Easy Apple Dessert Recipes

Easy Apple Dessert Recipes perfect for Fall of all year long! Everything from apple dump cakes to cookies, and more!

Easy as Pie: 10+ Delicious Apple Dessert Recipes

Fall is one of the most pivotal parts of the calendar year. The days get shorter as the summer sun fades, the nights get crisper, schoolchildren return for another school year, and we trade our summertime shorts, dresses, and T-shirts for sweaters, boots, and layers to keep us insulated.

What we eat also changes along with the changes in the seasons. Summer peaches, cherries, and berries make way for fall favorites, the most iconic of which are apples and pumpkins. Hello, yum, to PSL season - or pumpkin spice latte to those who like things spelled out, LOL!

As a native Northwesterner, I’ve been around apples for nearly all of my life. From picking fresh bushels of apples as a kid during the fall at the many apple orchards to buying boatloads of in-season apples as an adult to incorporate into homemade recipes, you may say that I’ve done it all when it comes to this autumnal tree-grown fruit.

Apple pie is likely the first dessert that comes to mind when you think of apples, especially in America, where we’ve all heard “as American as apple pie” thrown around as a slogan here and there. Did you know that apple pie originated not in America but in England when the first settlers brought it to the New World?

Fortunately for sweeties who love desserts and all things fall, the world of apple desserts extends far beyond apple pie, though we’d never turn away a fresh-from-the-oven slice of apple pie in our household.

Today, we bring you a roundup of our favorite apple desserts for your fall baking needs, including a section for CrockPot apple desserts to show our endearing love for our favorite kitchen appliance. Let’s get started!

Cinnamon Roll Cobbler with Apple Pie Filling

This simple two-ingredient recipe uses just two ingredients - refrigerator cinnamon roll dough and apple pie filling - to deliver a dish you can enjoy for breakfast, brunch, or even a late-night dessert. We love dressing it up with chopped pecans, ground cinnamon powder, ice cream, or a drizzle of caramel sauce.

Apple Cider Donut Cake

Any quality moist yellow cake mix and fresh or store-bought apple cider works in this Bundt cake recipe. We love serving it warm with a heaping vanilla ice cream scoop or caramel sauce drizzle.

We used a full-sized Bundt cake pan in our recipe, but you can easily portion the cake batter into mini Bundt cake pans for a petite version perfect for individual servings.

Apple and Snickers Salad

A dessert salad isn’t quite as bad for you as you may think; it has fruit, right? This Apple and Snickers Salad was a hit at the wedding reception of two of my dear friends, who I had the privilege of marrying on their special day, and as soon as I took my first bite of it, I knew I had to recreate it at home!

We use vanilla instant pudding mix to let the flavors of the chopped apples and Snickers chunks shine, but you can customize the recipe with another instant pudding mix, such as butterscotch or cheesecake.

Apple Cider Cookies

This easy cookie recipe delivers flavor and texture that oozes sweater weather goodness in each delicious bite. Like our equally fall-appropriate Pumpkin Snickerdoodle Cookies, this recipe begins with a pack of sugar cookie mix.

We add chopped apples to celebrate the seasonal abundance of fall apples and dry apple cider mix to bring the apple cider flavor full circle.

You can enjoy them as-is or turn them into Caramel Apple Cider Cookies by drizzling caramel sauce on top or baking caramel chips into each cookie.

Apple Pie Dumplings

This recipe is a fond reminder of how time flies when you’re having fun! We shared this recipe featuring refrigerator Pillsbury crescent roll dough over ten years ago in March 2013 after finding a similar recipe on the Pillsbury site that we were curious about adapting.

A spark of creativity in the kitchen resulted in these yummy apple pie dumplings glazed in decadent cinnamon and brown sugar.

Baking Tools We Love

These are my go-to baking tools that I use with every recipe.

Hand Mixer - A hand electric mixer makes this recipe easy to mix. You can also stir with a wooden spoon or spatula. A stand mixer with the paddle attachment would also work.

Large Mixing Bowl - We are big fans of this glass batter bowl that has a handle. It makes it easy to mix ingredients and keeps the mixing bowl steady on the counter

Cookie Scoop - A scoop helps get even cookie sizes.

Parchment Paper - We suggest using parchment paper to make it easier to remove the cookies.

Baking Sheets - We are huge fans of these baking sheets with sides. You don't have to worry; you will remove cookies from the oven and have them slide right off.

Heat resistant potholders - A couple of years ago, we had a fire scare when we didn't realize we had turned a stove burner on, and a cloth potholder caught fire. Thankfully we walked by the kitchen and saw the smoke and were able to get it out ourselves. Since then, we have only used these heat-resistant potholders.

Bisquick Apple Cobbler

Bisquick is a versatile pancake and baking mix with a gluten-free variety for those who don’t consume gluten and a heart-healthy variety for the health-conscious.

This easy take on classic apple cobbler uses just five pantry staples and came to life in our kitchen after a pantry cleaning session led to us needing to repurpose a stray can of apple pie filling.

Check out our Bisquick Peach Cobbler, Bisquick Blackberry Cobbler, and Bisquick Blueberry Cobbler if you have a box of Bisquick in your kitchen but want a different flavor of fruit cobbler!

Apple Cider Muddy Buddies

I’d always thought these sweet cereal-based snacks had a funny name, and their name was perhaps why I’d never tried to eat them, let alone make them. A fateful grocery shopping trip that led to us sampling Apple Cider Muddy Buddies inspired my first foray into making these treats from home, and needless to say, I’ve been converted since then.

