Irresistible Apple Dessert Recipes

This simple, orchard-fresh dessert captures the flavor of vanilla ice cream melting into the warm apples in a pie—but more quickly, and with way less fat and sugar.

Vanilla Apple Gratin 

One of Gail Michael's students shared this apple dessert recipe with her long ago. "These were in the lunch box of one of my first-grade students in the fall of 1974," recalls Gail, who lives in West Lafayette, Indiana. The bars taste like apple pie in a baking pan.

Danish Pastry Apple Bars

This easy, French-style upside-down apple tart relies on frozen puff pastry. The spice flavor comes from Chinese five-spice powder, a widely available blend with flavors of clove, black pepper and star anise.

Spiced Apple Tarte Tatin 

This easy skillet cobbler is bursting with harvest flavor: crisp apples, cinnamon, toasted walnuts and sweet maple syrup.

Maple-Walnut Apple Cobbler

Creamy caramel frosting finishes these apple-filled cookies.

Caramel Apple Cookies

This recipe from Iowa's Rapid Creek Cidery restaurant looks daunting, but it's actually five very simple parts that are easily made ahead. (You’ll end up with extra candied nuts; they’re great alone or with cheese.)

Freestyle Apple Tarts recipe

This nutty comfort cake from Sharon Buckner of Rhineland, Missouri, gets a sugary top and caramelized gooey bottom as it cooks. Don't be surprised by the thick batter; it will bake into a moist, dense cake.

Fresh Apple Cake

 Apples are gently cooked in butter, then arranged in a prebaked crust and brushed with jelly. The result is an edible work of art.

Cider-Spiked Apple and Pecan Tart

No granulated sugar is added to this apple dessert recipe; the sweetness comes from cider, fruit and applesauce. The recipe comes from Sandra Schifferle of Lansing, Kansas.

Applesauce Spice Cake

We often equate Amish food with comfort. Here's our version of a favorite apple dessert you might find at Amish-based restaurants in the Midwest.

Amish Apple Dumplings

Crisp on top, sweetly tender inside, this pie blends tart and sweet apples—Granny Smith, Jonagold and Braeburn—with sugar and cinnamon under a brown-sugar and walnut crumb topping.

Crumb-Topped Apple Trio Pie

With apple pie filling on the bottom and a moist walnut cake layer on top, this dessert makes the perfect ending to a fall or winter meal.

Dutch Apple Pudding Cake

Spiced coconut streusel adds crunch to healthy apples and berries.

Rise and Shine Cranberry-Apple Crisp

Top this moist cake with a dollop of homemade Cinnamon Butter for a quick and easy apple dessert.

Apple Harvest Bake

In the trendy Westport area of Kansas City, Missouri, customers at Broadway Cafe can taste samples of that day's baked goods, including frosted scones, biscotti, coffee cake and this moist apple cake. A generous portion of chopped Granny Smith apples adds flavor and moisture. Be careful turning this apple dessert out of the pan; it's a tender coffee cake.

Broadway Cafe Apple Cake

Nuts and cranberries fill these simple baked apples that cook in your slow cooker. Top them with Sea Salt Caramel Sauce and, if you like, a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Cider-Baked Stuffed Apples with Salty Caramel Sauce

A free-form tart is the anxious pie-maker's best friend. No fussy crimping, and any torn edges or lumpy folds just add to the charm (especially when sprinkled with sparkly raw sugar).

Apple, Cranberry and Pecan Galette

"I first enjoyed this at a church circle meeting. Rosemary has since moved from Columbia, but I think of her every time I serve this," says Georgia Morehouse of Columbia, Missouri.

Rosemary Ward's Apple Cake With Butter-Rum Sauce

"The key to this pie is the apples you use," says Mary Schrier of Cumberland, Iowa, who got the recipe from an old handwritten family recipe book. She suggests not using Red Delicious apples. Instead, try Granny Smith, Jonathan or any sweet-tart heirloom apples. "There are quite a few orchards that are starting to carry the heirloom apples, and this old recipe is just waiting for them," she says.

Apple Pear Praline Pie

Wrap your favorite tart or sweet apple in caramel (we even created a less sticky version), then unleash your imagination as you add on nuts, cereal, dried fruit, candy, decorative sprinkles or whatever else inspires you--and your taste buds.

