bit of poetic license here, in the interest of nostalgia. Call it a crisp or a crumble if it makes you happy, but this is a simple, easy, and tasty (betty) worth trying. RECIPE.

Apple Cranberry Muffins

These are the extra delectable apple cranberry muffins of my dreams. And yours too, I hope. They are moist and a little sweeter than most muffins with a perfect, tender crumb. RECIPE.

Apple Cherry Slab Pie

This is more special than your regular go-to apple pie for myriad reasons, including the dried sour cherries (a brilliant addition to cut the sweetness of the filling) and the buttery sugary crumb that you sprinkle all over the fruit before enveloping it all with your top crust. RECIPE.

Apple Sheet Cake

This cake is amazing — moist and apple-y and comforting and picnic-y (although, truth be told, I ate mine indoors). The cake is so moist, in fact, that I do not recommend covering it with saran wrap when storing it. Instead, leave it exposed to the elements and put a piece of parchment paper only over the cut surface. RECIPE.