39 Best Fall Dessert Recipes

Classic pumpkin pecan pie recipe — The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

The fall season offers crisp, refreshing weather, colorful falling leaves, and wonderful food. Think freshly baked pies, warm and wonderful apple crisps and crumbles, cinnamon-spiced cakes and cookies, and anything pumpkin.

These desserts include everyday sweet treats, seasonal specialties, and extra special cakes and pies perfect for holiday menus. Whether you have an abundance of pears or apples or you need something for your holiday dinner, you're sure to find the perfect dessert in this list.

Celebrate the Fall Season With 38 Fantastic Apple Desserts

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Snickerdoodle Creme Brulee

Diana Rattray

These amazing cinnamon-scented desserts are perfect for holiday dinners. Creme brulees are made in advance, chilled, and then the hard caramelized topping is applied just before serving time.
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Pumpkin Cake Roll

Diana Rattray

This pumpkin cake roll has long been a favorite, and it is quite easy to prepare and bake. A sweetened cream cheese frosting mixture makes the perfect filling.
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Hand-Held Apple Pies

Diana Rattray

These little hand pies are filled with homemade apple filling. The recipe includes homemade pie pastry, but you may use refrigerated crusts as well.
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Pumpkin Sheet Cake With Brown Butter Cream Cheese Frosting

Diana Rattray

The browned butter and cream cheese frosting is wonderful, but you could also use the creamy butter frosting recipe or a fluffy caramel cream cheese frosting.

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Red Velvet Crinkles

The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

If you're a fan of chocolate crinkles or molasses crinkles, you'll love this red velvet version of the recipe. The soft, cookies have the festive crackled look when they're baked.
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Apple Crisp

The Spruce

If you only make one dessert with your fresh fall apples, make it this fabulous apple crisp. Not only is this dessert delicious, but it's also a very easy preparation.
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Southern Sweet Potato Cobbler

Diana Rattray

Top this warm sweet potato cobbler with a scoop of ice cream. It's an excellent alternative if you want something other than a sweet potato pie.
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Pecan Pie Bars

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

This pecan pie bars recipe is easier to prepare than a traditional pie but just as tasty. It starts with a sweet, buttery crust followed by a pecan filling sweetened with brown sugar and honey. Serve it warm or at room temperature.

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Apple Coffee Cake

The Spruce Eats / Kristina Vanni

An apple coffee cake makes good use of the seasonal fruit. This beautiful dessert starts with a sour cream batter baked with apples and cinnamon. It's finished up with apple jelly and sliced almonds.
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Mini Apple Pies

The Spruce / Kristina Vanni

While these mini apple pies are delicious hot from the fryer and sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, when cooled to room temperature, they make a great portable snack or lunchbox treat. It's a simple recipe of apples, cinnamon, and sugar in a baking-powder pastry.
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Easy Layered Pumpkin Cheesecake

Diana Rattray

This pumpkin cheesecake is baked in a graham cracker pie crust, and it takes just minutes to prepare.
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Brown Sugar Cheesecake With Caramel Pecan Topping

Diana Rattray

This extra-special brown sugar cheesecake is sure to get you a standing ovation. The creamy brown sugar filling is baked in a graham cracker pecan crust, and it's topped off with an incredible caramel pecan sauce.

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Instant Pot Rice Pudding

Diana Rattray

Instant Pot rice pudding is flavored with cinnamon and raisins, making it a quick and easy cold-weather treat. Serve warm or chilled
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Pumpkin Cake With Cream Cheese Frosting

The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

This is a very popular pumpkin cake for fall bakers. The cream cheese frosting brings this moist, rich pumpkin cake together in the best way.
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Applesauce Cookies

The Spruce / Jennifer Perillo

When we think of fall desserts, we usually think of pies; maybe muffins, but rarely cookies. These applesauce cookies, however, are the perfect subtle and light fall dessert. They're not cloyingly sweet, nor overly spiced as some "pumpkin spice" desserts can be. The apple flavor here is delicate, thanks to the applesauce, and the cinnamon brings that classic "fall" note. These darling cookies come together in just 30 minutes, so they're the perfect impromptu dessert.
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Pumpkin Ice Cream

The Spruce Eats / Kristina Vanni

This recipe proves ice cream isn't just a summer treat. All of the familiar pumpkin pie spices are combined with pumpkin puree and homemade ice cream ingredients to make a creamy, flavorful dessert. Add maple syrup and chopped nuts, for a beautiful fall-inspired dessert.

