17 apple dessert recipes for fall baking
Embrace the season with apple tarts, cookies, cakes, and more.
Date
September 8, 2026
There’s an apple dessert for everyone. For the purists, there are lattice-topped pies and shingled galettes. For the non-traditionalists, there are caramel-frosted cakes and fritter-inspired loaves. And for apple lovers that hate cinnamon? Well, there are custardy cakes and classic French tarts. Ready to start baking with fall’s best fruit? Read on for our best apple dessert recipes.
1) Whipped Caramel Apple Cake
There’s no shortage of apple in this cake — applesauce keeps things moist while boiled cider adds sharp, tangy fruit flavor. The cake is great on its own, but pair it with light, creamy Whipped Caramel Frosting, and you’ve got an irresistible baked version of a caramel apple (with none of the fears about your teeth).
Get the recipe: Whipped Caramel Apple Cake
To make this recipe, you'll need: Vermont Boiled Cider
2) Tiny Apple Tarts for Two
You only need one apple (and two people eager for an apple dessert) to make a pair of these adorable galettes. Half the apple is sliced, while the other half is grated, which creates a hidden layer of jam beneath the shingled slices. Flaky fruit tarts don’t get easier (or cuter!) than this.
Get the recipe: Tiny Apple Tarts for Two
To make this recipe, you'll need: Apple Pie Spice
3) Apple Cider Snickerdoodles
The classic snickerdoodle gets dressed for fall by subbing in Apple Pie Spice for cinnamon and adding a heavy pour of boiled cider — one of our favorite ways to add concentrated apple flavor to fall bakes. These soft, chewy cookies may rival apple cider doughnuts as your new favorite fall treat — so plan on making a double batch.
Get the recipe: Apple Cider Snickerdoodles
To make this recipe, you'll need: Jumbo Cookie Scoop and Apple Pie Spice
4) Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
This super-easy one-bowl cake is loaded with chopped apples and walnuts, which give this moist, spiced cake heft and texture. The frosting, akin to a velvety brown sugar fudge, adds a textural counterpoint and an extra dimension of richness.
Get the recipe: Old-Fashioned Apple Cake with Brown Sugar Frosting
To make this recipe, you'll need: 9" x 13" pan
5) Fresh Apple Cinnamon Scones
Cinnamon and apple go together like a flannel and a beanie, but this recipe one-ups that perfect pairing with the addition of cinnamon chips. Diced apple and melty pockets of cinnamon-sugar are also studded throughout these autumnal scones, which are then finished off with an extra-crunchy sugar coating.
Get the recipe: Fresh Apple Cinnamon Scones
To make this recipe, you'll need: Cinnamon Sweet Bits
6) Apple Pie Babka
Ribbons of gooey, cinnamon-scented apples are twisted throughout this striking enriched loaf. Beautiful to behold (and easier to make than you’d think), this braided babka would be a welcome addition to any Rosh Hashanah table or fall celebration.
Get the recipe: Apple Pie Babka
To make this recipe, you'll need: Baker’s Special Dry Milk
7) Secret Ingredient Apple Pie
Spoiler alert: The eponymous secret ingredient in this special pie is boiled cider! Made by cooking down apple cider into a concentrate, a few drops deliver big apple flavor. When used in apple pies, it super-charges the fruit’s tart, tangy flavor, delivering a pie with over-the-top apple goodness.
Get the recipe: Secret Ingredient Apple Pie
To make this recipe, you'll need: Boiled Cider
8) Apple Fritter Cake
If your go-to doughnut order is an apple fritter, this mash-up cake was made for you. The batter is made using the reverse creaming technique, which ensures a velvety crumb and tender texture. In each slice, there’s a filling and topping of cinnamon-dusted apples and a final drizzle of icy-white vanilla glaze. A slice rivals anything you can get at your local doughnut shop.
