Fall may be the best season for food: you can cozy up with a bowl of butternut squash soup, feast on endless turkey and stuffing come Thanksgiving or indulge your inner baker with any number of dessert ideas! Apple and pumpkin pie will always be scrumptious staples of the season, but many desserts get overlooked because of these traditional favorites.
I love an apple crisp as much as anyone (in fact, I might bake this one on Tuesday), but I also think some unsung autumn ingredients deserve appreciation. Keep reading to find out 10 fall flavors to bake with that don't include pumpkins or apples:
1. Butterscotch
Caramel's brown sugar cousin is the perfect fall flavor: sweet, smokey and best served warm. Butterscotch is great for puddings, pies and on top of ice cream, but my two favorite recipes are these butterscotch molten cakes and oatmeal scotchies, which are oatmeal cookies with butterscotch chips.
2. Oatmeal
Nothing says home like the comfort of a bowl of toasty oatmeal on the first cool morning of the season, but oatmeal is also a great pantry staple for more than just breakfast. I loved these oatmeal cookies growing up, mainly because my mom and I both pretended the oatmeal made them healthy!
Oatmeal cookies, which taste just as crispy and cozy in bar form, are probably the most versatile cookie around as they can be made with raisins, craisins, the aforementioned butterscotch chips, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips or nuts. Oatmeal also makes a great pie crust and can add chewy texture to muffins.
3. Coffee/Espresso
Coffee may be the most underrated fall flavor of all: between Starbucks' fall concoctions, the weather finally cooling enough for warm beverages and the new school year requiring a caffeine boost, coffee could eclipse apple cider as the drink of the season. Coffee adds a bold kick to a variety of baking staples. I plan on making this mocha chocolate cake for my birthday next week, and these espresso brownies would perk up any fall gathering.
4. Cinnamon
Cinnamon is of course a main ingredient in pumpkin and apple pie spices, but it deserves to be the star of the dessert show in many recipes perfect for fall days. My favorite cinnamon recipe might be these snickerdoodles, but these cinnamon baked donuts always steal the show in my house around the holidays. If you're in the mood for a beverage to go with your baked goods, cinnamon is excellent on top of a latte or added to hot chocolate for a Mexican flair. Plus, cinnamon has many health benefits.
5. Cranberries
This standard Thanksgiving fruit is often overlooked as a mere side dish when compared to pumpkin and apple, but cranberries are delicious in cranberry orange muffins, white chocolate chunk and cranberry oatmeal cookies, and even Nantucket cranberry pie. Cranberries also work perfectly in cocktails to pair with any fall meal.
6. Peanut Butter
Many enjoy peanut butter throughout the year, but it reminds me of the back to school rush of September and adds a creamy, crunchy and salty touch to an array of fall favorites. My dorm mom at boarding school would always bake these peanut butter blossom cookies, and these PB & J pies look delicious enough to make kids want to go to school. Dark chocolate peanut butter is also a great substitute for plain peanut butter to give cookies or pies a richer, sweeter flavor.
7. Nuts
I have a tree nut allergy, so I cannot vouch for the taste of any of these desserts, but there's so much good food porn that includes chocolatey hazelnut goodness that I couldn't leave nuts off the list, especially given their ties to fall harvests. If I didn't mind anaphylactic shock, I would devour this Nutella doughnut recipe, this pecan pie or these pralines.
8. Caramel
Caramel compliments apples beautifully, but it shines as the star of desserts too! Try this gooey caramel cake or make your own homemade salted caramel sauce to mix with ice cream, coffee, and yes, even apples.
9. Brown Sugar
Brown sugar is the base of most recipes on this list, since it pairs well with oatmeal, butterscotch, caramel, nuts and cinnamon, to name just a few. Brown sugar can shine on its own too, especially since its warm, molasses-y flavor is what fall baking dreams are made of. These brown sugar blondies are an easy way to foreground fall flavor, and cooking fruit in brown sugar and butter is a great way to fool yourself into eating healthy.
10. Chocolate Chip Cookies
In a close contest with milkshakes, chocolate chip cookies may be my favorite food of all time. Since milkshakes are for the warmer months, chocolate chip cookies dominate my diet in the fall and winter. While this classic dessert is not specific to fall, there's really nothing better to bake. Ever.
I swear by a recipe my mom clipped from the back of a bag of Ghirardelli chocolate chips at least 10 years ago, and the dough can also be baked in a pan for chocolate chip brownies or in a skillet for a warm treat best served a la mode.
Get outside the box and enjoy these fall desserts!
