Shop That Caramel Apple Cheddar Cobbler

Petitioning to make every month centered around this Caramel Apple Cheddar Cobbler. It’s everything I love in a dessert: warm and cool elements, multiple textures, salty-sweet. Could be breakfast. Could be an afternoon treat. Could be the perfect finisher for your evening meal. Could eat all day!

One more thing: This recipe was deliberately created to simplify at-home pastry. Less tools = more reasons to make it … right now. If you need more encouragement, here are a few key items that Carla uses in the video and that we recommend having in your own collection.

See below for the latest installment of Everything You Need For, Caramel Apple Cheddar Cobbler edition.

Everything You Need for Caramel Apples Under a Cheddar Roof

Ingredients

The Flour

No “special” flours required here, per se, but Carla’s house flour is King Arthur. If you’re going by grams, we follow the KA conversions.

• King Arthur Baking’s Unbleached All-Purpose Flour ($6.95 per 5-lb bag) ships directly from their site, and is available nationwide in grocery chains like Target, Whole Foods, and Walmart.

• Arrowhead Mills Organic All-Purpose Flour ($6.97 per 5-lb bag) is also pretty commonly found on shelves, as is Gold Medal Unbleached All Purpose Flour ($3.98 per 5-lb bag). When in doubt, choose an unbleached all-purpose flour.

The Apples

Carla went with Honeycrisp apples for this recipe. They’re tart, they’re juicy, and they soften without losing their shape. We rely on the apples’ juices to loosen the crisp dark caramel into a delectable sauce while it bakes.

• If Honeycrisps aren’t looking quite right in nearby stores, Yes! Apples ships boxes of sustainably grown Honeycrisps ($46 per box; subscribers get a discounted price) from family-owned farms direct-to-consumer. Carla’s been receiving their boxes for a few months now and they always arrive in top form.

• EverCrisp, Pink Lady, and Snapdragon are good Spin Its for Honeycrisps. Look for them at the farmer’s market or regular grocery store.

The Sprinkling Sugar

For extra sparkle and crunch, Carla dusts the pastry with sugar. Granulated is great, but if you want to level up, stock some turbinado. It has a coarser crystal that’s great for finishing touches—much like a flaky sea salt. It also contains a small percentage of molasses, doubling down on the caramel flavor in the cobbler. Demerara and raw cane sugar also work.

• Wholesome’s Natural Fair Trade Raw Cane Turbinado Sugar ($6.49 per 12-oz bag) will deliver the shine you seek.

• India Tree Organics Demerara Sugar ($27.46 per 4-pack), is searchable online and in stores. It’s a sparkly crystal with slightly higher molasses content (the more toffee notes, the better!).

Equipment

The Scale

All of Carla’s baking recipes include gram measurements for ease and accuracy. Escali Primo Digital Kitchen Scale ($24.95) is affordable, comes in lots of color-ways, and will be your best kitchen companion.

The Pastry Brush

For egg or cream washes, get yourself a pastry brush with natural bristles. It works better for soaking and spreading thin liquids than the silicone alternative. Ateco is a pastry tool stand-by and its 1" Wide Boar Bristle Pastry/Basting Brush ($5.47) is what Carla uses in her kitchen. Nothing fancy required here.

The Cast Iron Skillet

You only need one pan for this recipe and it was designed to be made in cast iron. Cook the caramel on the stove, add apple slices, top with pastry shingles, then slide the whole thing into the oven. Because of its ability to retain heat, the caramel-apple mixture cooks evenly while the dough on top crisps up.

• Lodge’s Chef Collection 8-Inch Cast Iron Skillet ($24.95) is a great option for every budget. Smithey’s No. 8 Chef Skillet ($110) is designed with a beautiful curved interior and has an extended handle to keep your fingers extra safe.

• Alternately, you can assemble the cobbler in a pie plate after combining the caramel and apples on the stovetop. Stainless steel conducts heat best and we like this affordable Norpro 3811 Stainless Steel Pie Pan ($9.99). It’s hard to pass on ceramic, which always tempt with beautiful built-in crimps. (N.b. the heat conductivity won’t be as good, so it may take a little longer before you start seeing juices bubbling up top.) Emile Henry is a classic pie dish brand. At the time of writing, its 9" Modern Classics Pie Dish ($49.96) is currently on sale.

The Bench Scraper

Gather, scoot, and press dough mixture into a tidy mountain using a bench scraper. The less you have to use your hot hands, the flakier you’ll keep your crust.

• Sur La Table’s Stainless Steel Bench Scraper ($11.95) has a handy blade that also doubles as a ruler.

• Carla uses a Dexter Russell Traditional 6” x 3” Dough Cutter/Scraper ($25.90) in her video.

The Heatproof Spatula

At the very beginning of your caramel journey, it’s important to dissolve the sugar granules before letting your bubbling mixture do its thing uninterrupted. Williams Sonoma’s Silicone Spatula with Stainless-Steel Handle ($14.95) will help you both incorporate the sugar into the water, and mix your apples into the finished caramel later on.

The Mixing and Serving

Carla’s cutie-patootie glass canisters for storing flour and other grains are props purchased for That Sounds So Good. There are many identical Heller containers online with different color lids.

Ditto the decorative orange and clear dessert plates in the video. These aren’t the same, but they’re cute, too!

Look for vintage mixing bowls like CLM’s in thrift stores or online—buy used and save the world! Or something like that. The one in the video is a Pyrex 2-quart, and you can find lots of options by typing “vintage Pyrex mixing bowls” into the search bar on Etsy or Ebay.