This fall, reach for this unlikely apple ingredient

As fall baking season settles in, you're probably reaching for apples — and the many flavor-packed ingredients they produce. Applesauce cooks down into tangy apple butter to be cradled in a flaky galette, while a drop of boiled cider can deliver supercharged apple flavor to crumb cake. But the baking ingredient you may be overlooking may be something you associate more with salad dressings and wellness tonics: apple cider vinegar. 

This tangy, apple-y vinegar is a secret ingredient in some of our favorite fall recipes, including cookbook author Claire Saffitz’s Cinnamon-and-Sugar Apple Pie. While lemon juice is the standard acid used in most fruit pie fillings, Claire opts for apple cider vinegar here to complement the filling’s flavors. “It helps as a flavor enhancer, and I also like that it’s apple cider in an apple pie. It’s a nice symmetry,” she mentions. 

Photography by Patrick Marinello; food styling by Yekaterina Boytsova

Similarly, apple cider vinegar is used in the cooking liquid alongside sugar and butter to caramelize apples in a Classic Apple Tarte Tatin. The benefit is twofold: Vinegar’s acidity helps cut the sweetness of the caramel, and it prevents the apples from getting too mushy, instead maintaining their fork-tender texture. 

Pastry chef and cookbook author Natasha Pickowicz often leans into the jolt vinegar can add, including adding a few drops to her cake soaks for an additional layer of flavor. “Cake soaks should have a balance of tart, sweet, and savory notes — just like vinaigrette for your favorite salad,” she writes in her cookbook More Than Cake. It can add intrigue to layered cakes like this Golden Spice Cake or Pumpkin Layer Cake. In her cookbook, she also calls for a glaze spiked with apple cider vinegar to brush onto an apple tart after baking. It’s the finishing touch “to further emphasize the tart’s resolute apple-ness,” she writes.  

Apple cider vinegar doesn’t need to be limited to only apple desserts, either. In our Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie, we call for apple cider vinegar as a foil to the brown sugar filling’s cloying sweetness. A spoonful of apple cider vinegar may not announce itself boldly, but it makes a small splash for brighter, more balanced bakes.  

For more fall baking inspiration, check out our Fall Flavor Edit.