Mystery Lovers' Kitchen: Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite APPLE RECIPES + 6-Book #Giveaway!

Sunday, September 7, 2025

Around the Kitchen Table: Our Favorite APPLE RECIPES + 6-Book #Giveaway!

VMBURNS: Icing on the Murder, the newest release in my Baker Street Mystery series, takes place in Autumn, and features a lot of recipes with apples. August - October is prime apple picking season. September is best for one of my favorite apples, Honeycrisp. Icing on the Murder includes several apple recipes and a recipe for apple cider.

What's your favorite apple? Apple recipes? Or, favorite fall fruit?

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LUCY BURDETTE: I love peaches so much and feel so sad when the season is over that it's hard to move into apples. That said, my favorite recipe with apples is an apple cinnamon quick bread brought to our Kitchen by guest Elizabeth Duncan. In fact, I liked it so much that I made it with raspberries and almonds--it was delicious! I highly recommend both of them.

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LESLIE BUDEWITZ: Lucy, I remember that recipe of Elizabeth's -- we made it and it's excellent! Apples are so wonderfully varied -- from pale yellow to shiny green or deep red, soft or crisp, sweet or tart! One of the most popular recipes I've ever shared here is this one for Apple Cheddar Scones, originally published in Between a Wok and a Dead Place. That's the book that also features this yummy French Apple Custard Cake with Chinese Five Spice (shown), although you could easily change out the spicery. And how can I not share with you, again, this Apple Butter Pie from All God's Sparrows? As I was writing, a vision of the pie came to me -- I didn't even know such a thing existed, but readers, it does and you should make and eat one immediately!

Apples are also great in salads, like this Apple, Kale, and Cheddar Salad.

An apple a day? Here at Mystery Lovers' Kitchen, we've got you covered!

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LESLIE KARST: I'm not really a fan of cooked apples. To my mind they get mushy and lose so much of their flavor when baked into pies or tarts or whatever. But give me a crisp, juicy, sweet-and-tart Fuji or similar raw apple anytime!

I love fresh apple slices spread with peanut butter or with chunks of a sharp cheddar cheese, or cut into cubes and added to my morning yogurt along with a handful of granola and some cinnamon and a splash of vanilla extract. Or simply by themselves, biting into that beautiful perfect fruit!

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KIM DAVIS: I'm a year round fan of apples and always have a crisper drawer filled with the Envy variety for a quick snack. Envy's are sweet, juicy, and have just the right amount of crispness for my tastes. And they make such a quick and healthy on-the-go snack. I generally have a sliced apple prepared for my granddaughter when I pick her up from school two days a week and she enjoys them just as much as I do. While eating apples in their natural state is my go-to, I do enjoy making desserts with them especially in the fall. Apple recipes are a feature in Buttercream Betrayal, the fifth book in my Cupcake Catering Mysteries, and one of my test tasters' favorite was Caramel Apple Pie Bars... which I'm now craving, lol! A quick tip: When baking apple desserts, use two or three varieties of apples for a broader range of sweet, tart, and texture. Some of the best apples to bake with are Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, and Jonagold varieties.

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MADDIE DAY: Apples are a specialty of New England, and I live a mile from the fabulous Cider Hill Farm. It's hard to resist a warm, lightly sugared cider donut in the fall. Alas, I've developed an allergy to raw northern tree fruit - including apples - but you bet I can eat them cooked, and I do. I heard about apple dumplings from a Hoosier friend and included a recipe for yummy Apple Dumplings in Deep Fried Death, my 12th Country Store mystery (our own Kim Davis made the recipe on her blog).

I made an elegant French Apple Cake a couple of years ago, and used an Apple Cidertini in Murder at the Lobstah Shack.

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PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOOUDON: I can tell you hubby's favorite apple dessert--apple crisp. I have the recipe his mother used to make. My daughter makes a superb apple pie so I leave that to her. I love making a simple apple cake, particularly this easy French apple cake. It really lets the fruit shine! The condo community adjacent to ours was built on land that used to be an apple farm. When we go walking there in the fall we can smell the apples on the few remaining trees. And one time we saw a young deer munching on one of the apples that had fallen to the ground. He seemed to enjoy apples as much as we do!

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MOLLY MACRAE: I loved watching my dad eat apples when I was a little kid (1950s). His favorite was McIntosh so, of course, I knew it was my favorite, too. In the fall we’d go to Bell’s Apple Orchard to get them fresh picked. Over the years, as more varieties became available at our local grocery store, he (we) branched out to Winesaps, Granny Smiths, Fujis, Braeburns—so many wonderful varieties. One of the best apples I ever ate was a Cox’s Orange Pippin. Crisp, spicy, tart and sweet. Maybe it was great, in part, because I ate it for lunch while sitting on Hadrian’s Wall. Nah, to still remember a specific apple after 50 years must mean it was one terrific apple.

Here are recipes for two savory apple dishes we like in fall and winter Sausage Apple Skillet and Savory Fennel Apple Tarte Tatin.

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CLEO COYLE: Candy apples make a nice novelty dessert for adults, especially for those of us who loved eating them as kids. For this recipe, I experimented with a combination of ingredients until I was happy with the end product, which is why there is no corn syrup in this recipe. Instead, I used honey and cinnamon sticks, which brings a more sophisticated flavor to the candy coating.

I’m also sharing a fun, spiked version of my recipe that’s even more grown-up. It swaps out cinnamon sticks for cinnamon schnapps! This recipe was featured in my long-running Coffeehouse Mystery series ☕ 🔎 and I'm happy to share it with you today.

Click here or on the photo below to see my recipe post, which includes step-by-step photos and a downloadable PDF. Happy Apple Season, everyone! ~ Cleo