Apple Cobbler – This popular fall dessert made from juicy fresh apples and cozy spices, then baked with a golden brown, crumbly, biscuit-like top, is pure heaven. And nothing beats that sweet cinnamon apple smell wafting through the air on a crisp fall day – except maybe digging into a bowl of warm apple cobbler.
This is absolute comfort food right here. There is just something so warm and cozy about apple cobbler recipes, am I right? Spiced, saucy apples with a satisfying cobbler top – this is one of those desserts that will have you going back for seconds even when you are totally stuffed.
And I’m going to let you in on my top-secret trick that makes my recipe for apple cobbler really shine. (Keep it on the QT, please. 😜) Add finely chopped crystallized ginger on top for a surprising and mouthwatering zing! Say whaaaaaaaat? Yumminess overload!
Easy Apple Cobbler All Year Round
Even though this is a quintessential fall recipe as far as flavors go, I love to make apple cobbler all year round. It’s super easy to make. And while apples are in season in the fall, you can get them any time.
- 🌞 Apple cobbler is a great all-American dessert after a barbecue on a hot summer’s eve. (Especially when you top it with some cold vanilla ice cream!)
- 🌱 I would definitely reheat apple cobbler for breakfast on a chilly spring morning.
- ❄️ It’s delicious hot out of the oven on a cold winter’s night too.
See? Ideal for any season!
Recipe Ingredients
- Filling Ingredients – A couple of pounds of apples of your choice, butter, sugar, warm cinnamon, nutmeg, a dash of cornstarch, lemon juice, and a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and you’ve got all the magical ingredients that make for a steamy, saucy apple filling.
- Topping Ingredients – For your cobbler crust, you’ll need flour, sugar, baking powder and soda, butter, buttermilk, and that secret ingredient I talked about earlier…crystallized ginger. 🤫
How to Make Apple Cobbler
Apple Filling
- Prep Baking Dish – Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking oil or coat with a thin layer of butter and set aside.
- Melt Butter – Next, add the butter and sugar to a saucepan on medium heat and let them get nice and melty. (Photos 1-2)
- Simmer Apples – Then, add apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and cornstarch and stir until combined. Reduce the heat and let it cook for about 7 minutes. The apples should be firm but tender when cooked. (Photos 3-4)
- Cool – Remove the apple filling from the stove and let it cool.
Cobbler Crust
- Dry Ingredients – While the filling is cooling, mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl. (Photo 5)
- Butter – Add butter to the flour mixture and mix it with your hands until it resembles coarse crumbs. (Photos 6-7)
- Buttermilk – Gently stir in the buttermilk until everything is moist but don’t overwork the dough. (Photo 8)
Assemble and Bake the Cobbler
- First, the Filling – Pour the apple pie filling into the pan. (Photo 9)
- Topping – Then scoop the dough out over the apple pie filling spreading it evenly across the pan. Sprinkle the top with crystalized or brown sugar. (Photo 10)
- Bake at 350℉/177℃ for 40-45 minutes or until the topping is cooked through and the filling is bubbly. Remove and let it cool slightly for serving.
- Add Ice Cream – Optionally, serve with vanilla ice cream. (But come on, is ice cream on cobbler really optional? I didn’t think so. 😆)
Recipe Variations
- Swap up the fruits! If you love apple cobbler, I know you love peach cobbler. How about blackberry or pear cobbler? Try making cobbler with any fruit you love that’s in season.
- Make this apple cobbler recipe gluten-free by swapping out all-purpose flour for a gluten-free blend.
Tips and Tricks
- You may use a mix of sweet and tart apples for a more complex-tasting cobbler. Try one of these combos: Pink Lady with Granny Smith or Braeburn with Golden Delicious. So tasty! 😋
- Always peel and core the apples to achieve a better texture and consistency in your apple cobbler.
- When baking the cobbler, place the pie pan in the oven on top of a baking sheet. That will keep your oven clean in case the cobbler bubbles over a bit.
Make-Ahead Instructions
Apple cobbler can stay in the fridge for 3-5 days with no problem and reheats nicely in the oven. So, go ahead and get this ready a day or two in advance if you’d like!
You can also freeze apple cobbler. Just thaw it out the night before you want to serve it, and heat it up in the oven before plating.
Serving and Storage Instructions
If you can, serve apple cobbler right after it cools a bit. It will still be steamy and warm and will get that vanilla ice cream you put on top perfectly melty. 🤤
Store leftover cobbler, if you have any, in the fridge for 3-5 days or freeze baked cobbler for up to 2 months. Warm it up before serving. To reheat your apple cobbler, set it in the oven set to 350℉/177℃ for about 10 minutes or until it is warmed. Keep an eye on the cobbler crust, so it doesn’t burn. If you want to heat up a single serving quickly, just pop it in the microwave for a minute or two.
