Baked Apple Slices Recipe
Published February 5, 2025. This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
This recipe for Baked Apple Slices tosses apples in butter and cinnamon sugar before they’re baked to soft and sweet perfection. It’s the best fall dessert with vanilla ice cream and caramel sauce.
You can’t just have a plain scoop of vanilla ice cream in our house. It has to be dressed up with caramel sauce, rum sauce, or, better yet, these warm-baked apple slices. Instantly, they help turn a boring scoop of ice cream into a delicious treat.
If easy desserts, like chocolate mousse and churros, are your thing, you’ll also love these cinnamon sugar-baked apple slices.
Old Fashioned Baked Apple Slices
Easy-to-prepare desserts don’t get much simpler than this sliced baked apples recipe. A combination of sweet and tart apples is sliced thin, tossed with cinnamon sugar and butter, and baked in the oven until they’re soft and have filled your kitchen with fall aromas.
As they bake, the butter melts, and the apples release their natural juices, leaving behind an incredible sauce at the bottom of the baking dish. The comforting combo of soft and jammy baked apples with the cinnamon-infused apple and butter sauce is the key to taking any scoop of ice cream or slice of apple pie up a notch. But that’s only if you can resist eating the apples straight from the pan first.
This recipe makes a lot of baked apples, which you can serve as an easy dessert after your holiday feasts or fall dinners. They store and freeze well, too, making it easy to have a batch ready to enjoy at all times.
Ingredients and Substitutions
- Apples – I always use a combination of sweet and tart apples when making baked apple slices for a good balance of flavors. My favorite sweet apples are Fuji apples, and my favorite tart apples are Granny Smith apples. Other apples that work well for baking are Gala, Braeburn, Pink Lady, McIntosh, Gala, and Golden Delicious.
- Butter – Preferably unsalted butter. If all you have is salted butter, omit the sea salt from this recipe.
- Sugar – A 1:1 mix of white granulated and brown sugar sweetens this apple dessert, adding warm and comforting molasses-like flavors. Instead of brown sugar, feel free to use coconut sugar. Cane sugar also works as a substitute for white sugar.
- Cinnamon – Ground cinnamon brings warmth to this apple slice dessert.
- Salt – A pinch of coarse sea salt will enhance the warm and sweet flavors.
- Cornstarch – It prevents the apples from sticking together and helps thicken the sauce.
How to Bake Apple Slices
Peel, core, and slice the apples with a chef’s knife.
Add the sliced apples to a large mixing bowl with the butter, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and cornstarch. Gently toss with a spatula until the apples are well coated.
Dump the apple mixture into a casserole dish.
Bake the apple slices until they’re jammy and the sauce bubbles.
Top the baked apples with scoops of vanilla ice cream, or serve them in bowls with caramel sauce drizzled over top.
Make-Ahead and Storage
Make-Ahead: Slice the apples up to 1 day before baking and submerge them in pineapple juice to prevent them from browning.
How to Store: Once cool, transfer the baked apple slices to an airtight container and keep them in the refrigerator for up to 4 days. They also freeze well for up to 2 months. Thaw the leftovers in the fridge overnight before reheating.
How to Reheat: Place the apples in a baking dish, cover them with foil, and reheat in a 350ºF oven for 8 to 10 minutes or until warmed.
chef notes + tips
- If you don’t want to cook the apples until the next day, place them in a bowl submerged in pineapple juice to stop them from turning brown.
- These are also great with chicken, fish, or apples, so be sure to get creative, as they are not only a sweet treat.
- When baking, you can use a 9″ or 10″ oval casserole dish.
- Always peel the apples before slicing and baking. The last thing you want is stringy apple peel in this sweet dessert.
- Use a sharp chef’s knife to slice the apples into even slices.
- To customize the flavors, you can toss the apples with a bourbon or rum splash, nutmeg, allspice, cardamom, lemon zest or juice, walnuts, pecans, or almonds.
- Stir the apple slices every 15 minutes while baking to help them cook evenly.
- To make this dessert less indulgent, reduce the butter to 2 tablespoons and the sugars to 2 tablespoons each.
- If you end up with extra apple slices, you can use them to make my Pork Chops with Apples or this Fall Sangria Recipe.
Amazing Apple Recipes
Baked Apple Slices Recipe
Ingredients
- 5 each cored, peeled and thinly sliced Fuji apples
- 1 each cored, peeled and thinly sliced Granny Smith apple
- 4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Add the apples to a large mixing bowl along with butter, sugars, cinnamon, salt, and cornstarch and mix thoroughly.
- Transfer the apples to a 9" oval casserole dish and bake at 350° for 45 minutes.
- Stir every 15 minutes until they are done and serve hot.
Made these to go with your pork chop recipe. My family thought I was a rock star! So good with the pork!
Thank you for giving them a try!
I made these several times and they were perfect each and every time. The pineapple juice was a very good suggestion. I’ve also done these with pork chops.
Dear Chef Parisi,
I have been following, and utilizing your recipes for over a year now. Wow! Learning so very much too!
Sadly, my mother-in-law passed waya this morning, although one can say now her suffering on this side of heaven is over and she is now in the arms of the Lord. Needless to say, our house has been totally chaotic. For two years now I have been cooking for our 4-member household plus my inlaws and at times, my sister-in-law and their 4-member household next door as we have been caring for her and my wife’s parents. So about 3 times a week, cooking for 10, now we will be 9.
So, today I cooked your porkchops, with some tweaks to suit what I had on hand, and your baked apple slice recipe here. Thank you for saving our day with incredible food, easy to praper and cook and tastes amazing! Thank you so very much!!
I would post the picture here but this venue won’t let me (understandably). But just know it looks and tastes incredible!
My condolences; Praying for you. I’m glad the recipe was good and brought some comfort.
This recipe is now a family favorite. I use it with the pork chop recipe, and there’s never any leftover. Thank you for making your recipes printable online. You have shown me how to make dishes that taste special with just marginally extra effort.
(I do have a question about why it says 350 degrees in the recipe portion, but 375 degrees in the photo caption above and in your video.) Thank you!