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Crumb-Topped Apple Pie Bars

The Spruce Eats / Jessie Sheehan

These apple pie bars have a familiar flavor with a shortbread crust and crumbly top. The filling is a mixture of Granny Smith apples and cinnamon that's not too sweet, but perfectly delicious.
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Raisin Pie

The Spruce Eats / Kristina Vanni

Dark raisins and sour cream seasoned with cinnamon and nutmeg come together in this raisin pie recipe. Serve it with a dollop of whipped cream for an old-fashioned taste everyone will enjoy.
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Cinnamon Roll Cake

Kristina Vanni

Ideal for any fall celebration, this cinnamon roll cake turns a favorite breakfast treat into a beautiful dessert. The yeast dough is covered with brown sugar and cinnamon, cut into strips, and spiraled in a cake pan. Once baked, it is topped with a cream cheese icing.
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Soft Pumpkin Cookies With Brown Butter Icing

Diana Rattray

These soft pumpkin cookies are lightly spiced and topped with a brown butter icing. Bake them for Halloween, Thanksgiving, or any fall day. These cookies freeze well, too. Just freeze in a single layer and then transfer them to a food storage bag. Ice them when you take them out of the freezer.

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Warm Spiced Pear Crisp With Ice Cream

Diana Rattray

Ripe sliced pears are topped with a classic crisp brown sugar and oat topping in this yummy dessert. Serve the crisp warm with a big scoop of ice cream or a drizzling of cream for a fabulous fall dessert.
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10 Minute No-Bake Pumpkin Pie

Diana Rattray

Here's a great dessert if you're short on time, and nobody will guess it took only 10 minutes to prepare! Serve this delicious concoction with a scoop of whipped cream or thawed whipped topping and a sprinkling of cinnamon sugar.
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Classic Snickerdoodles

Diana Rattray

These classic cinnamon-coated cookies are a holiday essential. Keep them on hand for fall and winter holiday guests.
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Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Diana Rattray

This moist banana bread has it all. Subtle peanut butter flavor and mini chocolate chips add special flavor and texture to this banana bread loaf.

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Chunky Slow Cooker Applesauce

Diana Rattray

This chunky applesauce is an excellent way to use that surplus of apples this fall. The apples are sweetened, spiced with cinnamon, and slow-cooked to perfection.
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Instant Pot Bread Pudding With Bourbon Sauce

Diana Rattray

Warm, spiced bread pudding is quick and easy in the pressure cooker. It's even better when it's topped with a creamy bourbon sauce.
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Pumpkin Pie Bars

The Spruce / Jennifer Perillo

Pumpkin pie bars everything you love about pumpkin pie put into bar form. They look lovely sliced and taste great with a dollop of whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon or nutmeg.
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Fresh Apple Cranberry Cake

The Spruce / Ulyana Verbytska

This delicious 5-star apple cranberry cake is great with warm caramel sauce.

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Apple Cranberry Cobbler

Diana Rattray

Fresh cranberries and fresh sliced apples make this a fantastic fall dessert. The topping is an easy cake-like batter.
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Gingerbread Biscotti

The Spruce Eats / Pete Scherer

Warming ginger, molasses, cinnamon, and allspice taste like fall in cookie form. Gingerbread biscotti is the perfect after-dinner treat, especially when paired with coffee, espresso, or hot tea.
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Sweet Potato Bread Pudding With Dates and Pecans

Diana Rattray

Croissant crumbs make this sweet potato bread pudding extra buttery, and dates and pecans provide texture. Serve this delicious bread pudding with Caramel Sauce or Brown Sugar Sauce.
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Butternut Squash Cupcakes

The Spruce / Diana Chistruga

Frost these wonderful autumn cupcakes with a basic cream cheese frosting or this easy and delicious caramel cream cheese frosting.

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Classic Pumpkin Pecan Pie

The Spruce Eats / Julia Hartbeck

This pie gives us the best of both worlds. Pumpkin pie and pecan pie get together in this classic dessert, and it's one of my favorites for holiday dinners. It's a nice change from the classic pumpkin pie.
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Pepita Brittle

The Spruce

This brittle candy is filled with raw pumpkin seeds—pepitas. This is a great treat to make for fall parties and guests.
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Apple Crumble Pie

Diana Rattray

This apple pie is an easy one-crust pie with a brown sugar crumb topping. If pie crust isn't your favorite thing to make, this is an excellent alternative to the classic apple pie.
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Snickerdoodle Cake

The Spruce / Jennifer Perillo

The scent of cinnamon just reminds us of fall. Turn the cinnamon sugar cookie into an impressive dessert with this two-layer cake that is filled and topped with a marshmallow frosting.

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Easy Mini Apple and Puff Pastry Tarts

Diana Rattray

These easy apple tarts couldn't be easier! They're made with sheets of puff pastry and thinly sliced apples.
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Easy Apple Cranberry Pie

The Spruce / Julia Hartbeck

Not a baker? No problem! This easy pie is made with pie filling and cranberry sauce. Use a refrigerated pie crust or the included easy food processor pastry.
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Classic Mississippi Sweet Potato Pie

The Spruce

Sweet potato pie is a Southern classic. Bake this pie for a fall potluck or add it to your holiday dessert menu.

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