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This old-fashioned Apple Cobbler is one of my FAVORITE fall desserts. It's made with fresh apples in a cinnamon sauce, with a delicious cake-like topping.
We can't get enough of cobbler recipes at our house. We enjoy peach cobbler and blueberry cobbler all year round, but when apple season comes, it's either homemade apple crisp, apple cobbler, or fresh apple cake; on repeat!
Apple Cobbler
Many apple cobbler recipes are made with a biscuit like topping, I wanted the same old-fashioned cake-like topping that I use in my other recipes! It has a slight crisp on the top and is soft in the center, and pairs so well with the sauce and tender apples in this recipe.
How's Apple Cobbler different from Apple Crisp?
There is a difference between apple crisp and apple cobbler. Just like its name, apple crisp has a crispy crumble topping made with oats. The topping for this apple cobbler is a smooth batter that is poured on top of the apple filling and bakes more cake-like.
Which apples are best for baking?
Any baking apple will work great! I tend to prefer Granny Smith apples but I also like Gala apples, Honeycrisp, Golden Delicious, or any other tart apple.
To peel or not to peel?
Yes, I like to peel the apples for apple cobbler! The skin doesn’t break down during baking and can make for a tougher texture. (But you can leave the skin on if you want, and chop the apples into smaller cubes!) I use my Johnny Apple Peeler for this part because it does the work for me. It PEELS, CORES and SLICES the apple all at once!
4 steps to easy Apple Cobbler:
Make the Apple Filling: Stir together water, brown sugar, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a large saucepan. Stir in apples. Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes.
Make the batter: In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk and melted butter, just until combined.
Pour into dish. Add apple mixture to your pan and pour the batter evenly on top. Sprinkle it lightly with cinnamon and it's ready to bake!
Bake: at 350 degrees for about 38-40 minutes. Serve warm, with a scoop of ice cream, if desired.
Make Ahead and Freezer Instructions:
You could prepare the apple filling and store it in the fridge for up to 3 days, or freeze it for up to 3 months.
You can also freeze the baked cobbler for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and warm in the oven before serving.
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Apple Cobbler
Equipment
Ingredients
- 6 medium apples, (Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, or other good baking apple), peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
- 1 cup water, or apple juice
- 1/3 cup brown sugar, , packed
- 1 Tablespoon cornstarch
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
For the batter:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk
- 5 Tablespoons butter, , melted
- ground cinnamon for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and grease a 9×13 inch pan lightly with cooking spray.
- Stir together brown sugar, water, cornstarch, lemon juice, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt together in a saucepan. Stir in apples. Cook over medium heat for 3-5 minutes, stirring.
- Pour mixture into prepared pan.
- In a large bowl mix together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Stir in the milk and melted butter, just until combined.
- Pour the mixture over the apples in the pan. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon.
- Bake for about 38-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the topping comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream, if desired.
- Cover and store leftovers in the refrigerator for up to 4 days.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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HAVE YOU TRIED THIS RECIPE?!
RATE and COMMENT below! I would love to hear your experience.
First time on your site, and both my husband and I l hi Iove this Apple Cobbler recipe! We tried it out ourselves before taking it to a large gathering and ate every yummy bite.
Readers, if you’re on the fence about this recipe, take my word for it–this is a keeper! This will go in our file of favorites, for sure.
Just a wee word of advice: please ignore nay-sayers who changed everything but the baking temperature and then left a negative review…lol. Always try the recipe AS WRITTEN first, then adjust to your taste. We followed the recipe to a tee, and it was great! Thanks for sharing this, Lauren!
This is an excellent apple cobbler. My daughter loved it and made it for her work potluck and was a huge hit. It was enjoyed by everyone.
Have never made apple cobbler (only peach and blueberry) but my GOD this recipe is fantastic! I had some raisins laying around so I added some of those. I ate nearly the whole thing on my own and I made it again the next night!
I made this apple cobbler tonight. It was so delicious. The whole pan was gone before the evening was over.
First time making apple cobbler and this recipe is delicious, made it from own grown apples, will make it again 👍🏻
I made this as written and it came out PERFECT!!! What a nice take on cobbler using apples. The only change i made was i added 2 tablespoons butter to apple mixture ( only because flour and cornstarch need a fat to thicken properly) lesson learned from making apple pies equal fat to starch by measures ie 1 tbsp to 1 tbsp starch to fat. It thickened up perfectly. What a wonderful dessert. I ate 2 bowls while still warm.
Reading through the comments seams most people who had issues or problems cant follow a recipe and have to make changes in measurements of ingredients then when it fails blame the recipe that THEY DIDN’T FOLLOW.
I WILL be making this my go to cobbler recipe for all fruit cobblers I make in future. I give it a well deserved 5* rating and am bookmarking this website to try other recipes and know they will be just as good as this one.
Folks before you give a bad review because you altered the recipe try making it as written then if it fails…. Get out of the kitchen you cant cook… Just kidding… Have a great day all.
Signed … I shoulda been a chef. lol!!
This recipe was outstanding! Made this for one of our Thanksgiving desserts. Used about 8 or 9 small to medium sized granny Smith apples. Doubled the topping ingredients. Baked for over an hour until a knife came out clean. It was soooo good warm with a scoop of ice cream! Yummmmmm!
Found it to be a very satisfactory recipe. It was good and I intend to use it as a starting base for a variation that I will like even more. It was a very well received by the Thanksgiving diners as an alternative to the apple pie that I didn’t feel like making.
At first, I thought it would turn out liquidy, but it ended up perfect. The perfect balance of sweetness and tartness. definitely making it again.
Some suggested tweaks:
* 6 apples ended up being way too much and I had to go with 5. So reader be advised to have a backup plan for an extra apple or two (I have little kids so they got a snack).
* Apples and ginger are best friends. I urge you to consider adding 1 tsp or so of ginger powder to the filling portion. An unfortunate omission from the recipe, in my opinion.
* I did panic and felt I had to double the amount of batter I used for the topping. It’s difficult to get it to cover as suggested by the recipe.
* I tend to prefer savory and the topping was just about at my limit for sweetness. If you have a sweet tooth, follow the recipe. However, next time I make this I’ll be halving the sugar to see where that takes it.
This criticism doesn’t mean I didn’t like it. Quite the opposite. Thank you for the recipe!
Unimpressed. Thin fruit layer and very thin topping. Filling and topping a bit too sweet for my taste. In addition to number of apples, it would be nice to know how many cups are needed since apple size varies and is subjective. And how shall the apples be cut? The recipe says chunks but the picture appears to be slices. Sorry, but I guess with the rating this recipe had I really expected excellence.
Way too sweet. So sweet I couldn’t eat it. Next time I will only use a tablespoon of sugar over the apples and 1/2 cup in the topping. I also thought the apple to topping ratio was off. Probably would have been better with only 4 apples.
So delicious, just made for a family dinner and everyone went back for seconds. I didn’t have cornstarch on hand so left it out – didn’t seem like anything was missing!
Don’t waste your time on this recipe way too sweet and turns out so runny you can’t even save it by cooking it longer.
I used stamen apples; delicious! The dessert was a big hit in my house. My only changes are to increase the amount of topping just a bit and slightly less sugar because I like it a little less sweet.
It taste good, but a cup of sugar in the batter is too much.