11 Classic Apple Recipes to Make at Home

Deciding which apples are best for cooking and baking is a matter of both opinion and application:

• Baking: If you’re baking a pie, a tangy, all-purpose apple like Granny Smith or Cripps Pink might be the way to go.
• Roasting: If you’re roasting a chicken with apples, leeks, and rosemary, you may look for a juicy sweet apple (think Fuji) to balance the savory alliums and herbs of the roast.
• Spreads: Apples with softer flesh like a McIntosh are better for applesauce and apple butter.
• Salads: Crunchier apples like Honeycrisp hold up well in something like a chicory and endive salad.
  

If you’re looking for ways to use apples after apple picking, try these easy apple recipes for apple desserts, fresh salads, and spreads:

1. 1. Baked apples: Baked apples are an easy apple dessert consisting of cored, fresh apples filled with brown sugar, butter, and dried fruit and nuts, such as cranberry and pecans. The apples are baked in water, apple juice, or wine, which steams the apples and keeps them moist. You can use almost any apples for baked apples, though the best apples are larger varieties that maintain their shape well when baked, such as Fuji, Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Red Delicious, Jonagold, and Braeburn.
2. 2. Apple butter: Apple butter is a concentrated apple spread made by cooking apples, passing them through a food mill to make applesauce, and reducing the applesauce to a thick, spreadable consistency. You can spread apple butter on pancakes, biscuits, or even pork chops.
3. 3. Applesauce: You can make homemade applesauce by cooking apples with water, apple juice, or apple cider. As you cook them, the sautéed apples gradually become a purée. You can use your favorite apples to make applesauce and add any spices or flavorings you desire, such as lemon juice or cinnamon sugar. You can serve applesauce as a snack or a side alongside savory dishes, such as pork chops or hamburgers.
4. 4. Apple chutney: Apple chutney consists of diced apples cooked with spices, sugar, butter, and vinegar or citrus juice. Like its fellow chutneys, mango chutney, tamarind chutney, and tomato chutney, apple chutney often accompanies savory dishes, where it adds a sweet, textural contrast.
5. 5. Apple cobbler: Apple cobbler is a freeform fall recipe with an apple base and a biscuit topping. Bake the dessert until the biscuits are golden and fluffy. You can also make a gluten-free apple cobbler using almond flour and cornmeal for the biscuit dough.
6. 6. Apple crumble: An apple crumble is a baked dessert consisting of cooked cinnamon apple tucked under a streusel topping made from flour, spices, sugar, and butter. You can add rolled oats and nuts, like pecans, to the topping. (A crumble recipe is not to be confused with a crisp recipe, where the oats is the predominant ingredient, along with flour, spices, sugar, and butter.)
7. 7. Apple galette: This French dessert consists of freeform tart dough wrapped around sweet or savory filling. You do not need a baking dish to make an apple galette—you can use a standard baking sheet or cookie sheet. This apple galette recipe includes apple slices arranged in a circle.
8. 8. Apple pie: Apple pie is a classic baked dessert featuring a traditional pie crust surrounding a spiced apple mixture. The apple pie filling is made of sugar, lemon juice, and cinnamon. You bake the pie until the apples are softened and the crust is golden brown, then serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
9. 9. Apple strudel: This Austrian dessert features phyllo dough stuffed with spiced apple and baked until golden brown. Bakers serve this dessert in slices.
10. 10. Applesauce cake: This moist apple cake gets its apple flavor from applesauce. You can bake it into a whole cake to serve a large group or individual cupcakes for breakfast. You can also add a crumb topping to the applesauce cake to make a coffee cake.
11. 11. Fennel apple salad: This mesclun green salad contains slices of apple and fennel. An ají chili vinaigrette prevents the apples from browning and gives the salad a spicy, zesty kick.

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