The Best Apples for Baking Pies, Cobblers, and Other Dishes, According to Apple Farmers

As soon as the leaves start to change, home bakers are ready to make apple pies, apple crisps, and other desserts. As you pull up favorite apple recipes or seek new desserts to try, you need to know all of the best apples for baking. There are so many varieties of apples—and not all of them are interchangeable—so what type is right for your recipe? We consulted apple growers (whose orchards also produce hundreds of pies, crisps, and cobblers, every fall) to find out.

What Makes a Good Baking Apple?

Flavor and firmness are the most important qualifications when choosing apples for baking. "A good baking apple will have a tart, acidic flavor," says Jake Samascott of Samascott Orchards in Kinderhook, N.Y.

John Lyman, co-owner of Lyman Orchards in Middlefield, Conn., agrees. "You definitely want good tart flavor to offset the sugar that's used in so many desserts," he says. In addition to flavor, "the apples need to cook down to a soft consistency without turning to mush," says Samascott.

The Best Apples for Baking

These widely available apple varieties are fantastic for baking:

• Golden Delicious
• Pink Lady
• Granny Smith
• Honeycrisp

Lyman is a fan of the Honeycrisp. "They're what I call all-purpose apples, meaning that they're great for both eating and baking," he says. "Their nickname is the dessert apple because they have a full body of tart and sweet flavors, and their flesh is crispy."

The Best Apples for Pies

Many bakers prefer to use a combination of apples rather than just one variety when they make an apple pie. Using a combination of at least two types of apples means you can balance the great apple flavor of one variety with another that has a less perfect flavor but offers a great texture when cooked.

Both Samascott Orchards and Lyman Orchards use a combination of Jonagold and Ida Red apples in their pies, cakes, cobblers, and crisps. "Jonagold has a great flavor, good consistency, and is even sweet enough to make no sugar-added apple products. Ida red has a very strong apple flavor and cooks very well," says Samascott.

• Jonagold
• Ida Red
• Crispin (also known as Mutsu)
• Granny Smith
  

Crispin and Granny Smith apples also have a nice acidic flavor that works well in baked goods.

Lyman suggests pairing Ida Red and Crispin or Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples. If you're baking with Empire apples, mix them with a slightly firmer variety since they tend to get too soft once cooked.

The Best Apple for Applesauce

There is a standout in the category of best apple for homemade applesauce, and both Samascott and Lyman agree: the MacIntosh apple.

While Macintosh apples generally get too soft for a pie filling, they cook down quickly, which means it is easy to mash the fruit with brown sugar and spices, transforming it into a smooth or chunky sauce depending on your preferences.

The Best Apples for Salad

A crisp apple salad made with winter greens, candied nuts, and sharp cheese is a fabulous contrast to the many sweets we enjoy throughout the fall. If you're looking for the perfect apple to slice or cut into matchsticks and scatter over the top of a salad, consider:

• Cortland
• Red Delicious
• Empire

What makes these apples good for using in a salad? They are slow to brown, super crunchy, and generally sweeter than other varieties, which will offset the more tart or savory flavors found in a salad.

Great Apples for Snacking (but Not for Baking)

Samascott says some widely available apples don't make the grade for baking but are good enjoyed out of hand:

• Red Delicious
• Fuji (a hybrid of Red Delicious)
• Gala

Red Delicious and Fuji take too long to cook down enough during the baking process and most people would not enjoy eating a pie made from them. "Both are also very sweet but bland, not making for a good flavored baking apple," he says. Gala apples are also too sweet for most desserts and don't bake as well as other varieties, so save those for snacking, too.