Cozy baked apples and pears recipe! A baked fruit casserole perfect for fall. You’ll love this fresh out of the oven cranberry apple bake.
Happy fall, Rhubarbarians! We've got an easy and cozy dish for you today: baked apples and pears.
If you're like us, you're craving all things pie. But don't really want to make pie, lol.
This one is the ultimate fall comfort food. Think: pie filling, but make it easy.
We love roasting fall fruit this time of year. It makes a wonderful side dish, or an easy dessert, but also makes a great topping for yogurt or oatmeal. AND, it makes your house smell amazingly cozy and fall-y. Win for sure.
Here are all of our fall recipes to try for the coziest fall ever!
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Why you'll love this
We combine all of your favorite fall fruits with cinnamon and maple syrup for the perfect fall flavor. Fresh out of the oven baked apples and pears with cranberries, pecans, cinnamon, and maple. It's a fall dream come true!
There's no slaving over pie crust or worrying about thinly sliced fruit. We just put our favorite things in a baking pan and the oven does the rest of the work for us. Perfect.
Let your kids help you pick out different kinds of apples and pears and let them help you make this! They'll love tasting the different fruit after it's baked.
The best types of apples and pears to use
The apples:
We love using two different types of apples in this apple bake! Our favorites are granny smith apples and honey crisp apples. The contrast between the tart granny smith and the crunchy honey crisp is incredible.
Almost any type of apple will work, but we recommend the following:
- Granny smith apples: very tart and the go-to apple for apple pie.
- Honey crisp apples: Firm, crunchy and sweet. These hold their shape well and taste amazing.
- Jonagold apples: Slightly tart but still sweet and very firm. These hold their shape well and have a slightly tart flavor that pairs well with the maple syrup.
- Braeburn apples: Slightly tart but still sweet and firm. These apples don't release a lot of juice when baked, making them possibly the perfect baking apple.
We don't recommend using golden delicious or red delicious apples. The texture will become mushy when baked and the flavor isn't as pleasant as the apples above.
The pears:
The most important thing when choosing pears for baking: they have to be firm. Firm pears hold their shape when baked, but soft pears will get mushy.
We love all types of pears, but here are our favorites for baking:
- Anjou pears: these pears have brown or red skin and we find them to have the best firm texture and flavor that holds up to baking.
- Bosc pears: these pears are firm and crunchy, but also very juicy. Wonderful texture for baking.
- Bartlett pears: bartlett pears have great flavor and the perfect pear shape. We find them great for baking, but they are juicier than anjou and bosc.
We don't recommend using comice pears because of how fragile they are or Asian pears because of their distinct flavor.
Have you tried our maple roasted butternut squash with cranberries?
Ingredients and equipment
Here's everything you need to make perfectly baked apples and pears. Full ingredients and instructions are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of this article.
Ingredients:
- Coconut oil or butter
- Pears
- Apples
- Cinnamon
- Fresh cranberries
- Pecans
- Maple syrup
Equipment:
- An oven
- A baking dish
- A cutting board
- A sharp knife
- Measuring spoons
- An oven mitt
- Measuring cups
Have you tried vegan apple crisp for one?
Step by step instructions
Here's how to make this recipe! Full instructions are listed in the recipe card at the bottom of this article.
- Preheat your oven and grease a baking dish.
- Peel, core, and slice your apples and pears.
- Place them in the baking dish and sprinkle with cinnamon.
- Bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and add the cranberries, pecans, and maple syrup.
- Bake for 15 minutes.
- Let cool slightly.
- Serve and enjoy!
Serving suggestions
We love baking fall fruit because it is so versatile! It's delightful with breakfast, as a side dish, as a snack, or a dessert.
- Serve it warm out of the oven as a dessert: although it's amazing on it's own (think pie with no crust), our favorite way to serve it as a dessert is warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Yum.
- Serve it with breakfast: warm it up with some oatmeal, stir it into your yogurt, or have a bowl of it warm with a hot cup of coffee. Hey, how about these cinnamony cranberry pancakes?
- Serve it with dinner: this makes a fantastic vegan side dish! Check out these dinner recipes to serve it with:
Storing and freezing
Store any leftovers in an air tight container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. The fruit may become mushy the longer it sits in the fridge, so we recommend eating within 2 days.
Yes, you can freeze it! Freeze in an air tight freezer safe container for up to 3 months. Keep in mind that the fruit will become mushy, so we recommend reheating and serving as a topping rather a side dish after it's frozen.
More recipes for a cozy fall season:
Make ahead instructions
If you're making this for a holiday meal or bringing it to a potluck, you might want to prep ahead!
We recommend prepping everything, adding it your baking dish, and then baking it right before serving. That way everything is fresh and hot right out of the oven.
If you won't be able to bake it before serving, that's okay! This baked fruit casserole can be baked ahead of time, cooled, and stored in the refrigerator until ready to serve. To serve it warm, pop it in the oven for a few minutes to warm it up right before serving.
You will love this moist and delicious pumpkin cranberry bread recipe!
Recipe tips and substitutions
- Feel free to use any variety of pear you'd like or any variety of apple you'd like, as long as they are firm and not soft. We like red anjou pears, one tart granny smith apple, and one honeycrisp apple.
- If you can't find fresh cranberries, swap them for dried cranberries. Add the cranberries in at the beginning of the bake along with the apples and pears so that they rehydrate.
- You can substitute the pecans for walnuts or almonds. Just leave them out for a nut free version.
Here's a list of our best cranberry recipes to try this season!
FAQs
Yep! Add the cranberries in at the beginning of the bake along with the apples and pears so that they rehydrate.
We don't recommend it. Canned fruit is already poached and will become mushy if cooked in the oven.
Just leave out the pecans! You could add pumpkin seeds as a substitution.
This recipe is vegan.
This recipe is gluten free.
More apple recipes to try:
Did you make this recipe? Leave us a review and star rating in the comments below! We read every single review and appreciate your feedback.
Recipe
Baked apples and pears with cranberries and pecans
Ingredients
- 1 Tablespoon coconut oil or butter
- 2 medium firm pears
- 2 medium apples
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- 1 cup whole or halved pecans
- ½ cup pure maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 3 quart baking dish with the coconut oil or butter. Peel, core, and halve the pears. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Place the pears and the apples face up in the baking dish and sprinkle with the cinnamon.
- Put the dish in the preheated oven and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove from the oven and sprinkle the cranberries and pecans evenly into the baking dish. Evenly drizzle on the maple syrup. Return to the oven and bake for another 15 minutes, or until the apples are fork tender.
- Remove the baking dish from the oven and let cool slightly, about 15 minutes.
- Serve as a side dish or a warm dessert with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. You could also cool the dish and serve it with yogurt or oatmeal.
Notes
Nutrition
Here are some recipes for your sweet tooth:
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