Get the recipe: Apple Fritter Cake
To make this recipe, you'll need: Instant ClearJel
9) Sugar-Crusted Apple Cobbler Cake
This time of year, apples don't need much to make them shine. The paper-thin, crackly top layer of this cobbler highlights the juicy fruit beneath. It doesn’t need a lot of adornment, but a scoop of vanilla ice cream never hurt anything.
Get the recipe: Sugar-Crusted Apple Cobbler Cake
To make this recipe, you'll need: Vietnamese Cinnamon
10) Apple Pie Bars
Is it a bar? A slab pie? Both! This breezy recipe swaps the flaky pastry for a buttery shortbread crust but keeps the warm, gooey apples and classic spices for a sliceable, portable dessert. To finish, there's a crumbly streusel topping inspired by Dutch apple pie.
Get the recipe: Apple Pie Bars
To make this recipe, you'll need: Apple Pie Spice
11) Classic Apple Crisp
When you want a fruit dessert fast, you can always count on crisps — no rolling, no resting, and most importantly, no special equipment required! This crisp is made with a handful of baking basics, so when you find yourself with a surplus of apples, dessert is barely an hour away.
Get the recipe: Classic Apple Crisp
To make this recipe, you'll need: 9" Square Pan
12) Apple Crumb Cake
Beneath a buttery, apple-pie-spiced streusel lies a generous layer of tender apples, enriched with intensely flavored boiled cider for a filling that tastes like a truly great apple pie — rich, saucy, and fork-tender apples. The sour cream cake that surrounds the apple filling is plush, subtly tangy, and ultra-moist, providing the perfect counterpoint to the fruit filling and crumb topping.
Get the recipe: Apple Crumb Cake
To make this recipe, you'll need: Apple Pie Spice
13) Apple Butter Apple Galette
If you’re looking to veer from classic apple pie territory, this galette stays true to those roots but adds a few modern twists. It starts with a buttery whole wheat crust enriched with a touch of sour cream. Then, a layer of apple butter (which can be easily made by cooking down applesauce) is spread beneath a layer of artfully arranged apples slices.
Get the recipe: Apple Butter Apple Galette
To make this recipe, you'll need: Sparkling Sugar
14) Mostly Apples Apple Cake
There’s just enough batter to hold together a heap of sliced apples in this one-of-a-kind cake. Gently sweetened with brown sugar and scented with almond extract, this minimalist cake is greater than the sum of its parts — a sophisticated, custardy cake that’s deceivingly simple to make.
Get the recipe: Mostly Apples Apple Cake
To make this recipe, you'll need: Almond Extract
15) Cinnamon-Apple Pull-Apart Bread
This pull-apart bread is as fun to make as it is to eat. After rolling out the dough into a rectangle, it’s spread with sweetened apple filling. The dough is cut up into several strips, then stacked and squeezed into a loaf pan. It bakes into a loaf comprised of distinct slices of pillowy apple-studded bread that you can easily tear from the loaf.
Get the recipe: Cinnamon-Apple Pull-Apart Bread
To make this recipe, you'll need: SAF Instant Yeast
16) Classic Apple Tarte Tatin
The French know a thing or two about baking with apples, and perhaps no recipe is as classic — or elegant — as the Tarte Tatin. Comprised of deeply caramelized apples layered over buttery pastry, it’s a dessert that stuns. Here, we've tested endlessly to ensure this sometimes-fussy dessert goes off without a hitch in your home kitchen.
Get the recipe: Classic Apple Tarte Tatin
To make this recipe, you'll need: King Arthur Round Cake Pan
17) Fried Apple Pies
These handheld treats harness all the nostalgia of a steaming hot McDonald’s fried apple pie but are infinitely better, thanks to the triple threat of a homemade flaky pie crust, a fresh apple filling amplified by boiled cider, and a generous coating of cinnamon sugar.
Get the recipe: Fried Apple Pies
To make this recipe, you'll need: Boiled Cider and Apple Pie Spice
Looking for more fall baking inspiration? Check out our recipe collection of Fall Favorites.
Cover photo by Rick Holbrook; food styling by Kaitlin Wayne.
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