All The Coziest Autumnal Cooking and Baking Recipes This Season

Autumn is undoubtedly my favorite season of the year and with it comes deliciously warm, spiced baked goods and other flavorful dishes. Now that I’m in college and I actually have to cook in order to feed myself, I’ve gotten pretty good at finding the easiest foolproof recipes. My friends call me a grandma because I show up to every function with baked goods, so you can trust my recipes. Here are some of my favorites! 

Perfect Pumpkin Bread 

Straight from my mom’s minuscule cookbook, this pumpkin bread has been easy and affordable to make in any kitchen. It’s moist, makes an abundance and is honestly the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had. 

Ingredients: 

• 3 ½ cups of all-purpose flour 
• 3 cups of granulated sugar 
• 1 cup of vegetable or any neutral oil 
• ⅔ cup of cool water 
• 4 large eggs 
• 1 15-ounce can of pure pumpkin 
• 3 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger or nutmeg (whichever one you have) 
• 2 teaspoons of baking soda 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 

Directions: 

First, preheat your oven to 350 F. Next, cream the sugar, oil and eggs together in a large bowl. A hand mixer is best, but mixing manually works too. Then, add in the pumpkin and water and mix – it will be a little watery. Mix together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and add into the large mixture. After mixing well for several minutes, grease three medium loaf pans. Cook the pans for about 55 minutes to an hour. Finally, check the middle of the loaves with a toothpick and the end should come out clean. Let the loaves cool, slice them up and enjoy! 

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Bars

Whenever I’m craving pumpkin and chocolate at the same time, this cross between a cookie and a cake is the perfect treat to satisfy my craving. The warm spices and abundance of chocolate are the perfect autumnal combination that you won’t be able to stop making. I know the quantity of ingredients seems overwhelming, but they’re all worth it. 

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup of light brown sugar 
• ½ cup (or 4 ounces) of unsalted butter, softened 
• ⅓ cup of pure canned pumpkin 
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable or any neutral oil 
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract 
• 2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon 
• 1 teaspoon of ground ginger 
• ½ teaspoon of salt 
• ½ teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice 
• ½ teaspoon of baking soda 
• 1 ½ cups of all-purpose flour 
• 1 cup of semisweet chocolate chips

Directions: 

First, preheat your oven to 350 F. Cream the brown sugar and softened butter until well combined. Next, add in the pumpkin, oil, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, pumpkin pie spice and salt. Mix until smooth. Then, stir in the baking soda and flour. Finally, add about ¾ of the chocolate chips into the batter. Transfer the batter into a greased and parchment-lined 8-by-8-inch cake pan and sprinkle the remaining chocolate chips over the top. Bake the pan for 30 minutes. Then allow it to cool, slice and serve! 

Apple-Cinnamon Casserole 

This one is likely my favorite because it’s simple, easy and has the perfect blend of soft and sweet. It only takes about 45 minutes in total and you get about two whole apples worth in your dessert. I love bringing this to potlucks or dinner parties because crumbs are rarely left over. 

Ingredients: 

• 2 large apples of your choice, peeled and diced – I love Honeycrisp or Granny Smith because it adds the perfect tang 
• ½ cup of light brown sugar 
• 2 tablespoons of unsalted butter 
• A pinch of ground nutmeg 
• Ground cinnamon measured with your heart (2 teaspoons if you want to be specific) 
• 2 cans of Pillsbury (or another brand) cinnamon rolls with the icing 

Directions: 

First, preheat the oven to 350 F. Next, heat a large skillet pan over medium heat and allow the butter to melt in the pan. Add the apples, brown sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg to the pan. Mix and simmer for about five minutes until the apples are soft and fragrant. Then, cut up the cinnamon rolls into bite-sized pieces and layer them at the bottom of an 11-inch casserole pan – a cake pan will work, too. Set aside the icing in the cans to come to room temperature. Finally, add in the apple-cinnamon mixture over the cinnamon rolls and bake the pan for 30 minutes. Once the pan is out of the oven and has cooled, drizzle the icing over the dish and dig in! 

Cinnamon-Apple Pull Apart Bread

You might get your hands a little messy with this one, but it’s totally worth the hassle. This sweet, warm-spiced and pillowy loaf of bread will become addictive – I’ve made it twice in one week. 

Ingredients: 

• 10 tablespoons of unsalted butter 
• 3 apples, peeled and diced 
• ½ cup of light brown sugar 
• 3 teaspoons of cinnamon 
• A pinch of nutmeg 
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla 
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (I personally use lime juice) 
• A pinch of salt 
• 2 cans of Pillsbury biscuits 
• 1 cup of granulated sugar 

Directions:

First, preheat your oven to 350 F. Grease and line two loaf pans with parchment and set aside. In a large pan over medium heat, cook the diced apples along with brown sugar, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and lemon juice. Stir until the apples are soft and tender. Then, add in the vanilla and allow the mixture to cool down. Next, melt the remaining stick of butter in the microwave in its own bowl. In another bowl, mix one cup of white sugar and a teaspoon of cinnamon. 

Once you open the biscuits, separate one biscuit into two thinner pieces. They should naturally come apart in halves. You might want to have gloves for this next part! Dip one half of the biscuit layer into the melted butter and then coat with the sugar mixture. Place the cinnamon apples on top of the sugar-coated biscuit and start to create a tower using this pattern. I stacked about four at a time and then laid them horizontally in the loaf pan until all the biscuit pieces were coated, layered with apples and squished together. 

Finally, bake the loaf for one hour! Let the loaf cool and enjoy! The biscuit pieces should pull apart easily, creating soft, pillowy slices of apple bread. 

Apple-Sausage-Potato Sheet Pan 

Once you’ve gotten comfortable with your dicing and cutting skills, this dinner is quite literally the easiest meal I’ve ever made, excluding those in CrockPots. When I had leftover apples from an orchard, I found this recipe and all I had to buy was potatoes, easy onion and sausage. This simple sheet pan is sweet and savory and smells like the perfect fall-themed dinner. 

Ingredients: 

• About half a link of Kielbasa sausage, cut into ½ inch thick circles (you can use a different kind if you prefer) 
• A bag of baby potatoes (about 30 potatoes) cut into halves or thirds – I like these because you don’t have to peel them
• 3 large apples, diced and seasoned with 2 teaspoons of cinnamon 
• 2 spoonfuls of easy onion
• 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil 
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• ¼ teaspoon of ground ginger 
• ¼ teaspoon of black pepper 
• 1 ½  teaspoons of dried rosemary 

Directions: 

First, preheat your oven to 425 F. Then, cut up all the sausage, apples and potatoes into bite-sized pieces. Season the apples with cinnamon and set aside. Next, add the diced sausage and potatoes to a 12-by-17-inch baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season the pan with salt, ginger, pepper and rosemary. I like to season the apples with cinnamon separately so that the apples don’t taste as salty. Add the apples to the sheet and mix until everything is well-blended. Bake the pan for about 25 minutes, or slightly less if your potatoes are smaller. Let the pan cool and enjoy this simple, autumnal sheet pan dinner! 

Overall, I had so much fun making these dishes over the past few weeks as the temperature has started to (slowly) fall. There’s nothing like a tasty apple or pumpkin-inspired dish around this time of year. If you make any of these, remember to have fun, and don’t be too hard on yourself! 

• Autumn
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