Easy Fall Desserts: 12 Pumpkin, Apple, and Halloween Treats

Collage of fall desserts including pumpkin loaf with pecans, apple pie with ice cream, muffins with glaze, and monster-themed rice cereal treats, with the text “12 Easy Fall Desserts” in the center.

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These easy fall desserts are all the pumpkin, apple, and Halloween recipes on Sass and Salt, in one place. Most skip the mixer, can be made ahead, or are simple enough for kids to decorate, and I’ve marked which is which so you can choose based on how much time you actually have.

They’re grouped by flavor: pumpkin, apple, and Halloween. Hosting Thanksgiving? Skip to the make-ahead plan near the end.

Easy pumpkin desserts

Pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting

Make ahead

One batch makes 2 loaves, so frost one and give one away (or keep one plain for the kids). Make ahead: it tastes even better the next day.

Get the recipe: pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting

Oval-shaped crème brûlée in a white ramekin, topped with a caramelized sugar crust. A vintage spoon lies nearby. Other ramekins and a wooden bowl of sugar are partially visible on a marble surface.

Pumpkin crème brûlée

Make ahead

Spiced pumpkin custard with a crackly burnt-sugar top. Make ahead: bake the custards up to 2 days early and torch them right before serving.

Get the recipe: pumpkin crème brûlée

Pumpkin banana muffins

Pumpkin and banana in one muffin, finished with a crumb topping. A good way to use up the last of the can and the brown bananas on the counter.

Get the recipe: pumpkin banana muffins

Easy apple desserts

Honeycrisp apple pie

Adapted from my mom’s recipe: Honeycrisp apples only, an all-butter crust, and no pre-cooking the filling.

Get the recipe: honeycrisp apple pie

Salted apple pie bars stacked on white plate.

Salted caramel apple pie bars

Make ahead

A shortbread-style crust, spiced apple filling, and a salted caramel drizzle, baked in an 8×8 pan. Make ahead: the dough keeps in the fridge for 2 days.

Get the recipe: salted caramel apple pie bars

looking down at a bake apple cider loaf bread sliced on a white platter with plates and a fork.

Apple cider donut loaf cake

No mixer

Everything you love about a cider donut, baked as a loaf with a cinnamon-sugar crust. No mixer: just bowls and a whisk.

Get the recipe: apple cider donut loaf cake

three baked apple cider donuts with apple cider glaze on a white plate with a bite in one donut.

Baked apple cider donuts with apple butter glaze

No mixer

Baked in a donut pan, not fried, with apple butter in both the batter and the glaze. No mixer and no rising time.

Get the recipe: baked apple cider donuts

A hand with red nail polish holds an apple cider whoopie pie above a marble surface with more cookies and a bowl of frosting in the background.

Apple cider whoopie pies

Make ahead · Freezes

Soft apple cider cookies rolled in cinnamon sugar and filled with cinnamon cream cheese filling. Make ahead: the filling keeps 2 days, and finished whoopie pies freeze for 3 months.

Get the recipe: apple cider whoopie pies

Apple cider muffins

Plan ahead

Apple muffins with a cider syrup in the batter and a cinnamon streusel on top. Plan ahead: the cider reduction needs to simmer and cool first.

Get the recipe: apple cider muffins

Halloween treats kids can help with

Colorful Rice Krispie treats decorated as Halloween monsters with candy eyes, icing in orange, white, purple, green, and black, and various spooky designs. Bowls of marshmallows, candy corn, and more treats are in the background.

Halloween Rice Krispie treats

No-bake · Kids can help

One no-bake pan, four designs: mummies, Frankensteins, spiders, and monster eyes. Kids can decorate these themselves.

Get the recipe: Halloween Rice Krispie treats

Brownie squares decorated as Halloween graves with cookie "tombstones" labeled "RIP" in icing, gummy worms, candy pumpkins, and candy corn accents on a marble surface.

Graveyard brownies

Kids can help

Fudgy brownies (from scratch or a box mix) with cookie-crumb dirt, cookie tombstones, and Halloween candy. My son decorated the test batches.

Get the recipe: graveyard brownies

Assorted pretzel rods dipped in colorful candy coating, decorated with candy eyes and chocolate to resemble fun Halloween monsters and mummies, are arranged vertically on a black surface—perfect alongside your favorite halloween rice krispie treats.

Halloween pretzel rods

No-bake · Kids can help

Five no-bake designs, including mummies, ghosts, and witch fingers. About 40 rods in roughly 30 minutes, so they work for a class party.

Get the recipe: Halloween pretzel rods

Easy Thanksgiving desserts: a make-ahead plan

If you’re hosting, you don’t want to bake on Thanksgiving Day. Here’s how these desserts fit into the day.

2 days before

Bake the pumpkin crème brûlée custards and refrigerate them.
Make the dough for my butter pie crust. It keeps in the fridge for 3 days.

The day before

Bake the pie.
Bake the pumpkin bread, then frost it the next day.
Make my easy homemade salted caramel sauce for drizzling.

Thanksgiving Day

Whip up homemade whipped cream right before dessert.
Torch the crème brûlée tops at the table.

Fall desserts for a crowd

Feeding a bigger group? These make the most from one batch:

Halloween pretzel rods	about 40
Pumpkin bread with cream cheese frosting	2 loaves
Baked apple cider donuts	14–17 donuts
Halloween Rice Krispie treats	16 squares
Apple cider whoopie pies	14

FAQ

Pumpkin crème brûlée (up to 2 days), pumpkin bread (better the next day), apple cider whoopie pies (they freeze), and the dough for the pie crust and apple pie bars.

The Halloween Rice Krispie treats, pretzel rods, and graveyard brownies. None of them need much more than melting and decorating.

The apple cider donut loaf cake, the baked apple cider donuts, and the pumpkin bread itself (the frosting uses a hand mixer).