Your Guide to 15 of the Most Delicious Apple Varieties Available (2024)

With more than 100 apple varieties grown commercially in the United States, navigating the different kinds can be a little mind-boggling. But we're here to help. Read on to learn our Test Kitchen's favorite types of apples for baking and cooking so your recipes always turn out great. You'll also find a list of different types of apples that include a few common varieties but also the newest names on the market. Once you reach the end of our apple types guide, you'll be able to put your knowledge to the test in a new apple pie recipe, apple dessert, or even a savory skillet meal.

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Best Apples for Baking and Cooking

Depending on your taste (whether you like crisp or tender, sweet or tart) almost all apples are good to eat fresh. Certain types are better than others for baking and cooking, however. For the best texture and flavor, our Test Kitchen recommends seeking out these apple varieties for use in recipes:

Braeburn
Cameo
Cortland
Crispin
Empire
Fuji
Golden Delicious
Granny Smith
Idared
Jazz
Jonagold
Jonathan
Lucy
Pink Lady
Sunrise Magic

Types of Apples

With so many different types of apples out there it's hard to keep track of them all. Here's a list of some common and not-so-common apple varieties to use as a guide when on your next grocery run, orchard visit, or farmers market trip.

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Cortland

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The slightly sweet, slightly tart all-purpose Cortland apple variety is ideal for baking whole because it maintains its portly shape. Chopped or sliced, this apple is fine to fill a pie or strudel as well as stirred into pancakes or muffins.

Canned Apple Pie Filling with Maple and Cinnamon

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Cordera

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This ruby-color apple was developed at Cornell University—home of the oldest apple breeding program in the United States—and debuted in fall 2020. Named after the late Robert Lamb, an apple breeder at Cornell for over 40 years (cordera means "lamb" in Spanish). Great for eating fresh, these apples are crisp and mild in flavor and resistant to apple scab, a common disease for apples grown in this New York region.

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Cosmic Crisp

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With a balance of sweet and tart flavors and an unbelievably juicy bite, this firm apple is the offspring of Honeycrisp and Enterprise varieties. Once cut, Cosmic Crisp apples are slow to oxidize, making the variety a great choice for salads and cheese boards. And it's a good pick for baking.

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Envy

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Originally imported from New Zealand, the Envy apple type is cross between Braeburn and Royal Gala apples. It's now grown on the west coast in Washington. You can use them in cooking or baking (we'd happily try them in this apple poke cake), but their crisp texture and sweetness are best appreciated raw for snacking.

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Firecracker

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These red-blushed apples have a rustic, partially russeted, reddish-brown appearance, with a full aroma and a sweet-tart flavor. A Firecracker's skin contains more flavor than others, while the russets—tiny cork cells on the skin—give it a slightly nutty flavor. The Firecracker is dubbed a "triple threat" as it's one of the few varieties great for eating, baking, and cider production.

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Golden Delicious

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This huge, sweet golden apple is delicious raw and great when cooked or baked. The fruit's rich flavor and tender flesh is amazing in stir-fries, casseroles, cobblers, soups, stews, and sauces. The way this blond keeps its shape during baking makes it a natural for pies.

Apple Pie

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Granny Smith

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This bright green fruit is on the tart, tangy end of the barometer. The Granny is firm when bitten into but won't hold up to prolonged heat—yet its high acid content makes it the apple of many a pie-baker's eye. Also try Granny Smith sautéed with pork.

Classic Apple Crisp

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Lucy Varieties

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Developed by growers in central Washington, Lucy apples are a striking new family of red-flesh apples that blend several popular varieties (of course, Honeycrisp is one!). Lucy Glo has soft, yellow skin with vibrant magenta flesh, while Lucy Rose has speckled red skin with red flesh. Look for them in stores from October to February. Lucy apples are great for eating out of hand and also for baking—they retain their striking red color even when cooked.

This Caramel Apple Dump Cake Is Sticky-Sweet Perfection

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Newton Pippin

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Another all-purpose fruit, the green-gold Newton Pippin is a good keeping apple. Its highly perfumed flesh is crisp and juicy and holds up well in the frying pan or oven. This apple's sweet-tart flavor makes it a favorite for baked apple desserts.

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Pink Luster

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After 23 years in the making at Cornell University, the early maturing Pink Luster variety—which borrowed the best of Honeycrisp and Gala—finally made its market debut. Medium to large in size, these shiny yellow and pink blush apples are fun to pluck right from sun-warmed trees in mid-September, making them ideal for pick-your-own orchards. With crisp, juicy flesh, a pleasantly tart flavor, and smooth, even skin, they're ideal when eaten out of hand.

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Rave

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You'll "rave" about this new apple variety thanks to its juiciness, crisp texture, and sweeter-than-most flavor. Like many other new varieties we're seeing, Rave apples are a cross with Honeycrisp and MonArk apple types. Stick to snacking or caramel apples for this apple—it doesn't hold up well at high heat, so baking may turn it to mush.

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Rome Beauty

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Cooking and baking accentuate the rich but mellow flavor of this medium-tart, deep-red apple. It's known as Queen of the Bakers, and it holds up well when cooked whole. Enjoy Beauty in bread puddings, pies, quick breads, and sauces, too.

Apple Fritter Bread

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SugarBee

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Creamy-white flesh and yellow-flecked red skin give the SugarBee its sweet flavor and crunch. Great for eating fresh and baking, this apple type came to exist thanks to a humble Minnesota honeybee's path during natural cross-pollination. Because of that honeybee and the apple's sugar-sweet flavor, the name SugarBee was a natural fit.

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Sunrise Magic

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Created at Washington State University, Sunrise Magic apple trees are nestled in the nurturing rain shadow of the North Cascade Mountains. The apple's coloring—orange-red blush tinged with yellow—inspired its poetic name. This variety is sweet, crisp, and naturally juicy, keeping its firm texture even after months of storage. Put it to use in baking and cooking projects or snack on it fresh.

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WildTwist

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This unique apple variety is a "twist" on two legendary varieties. It has the sweet-tart flavor of Cripps Pink with extra juiciness and crunch from Honeycrisp. The WildTwist is great for snacking and adding fresh to salads.

How to Pick Apples

Look for fruit that has firm, unwrinkled skin with no soft spots or nicks. The fruit should have a fresh apple fragrance.

How to Store Apples

Apples are best stored in a cool, dark location. Storage time varies by variety. For small amounts, refrigerate in plastic bags for up to 2 weeks. Store apples between 32ºF and 40ºF (in your fridge or an unfinished basem*nt) up to 6 weeks. Wrap apples loosely in paper or plastic (not resealable bags) for air circulation.

Now that you know all about the different cooking apple varieties, give a new sweet or savory apple recipe a try. Start with a classic such as apple pie and work your way to stuffing apples into pork chops or kneading them into a pull-apart yeast bread.