Best Caramel Apple Cobbler
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Best Caramel Apple Cobbler is a sweet taste of fall baked into a dessert. This recipe is comfort food at it’s best. Tart apples, sweet caramel, and warm cinnamon combined with a buttery crust is the quintessential recipe to make during the fall months.
This dessert tastes like an apple pie but much simpler to make especially if you’re not an expert pie crust maker.
I enjoy the “bready” cobbler part of this dessert, it’s buttery and the brown sugar and water create a caramel sauce that really makes the dessert. The apples I chose retain their shape but are soft in texture. It’s a great combination of flavors and textures.
Just a note, I highly recommend serving it warm with a big scoop of good guality vanilla bean ice cream!
When baking with apples the variety is important. I prefer a sweet, tart flavor and an apple that doesn’t cook to mush. After all, I want Apple Cobbler not Apple Sauce Cobbler.
The Best Apples for Baking
I used Honeycrisp apples for this recipe. They are one of the top recommended apples for baking. Other apples that are good to use in baked recipes are Granny Smith, Gala, and Mutsu (Crispin).
First of all, for Best Caramel Apple Cobbler results try using two different varieties of apples for optimum flavor and a more complex tasting cobbler, cake, or pie! (These same tips apply to my Apple Fritter Cake, Fresh Apple Cake, and other apple recipes.)
As well, cut your apples into varying sizes so that some pieces cook down into the cake while the larger pieces provide a nice, bright apple flavor.
Best Caramel Apple Cobbler Tips
- You can substitute
all-purpose flour for the self-rising flour in this recipe. That substitution is 1 cupall-purpose flour , 1 teaspoon baking powder, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Obviously, adjust according to the recipe amounts. - I’m not a fan of nutmeg if you aren’t either you may omit it in this recipe.
- If you haven’t baked one of my other highly popular cobblers, you may not be familiar with the hot water trick. You may even think it doesn’t work and you’ve completely ruined the dessert. Have faith. It will work. Now, I know these cobblers have a lot of sugar, but the brown sugar and hot water is what creates the caramel sauce. I don’t recommend reducing the amount of sugar. It’s a dessert after all. Enjoy it and do extra cardio to make up for it.
- I recommend fresh apples. I have not tested the recipe with apple pie filling.
You may also like my
Best Caramel Apple Cobbler
Ingredients
APPLES
- 2 cups apples peeled and cut into 1/2 inch cubes
- 1/2 cup butter
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg optional, omit if it’s a spice you don’t like
COBBLER MIXTURE
- 1 and 1/2 cups self-rising flour read post for substitution
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
SAUCE
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 and 1/2 cups hot water
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
- Combine apples, butter, brown sugar, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a saute pan.
- Bring to a boil, then simmer until sugar is melted, about 2 to 3 minutes.
- Pour apples and sauce into a 9×13 inch oven-safe pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray.
- In a bowl, whisk together flour, 1 cup granulated sugar, whole milk, and vanilla. (It should be the consistency of pancake batter. Add 1 or 2 tablespoons milk if necessary.)
- Carefully pour batter over the apples in the casserole dish.
- Evenly sprinkle 1 cup brown sugar over the top.
- And then carefully pour 1 and 1/2 cup hot water over the mixture.
- Bake at 350 degrees 50 to 55 minutes or until cobbler is set in the center and golden brown on top.
- Serve warm or room temperature. It’s great with vanilla ice cream.
- Store in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 days. (It won't last that long)
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information given is an automatic calculation and can vary based on the exact products you use and changes you make to the recipe. If these numbers are important to you, I recommend calculating them yourself.
Delicious and easy to make. Although, when I cut into it there was a lot of liquid. Maybe instead of 1& a half cups of hot water – 1 cup should be more than enough? Not sure?
Hi Jane, After reading your review on this apple cobbler, I too was a lil nervous about the amount of hot water on top. I cut it down to 1/2 cup brown sugar & 1/2 cup hot water. Pouring it slowly was the trick I think. It was nice and thick & syrupy when I served it a few hours later. Total hit!
This was FANTASTIC! Crisp-tender apples, great caramel sauce, a surprising crisp on top of a not-too-sweet light cake. We ended up eating 2 pieces each, and now it’s gone, just 2 hours after I pulled it out of the oven. That’s a 5-Star review in action!
This is soooo good! I made a test run because I want to serve this as part of our Thanksgiving dessert. The cobbler was gone in one night. Everybody raved about how delicious it is. This is a definite addition to our Thanksgiving desserts. Can I make this the day before(today), stick it in the frig and serve it tomorrow to save time? Or should I make it tomorrow for tomorrow? If I make it today & refrigerate it, will it soupy or soggy? Thanks for such an easy delicious recipe!
I’m sorry, I’m just seeing this. I would not refrigerate it. I would make it the same day you want to serve it.
I refrigerated the leftovers I made and it was delicious cold with either cool whip or ice cream on top!! Loved your recipe. Thank you,
I’ve have been looking fir an apple cobbler recipe for years and saw this one. It looked sooooo good and was excited to try. However, I did exactly what thevrecipe said, but I did forget to add the baking soda which wasn’t in the instructions. It certainly took more than 55 min to bake. More like an hour and a half maybe. I tasted it and it was delicious.
I used self rising flour therefore it does not need baking soda
I have a question, please. I would love to make your apple cobbbler for a graduation party. I have been asked to make a cobbler on one of those big aluminum pans. There should be about 30 people. But I will not be brings the only dessert. Should I double or triple your recipe and any idea how long to cook it???
I haven’t had luck making this in larger batches. I would use the same size pan 9×13 that I use and make 2 or 3 that way. Make them separately, don’t alter the recipe.
Ok. Will do. You know your recipes.
I was hoping to at least have them
I’m the oven at the same time
Do you have to use whole milk in the cobble recipe or can you substitute for non fat or almond milk?
Perfection in a pan. Perfect fall treat as well. So happy you shared with us at Weekend Potluck. Keep ’em comin…please!
Paula, I think this is one of the best I’ve seen in a while. I love cobblers. I don’t have to worry about messing up the crust.
Wishes for tasty dishes,
Linda
Hi, this sounds really good and I put it on my Pinterest. The only problem, and someone who does not do a lot of baking may not realize it, but it looks like you have 14 teaspoons of nutmeg.
Lovely apple dessert..I like cobbler 🙂