Check out the recipe post for the other Muddy Buddy treats I’ve whipped up since then! There’s a Muddy Buddy treat for every season of the calendar year!

Apple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

There’s something pleasantly rustic about oatmeal cookies. In this scratch-made cookie recipe, the oatmeal raisin cookie we all know and love gets a fall upgrade from apple sauce, which builds texture and flavor.

Even though they contain white and brown sugar - white sugar to sweeten them and brown sugar to give them warmth - these not-too-sweet cookies will please even those who don’t typically go for dessert.

The combination of oats with tart apple flavor is amazing!

Apple Blackberry Fruit Tart

We were super pleased with how this homemade fruit tart came out of the oven with the appearance of an elegant dessert in a bake shop window.

My favorite summer memories involving two quintessentially Northwestern fruits - blackberries and apples - inspired me to combine the two into one sweet recipe.

We love that the pastry crust is golden brown while the apples and blackberries are vibrant in color.

Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie Cups

Our Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie Cobbler, one of our most popular recipes, inspired these reinvented apple pie cups using refrigerator cinnamon roll dough. We also love that no part of the cinnamon roll tube goes to waste in this two-ingredient recipe.

Each cinnamon roll slice gets flattened into a muffin tin compartment to form the base of each bite-sized apple pie delight, and the cream cheese frosting gets drizzled on top of each fresh-from-the-oven apple pie cup.

Enjoys these while they are warm or at room temperature! Either way they taste absolutely amazing.

Mini Apple Cookies

Does your heart do a double take once you realize that another summer has flown by at a supersonic pace and stores are beginning to retail Halloween items as early as September?

Nothing says back-to-school season like these mini apple pie cookies, and they’ll make this mini existential crisis a bit sweeter!

The recipe is entirely homemade, even down to the royal icing, and was lovingly bestowed upon me to share with you all by a blogging friend’s daughter, a baker by trade specializing in cookie art. Store them in a mason jar for fresh keeping, and feel free to use a cute one if you’re gifting them!

Upcoming recipes we are working on include classic apple pie, apple cake, apple crumble, easy apple crisp recipe (oven), and a great streusel to top apple pies.

CrockPot Apple Dessert Recipes

 

CrockPot Caramel Apple Crisp

If you’ve followed our site for any length, you probably know by now that you can make an entire meal, from appetizer to dessert, using a CrockPot.

Here’s a Slow Cooker Caramel Apple Crisp that begins with two boxes of yellow cake mix and uses fresh, in-season apples. You can buy caramel sauce for this recipe or DIY it with our one-ingredient caramel sauce!

CrockPot Caramel Apples

Caramel apples are a classic fall fairground treat that conjures delightful memories of carnival games, crisp sweater weather, and falling leaves scattering the ground as the seasons shift toward the year's cooler months.

We shared this recipe during one fall whose arrival we’d been excited for once, as the summer that came before it was a crazy fire season. While the caramel sauce in the recipe requires some elbow grease from needing a stir every fifteen minutes, it’s kid-friendly enough that any kids in the household can help out.

CrockPot Apple Butter

We’re big fans of the dump-and-go approach to many slow cooker recipes; you toss your prepped ingredients into your CrockPot, set the timer to your desired cooking time, and walk away!

This CrockPot Apple Butter is a delight on toast, pancakes, or any other bread-like sweet treat and is a fantastic use of a fall apple surplus in your household. You can control the consistency by mashing it until smooth if you like smooth apple butter or only mashing it partway if you prefer some chunks.

CrockPot Apple Crisp

I was a long-time buyer of store-bought apple crisps until it struck me that I should give it a whirl at home if I enjoy it so much.

This easy recipe fully converted me, and I’ll never return to my old ways! You can make it at night or set it during the daytime if you plan to be away for a couple of hours; not only will you walk into a kitchen that smells divine, but you’ll have a brunch-worthy treat ready for your full enjoyment!

CrockPot Fried Apples

Fried apples are a Cracker Barrel dish that we enjoy whenever we get a chance on our travels, as the closest location to our home is across the border in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

We’d always loved how simple yet decadently snack-worthy they are, so we decided to make this vegetarian-friendly dish at home using our slow cooker.

We recommend having an apple corer, apple slicer, and vegetable peeler on hand to minimize the prep work of cutting all the apples.

CrockPot Apple Spice Dump Cake

This recipe is only one of the CrockPot Dump Cake Recipes we’ve shared on the site! This three-ingredient recipe begins with a boxed spice cake mix for warm flavor and adds two cans of apple pie filling for a cobbler-like experience.

Serve it with a heaping scoop of vanilla ice cream, or top it with whipped cream for a decadent treat after any meal!

You can also top each serving with chopped pecans or walnuts if you crave crunch; we’ve even heard of folks sprinkling brown sugar on top for more sweetness.

Recipe Tips

Printable recipe card instructions are available in each blog post.

Nutrition information, including calories, protein, calcium, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamin c, potassium, cholesterol, sodium, trans fat, monounsaturated fat, polyunsaturated fat, and more, will vary depending on the products used.

Fall Recipe Collections

Epic Fall Cocktails - The best cocktails to celebrate the fall season.

Recipes using Apple Cider - Check out all of our epic recipes that use apple cider.

Desserts with 5 ingredients or less - All the recipes in this collection are made with five or fewer ingredients, ensuring you’re never more than a few steps and ingredients away from sweet treat bliss.

Must try Fall Dessert recipes - The best fall desserts everyone will enjoy