As soon as the calendar flips to fall, we start craving our favorite flavors:
apple pumpkin cinnamon caramel brown butter maple
And with so many recipes to choose from, we decided to curate what we're calling the Fall Flavor Edit: the best of fall, organized by the flavors and ingredients that make this season great. Each week, we'll celebrate a new flavor with four of our very best recipes. There are classics (apple cobbler!) and new favorites (a giant cinnamon pop tart!), but one thing is consistent: Every recipe here celebrates the best of fall baking, one essential flavor at a time.
Sugar-Crusted Apple Cobbler
The season's best apple dessert is also the simplest: saucy spiced apples crowned with a crispy, crackly sugar topping that caramelizes in the oven.
Apple Cinnamon Sourdough Bread
Swirled with cinnamon, enriched with butter, and studded with dried apples, this sourdough loaf can be toasted for a superlative breakfast, or used to make a killer grilled cheese.
Apple Butter Apple Galette
Don't want to fuss with a full pie? This flaky, buttery galette features apples two ways, with a layer of apple butter hiding beneath shingled sliced apples.
Apple Crumb Cake
How to dress up a crumb cake for fall: Top velvety sour cream cake with a juicy layer of apples, then crown the cake with a generous layer of apple pie-spiced streusel.
Pumpkin Espresso Bundt Cake
If your biggest complaint about PSLs is that there's not enough coffee flavor, look to this Bundt cake, which has an espresso powder swirl and a coffee glaze.
Pumpkin Pie Snickerdoodle Cookies
These cookies deliver everything we love about classic snickerdoodles — crisp edges, soft centers, and a generous coating of cinnamon sugar — and amps it up with pumpkin purée and pumpkin pie spice for a new twist on an old favorite.
Easy Pumpkin Muffins
If you’re looking for a way to make your whole kitchen smell like fall, these one-bowl muffins deliver — and fast. They’re ready in under an hour, so you can spend less time measuring, mixing, and cleaning and more time at the pumpkin patch.
Pumpkin Whoopie Pies
Soft pumpkin cakes, warmly spiced and made with a full can of pumpkin purée, sandwich a fluffy cream cheese filling studded with candied ginger for bursts of sweet heat.
Cinnamon Babka
This bread is soft, sweet, and enriched with plenty of butter, but it's really just a showcase for the gooey spirals of cinnamon-sugar filling. To further amp it up, it's topped with a crisp cinnamon crumb topping.
Giant Brown Sugar Cinnamon Pop Tart
This maximalist dessert proves the true possibilites of this toaster pastry. It features a thick, buttery dough sandwiching a perfectly balanced cinnamon center, all blanketed by a brown sugar glaze.
Cinnamon Roll Cake
The eponymous breakfast pastry, reinvented as a plush cake. With pockets of cinnamon sugar and a tangy cream cheese frosting, it delivers a cinnamon roll-like eating experience in cake form.
Cinnamon-Sugar Crunch Bagels
Here's a bagel for lovers of cinnamon but not raisins. Inspired by the cult-favorite Panera staple, these bagels contain cinnamon in both the dough and the sugary, extra-crunchy topping coating each one.
Candy Bar Pecan Tart
This tart is the more lavish, decadent cousin of a classic pecan pie. The pecans are enveloped in a rich, chewy caramel filling and a blanket of velvety smooth chocolate ganache covers the top. Think candy bar, but fancier.
Carmelitas
Sticky caramel, gooey chocolate, and toasty pecans are sandwiched between two layers of buttery shortbread in these very craveable cookie bars.
Caramel Macchiato Tiramisu
Inspired by the namesake coffee drink, this twist on classic tiramisu keeps the coffee-soaked ladyfingers and mascarpone filling but introduces layers of salted caramel sauce.
Chocolate Cupcakes with Whipped Caramel Frosting
These cupcakes capture the flavor of a chocolate-coated caramel candy but with an entirely different texture: soft, fluffy, and irresistible.
Ultimate Brown Butter Rice Krispies Treats
A perennial King Arthur favorite, and for good reason. Toasted milk powder supercharges brown butter's toasty flavor, and generous amounts of vanilla and salt elevate the childhood treat.
Frosted Brown Butter Cake
We doubled down on brown butter and put it in both the batter and cream cheese frosting for a next-level snacking cake.
Crispy Brown Butter Cookies
A few pantry staples and some browned butter are all that are required for these snappy cookies. For the brown butter maximalists, a drizzle of glossy brown butter glaze takes them over the top.
Brown Butter Sage Biscuits
This biscuit has all the flaky layers you'd expect, plus two secret weapons: fragrant brown butter and plenty of fresh sage, which adds nutty flavor and herbaceousness.
Maple Pecan Sourdough Scone
The real reason to make these tender pecan scones, especially during the depths of fall, is the glaze. Thick, maple-forward, and just slightly salty, it's an ode to one of fall's favorite flavors.
Maple Pecan Cheesecake
Cheesecake may be season-less, but this version, with its maple filling, candied pecan topping, and cinnamon-scented nut crust, is decidedly autumnal.
Swirled Maple Milk Bread
Maple meets milk bread in this tender loaf, with a swirl of maple cream and walnuts enhancing each slice. Try it toasted or use it to make the ultimate French toast.
Maple Cream Pie
This luscious cream pie contains a hefty pour of maple syrup (and an additional dash of natural maple flavor); the brûléed maple sugar top is a great textural contrast to the silky-smooth filling.
