Who else is ready to embrace all the coziness as we prepare for the holiday season ahead? The weather brings a welcome coolness, we start stocking our homes with fuzzy everything, and pumpkin takes over every last baked good and beverage. It’s a time to slow down, unwind, and revisit your repertoire of my favorite part of fall: the recipes. Yes, there’s pumpkin bread, pie, cookies, and more, but for me, the humble apple is fall’s true hero ingredient. And with it comes the best apple recipes to savor the season.

How to Pick the Right Apple

When it comes to fall baking and cooking, not all apples are created equal. The best varieties strike a balance between sweet and tart, with a firm texture that, if baking, can hold up under heat. Classics include:

• Granny Smith. This is the apple that cuts through sweetness like a dream. These slices are best suited in classic apple pie, crisps, and any recipe that calls for a contrast to sugar or caramel.
• Honeycrisp. Sweet, juicy, and perfectly crisp—it’s basically the queen of snacking apples. Honeycrisp apples are best enjoyed fresh, tossed into fall salads, or layered into a galette where texture isn’t the star.
• Braeburn. Balanced and versatile, with a mix of sweet and tart that feels just right. A lesser-known variety, Braeburn apples are well-suited in apple tarts, baked apples, and savory pairings like pork or roasted veggies.
• Pink Lady. Vibrant and crisp, with a sweet-tart bite that feels playful and bright. The Pink Lady’s sharp texture makes them ideal for salads, caramel apples, and pies that require layers of flavor.
• Jonagold. A cross between Jonathan and Golden Delicious—bringing the best of both worlds. These apples are ideal for apple crisps, sauces, and cakes where you want both sweetness and structure.

11 Must-Try Apple Recipes to Add to Your Fall Lineup

While there are many other underrated fall fruits (pears, persimmons, and pomegranates, anyone?), apples are often outshined by pumpkin’s prominent seasonality. With the PSL’s return, pumpkin-scented candles, and pumpkin spice… everything, it’s easy to default to pumpkin as the flavor of the season. But for me, there’s something about a crisp, juicy apple that screams fall freshness. Whichever you prefer, I encourage you to spring into fall with apples on your mind and a few recipes in your back pocket to make ’em shine.

On this list, you’ll find a little sweet, a little salty, and a whole lotta apple-y goodness to help you celebrate the fall prodigy to its fullest. Read on for our picks of the best apple recipes you should be making this season.

Apple Walnut Salad

When fall is calling—this salad answers. Picture crisp, thinly sliced Honeycrisp apples mingling with crunchy arugula, toasted walnuts, tangy dried cranberries, and creamy goat cheese, all tossed in a maple-cider vinaigrette that’s equal parts sweet and savory.

One Pot Apple Chutney

Every cheese board needs its classics: a variety of cheeses, fruits, nuts, pickled items, crackers, meats, jams, etc. to satisfy cravings of any kind. To give yours a fall twist, try out this one pot apple chutney. Cumin, mustard seeds, and jalapeño counterbalance the sweetness from the apple and onion to make it the cheese companion.

Squash & Farro Salad With Apples, Goat Cheese, & Pecans

This seasonal show-stopper always leaves the serving plate clear at the end of any evening. This recipe blends roasted delicata squash and nutty farro with crisp apple, creamy goat cheese, and toasted pecans—all wrapped in a zesty vinaigrette.

Bacon, Apple, & Sweet Potato Pizza

Buckle up, because this pizza is bursting with fall flavor. Thinly-sliced sweet potato rounds top a delicious homemade pizza dough, crisping up as the pizza bakes and taking on an almost chip-like texture. Thin slices of red onion bring a kick to each bite, apple slices come in with a mild sweetness, and crispy sage tops it all off with an herbal element that’s almost too good to be true.

Cinnamon Baked Apples

These cinnamon-baked apples bring fall comfort with under 10 ingredients. Thin-sliced apples bake in a sugar-spice bath until tender and caramelized—perfect on their own or lavishly dressed with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or spooned over oatmeal for a breakfast that feels like dessert.

Apple, Blackberry, & Thyme Slab Pie

Slab pie is the crowd-pleasing dessert that your next gathering needs. It’s simple to make, elegant, and sure to satisfy any guest you’re welcoming. This variety uses Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples plus tart, juicy blackberries to form the warm filling. Atop that, a flaky, buttery crust to finish it off.

One-Bowl Morning Glory Muffins

These tasty morning glory muffins use apple in two ways. Applesauce keeps the batter moist and naturally sweetened, followed by grated apple to give the muffin some texture and a fruity component alongside the long list of veggies. With wholesome ingredients like carrot, zucchini, maple syrup, whole wheat flour, almonds, and rolled oats, these muffins are so chock-full of goodness that you’ll be glowing from the inside out.

Easy Apple Crumble

This apple crumble is something entirely unique and celebratory for fall. Structurally—though the lines have been blurred since the original adaptations, as you’ll see in this recipe—the difference between a crisp and a crumble lies in the use of oats. This crumble is It’s basically your favorite oatmeal cookie in disguise—soft and chewy underneath, crisp and crunchy on top.

Brown Butter Bourbon Apple Crisp

To start off with a staple in the realm of apple recipes, this brown butter bourbon crisp screams fall. The mixture of Granny Smith and Pink Lady apples keep things from getting too sweet, and help the apples retain enough texture. The brown butter surfaces in the dough and perfectly complements the apple, oats, and cinnamon with a nuttiness that’s to die for.

Apple Pie Baked Oatmeal

Baked oatmeal makes such an easy breakfast, and this recipe uses apples, walnuts, and oats to drive home the fall flavor. It also features cinnamon, vanilla bean, and apple juice, which perfectly sweetens all the goodness underneath that oat mixture. You can even bake this oatmeal over the weekend, store it in the fridge, and reheat (with a little milk) for easy breakfasts all week long.

Apple-Vanilla Chai Hot Toddy

Maybe I’m impartial as an Autumn, but every year I just can’t help but deem hot toddy’s as fall in a mug. Warm chai spices steep with apple cider and a whisper of vanilla, garnished with apple slices, star anise, and a cinnamon stick. It’s a snug sipper—and just as lovely as a mocktail without the bourbon.