FAQs
Well, there are a lot of varieties that you can choose from. My favorite choices for fresh baking apples are Granny Smith, Fuji, Pippin, Golden Delicious, and Gravenstein. Make sure the apples are nice, hard, and free from bruises or discolorations.
To start, many people use the names “apple cobbler” and “apple crisp” interchangeably. Both desserts contain baked apples topped with a pastry crust, but there is a slight difference between the two if you want to get technical. Cobblers have a cake-like or biscuit-like topping that appears like a cobbled road as it bakes, hence the name. Crisps, on the other hand, have a streusel-like topping, usually containing oats or cereals. Oats on the top crisp as they bake, hence the name. See the difference now?
There are a couple of reasons this could happen. One is that the fruit you used was extra juicy, although that isn’t usually a problem when baking an apple cobbler recipe. The other reason is that you haven’t let the cobbler cool long enough. Straight out of the oven, it will be super hot, and the juices won’t have had time to thicken up. Give it about 10 minutes to rest before digging in, and you should have a perfectly gooey cobbler.
What Goes with Apple Cobbler?
Serve apple cobbler with a dollop of homemade whipped cream or a healthy serving of vanilla ice cream on top. Either way, it’s to die for. Don’t forget to offer your guests a cup of hot coffee (or pumpkin spice latte) to go with their cobbler, too – it’s the perfect combo to finish off a meal.
This apple cobbler also makes a great holiday dessert. Serve it alongside pecan pie, ambrosia salad, and rum cake.
More Luscious Apple Recipes to Try
Conclusion
There you go, my friend! This scrumptious and super-easy dessert is one you can make for just about any occasion. Already an apple cobbler fan? Let me know what you think of this recipe and if you have any top-secret tricks to share too! 😉
This blog post was originally published in November 2018 and has been updated with additional tips and new photos.
Apple Cobbler
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Ingredients
- 2½ pounds (1.2k) apples (any variety of a good cooking apples: Granny Smith, Pippin, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Gravenstein)
- 3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter
- ⅓ cup (200g) sugar
- ⅓ cup (200g) brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons (30ml) lemon juice
- 1½ teaspoon (6g) cinnamon
- ¼ -½ teaspoon (1-2g) ground nutmeg
- 1½ tablespoon (18g) cornstarch
- 1 teaspoon (5ml) vanilla extract
Crust Ingredients
- 2 cups (240g) all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup (50g) sugar
- 2 teaspoon (8g) baking powder
- ½ teaspoon (2g) baking soda
- ½ teaspoon (3g) salt
- ½ cup (113g) unsalted butter, cut into small cubes (1 stick or 4 ounces)
- 1 cup (240ml) buttermilk
- 1 tablespoon (13g) crystallized ginger, finely chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350℉/175 degrees C.
- Spray a 9×13-inch baking pan with cooking oil or coat with a thin layer of butter and set aside.
- Next, add the butter and sugar to a saucepan on medium heat and let them get nice and melty.
- Then, add apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, and cornstarch and stir until combined. Reduce the heat and let it cook for about 7 minutes. The apples should be firm but tender when cooked.
- Remove the apple filling from the stove and let it cool.
- While the filling is cooling, mix the dry ingredients: flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and baking soda in a large bowl.
- Add butter to the flour mixture and mix it with your hands until it resembles coarse crumbs.
- Gently stir in the buttermilk until everything is moist but don’t overwork the dough.
- Pour the apple pie filling into the pan.
- Then scoop the dough out over the apple pie filling spreading it evenly across the pan. Sprinkle the top with crystalized or brown sugar.
- Bake at 350℉/177℃ for 40-45 minutes or until the topping is cooked through and the filling is bubbly. Remove and let it cool slightly for serving.
- Serve with vanilla ice cream.
Miroslav says
When I have no buttermilk at hand I use yoghurt, which gives the cake sour taste.
Imma says
Nice!!! I bet it’s spectacular. Thanks for sharing your customization.
lynne trover says
do I have to use buttermilk or can I use regular milk
ImmaculateBites says
You can use regular milk.
Joe Hamilton says
of all the cobbler recipes I have tried this one sounds the best and cant wait to try it. so happy my fiancé came across your web page, I do most the cooking but we enjoy cooking together and I plan on surprising her with this recipe on thanksgiving. Thank You
ImmaculateBites says
Hi Joe,
It will be a tasty surprise , so happy to hear you are willing to give it a try.
Happy Thanksgiving !!!