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Picture this — you just went apple picking at Beak & Skiff and return to find you have picked far too many apples than you can eat before they go bad. Instead of letting the apples go to waste, why not use them in some fall desserts?

Here are three recipes for apple baked goods sure to please a crowd and fill your kitchen with the smells of fall.

Caramel Apple Cheesecake Bars
Cheesecake can be an intimidating dessert to make, but this recipe is fairly simple and puts a fall twist on the classic dish.

Preheat your oven to 350℉, and prepare a 9-by-13 inch pan by either spraying it with cooking spray or lining it with parchment paper. Personally, I found that the parchment paper made cutting the bars easier, as you can easily lift them out of the pan.

After lining the pan, cube 12 tablespoons of cold, salted butter, and add to a bowl with 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Using a pastry cutter or your hands, mix until crumbly, and then press into the bottom of the pan. Once in the pan, place in the oven and bake the crumbly base for 15-18 minutes or until lightly browned.

While that bakes, you can start on the cheesecake filling. In a bowl or stand mixer, combine softened cream cheese, eggs, vanilla and granulated sugar and beat until smooth. Note that the cream cheese needs to be very soft so that there are no lumps in the cheesecake batter.

After the cheesecake filling is made, it’s time to add the apples. Peel and finely chop three medium apples and combine them in a bowl with sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg and mix until coated. Make sure the apples are chopped very small, like the size of frozen peas or carrots, so that they are small enough to soften in the oven.

Once the crust is out of the oven, pour the cheesecake mixture over the crust, spread out evenly, and sprinkle with the apples. You don’t need to wait for the crust to cool before adding the cream cheese mixture and apples to the pan.

In a separate small bowl, make the streusel topping. Combine flour, brown sugar, oats and cold butter and mix together until coarse crumbs form, using either a pastry cutter or your hands. Once combined, sprinkle over the apples and cheesecake filling until evenly covered.

Place in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes. It will be ready to pull out when the edges are done and slightly pulled away from the sides of the pan. The middle of the pan should be set and not wiggly.

Remove from the oven when done and place on a cooling rack. Drizzle with caramel sauce and let sit for an hour at room temperature. After an hour, cover the dish and place in the refrigerator for three hours before cutting into bars and serving.

Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor

Apple Pie Snickerdoodles
This recipe may be a bit more labor-intensive, but it’s worth it!

First, you’ll make the apple filling, which goes in the middle of the cookies. In a medium bowl, combine four medium sized apples — peeled and finely diced — ¼ cup of brown sugar, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 tablespoon of melted butter. Once mixed together, set aside until you’re ready to fill the dough.

Preheat the oven to 375℉ and prepare three baking sheets with parchment paper. In a bowl or stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together for two to three minutes until light and fluffy. Add in two eggs, one at a time, then add a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Beat until fully mixed.

With the mixer on low or off, add in 2 ¾ cups of flour, a teaspoon of cream of tartar, a teaspoon of baking soda, and ¼ teaspoon of salt and mix until combined. Using a two-tablespoon scoop, scoop out the dough into round balls. Make a well in the center, place a heaping teaspoon of the apple filling inside. Form the rest of the cookie around the filling and place them on one of the cookie sheets.

In a separate bowl, mix equal parts of cinnamon and sugar together. Roll the balls of dough in the cinnamon mixture and place two inches apart on a baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for 10-12 minutes. Once done, immediately remove from the cookie sheet and place on a cooling rack.

Megan Thompson | Digital Design Director

Apple Fritter Cake
This recipe is the perfect mix between an apple cake and coffee cake, and can also be easily adapted for a gluten-free version.

Preheat the oven to 350℉, spray a nine-by-five inch loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside. Then in a small bowl, make the cinnamon sugar simply by combining ¼ cup of light brown sugar and two teaspoons of cinnamon and also set aside.

Using a large bowl or stand mixer, cream ½ cup of butter and ¾ cup of sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in two teaspoons of vanilla extract and add two eggs one at a time, beating each egg until incorporated. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.

In a medium bowl, combine 1 ½ cups of flour, a teaspoon baking powder, a teaspoon of baking soda and ¼ teaspoon of salt. Add the dry ingredients and ½ cup of buttermilk to the butter mixture alternating between the two and mix at a medium speed. Once incorporated, scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and stir in any unmixed bits.

In another bowl, add roughly two peeled and finely chopped apples with 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon and a tablespoon of sugar.

Meghan Hendricks | Photo Editor

Add half of the batter to the loaf pan and layer with half of the apples. Press the apples down into the bottom layer of batter and sprinkle with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Add the remaining batter to the pan followed by the rest of the apples and cinnamon-sugar. Using a toothpick or butterknife, swirl the batter together.

Bake for 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Mix together powdered sugar and milk in a small bowl until smooth. Once the cake is out of the oven and cool, drizzle the glaze over the top. Cut and serve the cake warm or at room temperature.

Published on October 13, 2022 at 12:35 am