Indulgent Caramel Apples

A double dose of caramel—baked in with the fruit and drizzled on top—elevates the humble crisp to new levels of indulgence. Mix two types of apples for the best texture. The tender apples cook down and create a sort of thick sauce; the firm apples hold their shape. Boiled cider, which you can purchase at specialty stores or online or make using our recipe, adds an extra splash of apple flavor to this dessert.

Nutty Caramel Apple Crisp

Caramel sauce adds a creamy-sweet finish to individual Apple-Butter Cakelets created by Midwest Living® in honor of Illinois' Amish bakers. You can choose from two Prairie State ingredients, apples or pumpkins, for this treat.

Apple-Butter Cakelets

A touch of lemon, chopped cranberries and walnuts make this quick bread seem like coffee cake. Norma Hendricks of Hopedale, Illinois, likes to serve this for dessert. "I made this by combining a couple of recipes 35 years ago," Norma says. "I think I started with a cranberry bread, but most of my kids don't like cranberries. Then I saw an apple bread recipe, and I thought streusel would be good on top.".

Streusel Apple Bread

Try Jonagold, Gala or Granny Smith apples in this easy 3-step dessert. Refrigerated piecrust speeds prep time.

Apple-Toffee Tartlets

Joan Wagner of Overland Park, Kansas, considers this baked apple dessert her easy-entertaining recipe. "You can make these up to six hours ahead and cover them with plastic wrap, so the puff pastry doesn't dry out," she says. "The desserts can bake while your coffee is brewing."

Single-Serving Caramel Apples

An apple a day tastes even better in cookie form, especially with frosting on top!

Spiced Apple Drops

The Wisconsin Maple Producers created this recipe to showcase maple syrup and juicy apples in a moist, rich dessert.

Maple-Apple Pudding Bake

Sweet apples balance the tang of cranberries in this fall favorite.

Apple-Cranberry Walnut Pie

Purchased puff pastry adds to the ease of this dessert recipe, but the real star is the filling the pairing of sweet apples and tart cranberries. Homemade icing rounds out this crowd-pleasing potluck pie.

Easy Apple Cranberry Slab Pie

We packed a bushel of fall into this homey loaf: pumpkin, apple, nuts and spices. 

Apple Pumpkin Sunflower Bread  

We combined two favorite pie fillings--apple and cherry--into one fall treat. Almonds add a nutty boost.

Something Special Apple-Cherry Pie

They're light, buttery and full of apple flavor. We almost hate to cover up the baked-on apple slice with the whipped maple butter. Almost.

Apple Scones with Spiced Maple Butter

Creamy rum sauce tops this warm, homey pudding. Generous scoops of ice cream are good, too!

Apple Pudding with Rummy Sauce

Creamy caramels nestle between layers of tart cooking apples and a mixture of brown sugar, pecans and melted butter.

Praline-Taffy Apple Pie

Biscuits, apples, orange juice? Sounds like breakfast to us. Orange juice adds brightness to both the bite-of-autumn bread and the cream cheese icing drizzle. 

Apple-Cinnamon Pull-Apart Bread

This juicy pie, from a Purdy, Missouri, reader, has a cheddar-speckled crust and cheesy-streusel topping.

Cheesy Apple Pie

Cook this easy apple dessert on your grill in summer or on your stove in cooler weather—it’s great either way. For outdoor entertaining, scoop ice cream into plastic cups. 

Easy Gingery Apple Sundaes

A serving of apple crisp has never been so impressive--or easy! There's no peeling or slicing in this apple dessert recipe. Just assemble the "crisps" the night before and bake right before serving. Brushing apples with a citrus juice keeps them from going brown.

Ridiculously Easy Whole-Apple Crisp

"This is a twist on a popular dish and is one of my personal favorites," says April Osburn from the Clabber Girl Bake Shop in Terre Haute, Indiana. Thinly slice the apples for this apple dessert so they get done in the allotted baking time.

Ginger-Cinnamon Apple Crisp

Click below to download our FREE printable collection of 10 top apple dessert recipes, or choose from one of our other free printable cookbooks!

Click below for more great Midwest Living fall recipe ideas!