As November crawls to a close and Thanksgiving looms, I find myself baking furiously to tackle all my fall flavors before Christmas comes calling. If you’re a stress baker like me, school has you itching to make something sweet. My oven has been filled with all manner of breads, cakes, and cookies this past month.
To save you from endless recipe searching, I’ve compiled a few of my favorite fall bakes for you to try. They’re perfect for Friendsgiving parties, Thanksgiving tables, tailgates, or late-night snacking with your friends! Most of the recipes don’t require anything fancy beyond your basic baking staples (plus some seasonal ingredients!), so preheat your oven and get to baking!
Pumpkin Bread
Pumpkin bread is a fall staple in my house and has been since the second grade. While I can’t share my super-secret recipe, I have tried a range of other mixtures. This batch from Allrecipes is one of my go-to’s.
Apple Sauce
Is this a child’s snack? I know it sounds odd, but this homemade apple sauce is not the packaged garbage you buy from the store. It’s sweet, thick, and honestly tastes like the inside of an apple pie. This recipe comes right from my mom’s kitchen. All you need is a crockpot and some patience…
Ingredients:
- 8 medium-to-large apples
- 1 cup of brown sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons of ground cinnamon
- 1/2 cup of water
Directions:
Peel and dice apples, then place them in a large crockpot. Pour the water over the apples. Sprinkle the brown sugar and cinnamon on top. Set to cook on low for four to six hours, mixing every so often. Once the apples are soft, smush them all together until you reach your desired texture. (For a quicker cook, set to high heat for two to four hours instead.)
Pumpkin Swiss Roll
I’ll admit that, while most of my recipes are idiot-proof, this pumpkin Swiss roll is a bit more complicated. The elements themselves aren’t challenging, but the rolling of the cake without cracking it is the biggest challenge across these bakes. My grandma’s tip? Right when you take the sheet cake out of the oven, immediately flip it onto a clean kitchen towel lined with powdered sugar (instead of parchment paper). Gently roll the cake while hot and let it cool on the counter in the Swiss roll shape. When it’s ready to be frosted, unroll it carefully, fill it with frosting, and re-roll it using the towel as an outer layer to keep it tight.
You can refrigerate or freeze the final roll. It ends up tasting like a pumpkin Ho-Ho, if anyone remembers those…
Brown Butter Cookies
I accidentally stumbled upon these cookies last year. I was dying for a sweet treat, but my baking supplies were running scarily low. These brown butter cookies are the perfect, easy treat for when your pantry is lacking. My roommate genuinely called these her favorite cookies ever.
Pumpkin Pie
During COVID-19 times, my dad and I decided to start a new Thanksgiving tradition: making pumpkin pie from scratch. We buy a whole pumpkin, clean it, bake it, gut it, pulverize it, and make our pumpkin pie filling from start to finish. It’s certainly a lot of work, but I promise it’s super fun and worth it in the end.
Here is the version my dad and I use (and here are the instructions for cooking the pumpkin), but I’ve also linked a recipe I’ve used in the past that relies on pumpkin puree you can buy from the store. Both are excellent (and I pour both fillings into premade crusts because I’m not a monster).
Best of luck, bakers!
HCXO,
Colleen