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Butternut Squash Apple Bake is a the perfect side dish for your holiday table. It is sweet, warm and full of fall flavors. The butternut squash, apple, raisins and pecans pair perfectly together in this side dish. Serve this alongside your Thanksgiving turkey!
Thanksgiving traditions in my family always involve food, holiday family recipes and gathering in the kitchen. We love sharing the classic dishes at our table but also like adding new additions each year.
This Butternut Squash Apple Bake was on our table a few years ago and I am updating the recipe and photos.
It is a winner and one that you should consider adding to your holiday table alongside this Herb Butter Turkey, Lemon Arugula Salad with Pine Nuts and these Gouda Smashed Potatoes.
If you love warm butternut squash and cooked apples this is the dish for you.
I am a big apple girl during the fall and love making all kinds of dishes using apples. Some of our favorite are these Easy Skillet Apples, Apple Pancakes, Apple Bars with Pumpkin Pie Spice Icing or this Zucchini Applesauce Bread.
Recipe Ingredients
These simple pantry staples are all you need. See the recipe card below for exact amounts and printable instructions.
- Apples: This recipe uses gala apples but you can feel free to use any apple you like. If you want a more tart flavor try using granny smith apples. I peel my apples first before adding them in.
- Butternut Squash: The butternut squash is also peeled and cubed before being added. One tip to save time is to buy pre-peeled and cubed butternut squash. I have seen it at Trader Joes and Aldi before.
- Cinnamon and Brown Sugar: The cinnamon and brown sugar add that warm, fall spice we all love so much. If you are trying to avoid sugar you could use honey or maple syrup to help sweeten the dish. I would recommend stirring in 2 to 3 Tablespoons after cooking and tasting it and then adjusting with more as you see fit.
- Dried Cranberries & Raisins: I love the warm, plump dried raisins and cranberries that are paired with the apples and squash. You could also use other dried fruit like prunes or apricots.
- Pecans: The pecans are one of my favorite parts of this dish. Other nuts that would work well are walnuts or almonds. I personally prefer silvered almonds to whole almonds.
How to Make this Butternut Squash Apple Bake
Step 1: Combine ingredients: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a large bowl combine butternut squash, apples, cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar. Mix well. Add the salt and pepper and mix well.
Step 2: Spread into Baking Dish: In a baking dish that has a lid pour the butternut squash mixture and spread evenly.
Step 3: Bake until the Squash is Soft: Place chopped butter throughout the butternut squash mixture. Cover and bake for 15 minutes. Add the raisins, cranberries and pecans and use tongs or a spoon to toss everything together, cover and place the dish back in the oven for 15 more minutes, until the butternut squash is tender and lightly browned. Remove from oven and stir. Serve warm.
How to Make in the Crockpot
Add all of the ingredients into a crockpot and cook on high for approximately 90 minutes to 2 hours or low for about 3 hours {check occasionally for the squash to become tender}.
More Apple Recipes
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Butternut Squash Apple Bake
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 pounds peeled, seeded, and small cubed butternut squash {about 2 cups, cubed evenly}
- 2 gala apples, peeled, cored and diced {or a sweet apple of your choice}
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar {or use honey}
- 2 tablespoon butter, chopped into sections
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/4 cup raisins
- 1/4 cup pecans {or walnuts}
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
- In a large bowl combine butternut squash, apples, cinnamon, vanilla and brown sugar. Mix well.
- Add the salt and pepper and mix well.
- In a baking dish that has a lid pour the butternut squash mixture and spread evenly.
- Place chopped butter throughout the butternut squash mixture. Cover and bake for 15 minutes.
- Add the raisins, cranberries and pecans and use tongs or a spoon to toss everything together, cover and place the dish back in the oven for 15 more minutes, until the butternut squash is tender and lightly browned.
- Remove from oven and stir. Serve warm.
Notes
- All ovens vary on cooking time so please check to see if the butternut squash is cooked through as you near the end of cooking time. If the squash isn’t tender to your liking cook for a few more minutes.
- You can use honey in place of the brown sugar.
- You can substitute acorn squash in this recipe for the butternut squash if you want.
- You can use Macintosh or any other baking apples instead of gala.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Could I use this app,e squash mixture to a pastry to make a galetta
I would think that would work nicely!
can this be frozen?
Yes. Allow it to cool completely. Then store it in the freezer in an airtight container for up to 4 months. When ready to eat, thaw overnight in the refrigerator and then you can heat it up.
Made this today using 2 (10 Ozs.) packages of frozen butternut squash & a Granny Smith apple. I added 1/2 – 1 Cup apple cider so the squash could have liquid while it cooked in the oven. I put it into a PYREX 11” X 7” glass baking pan & covered it with tin foil. Came out great. Will consider this to bring for Thanksgiving dinner. Great tasting.
I like the idea of using the apple cider. Great idea!
Made this today for dinner with a few alterations. Used maple syrup and a dab of molasses instead of brown sugar, cut the cinnamon to 1 T, and added 1/4 t nutmeg. My raisins were rather hard so I let them and the cranberries stew in a small amt of boiling water for 15 min. and then added that water to the casserole with the raisins and cranberries. I used a Macintosh and a Honeycrisp apple but I preferred the Macintosh as the Honeycrisp was a bit ‘hard’. (Some might like the variety; I didn’t) Great recipe and one I will surely make again and again! Peeling the squash is so challenging so that next time I will prebake or precook it enough to make it easier to peel. Thank you for the recipe!
I am glad you liked it- and I really liked your changes! One shortcut if you want is to buy pre-cubed squash at the store. My stores have it in the produce department.
I just cut the skin off. Much easier than peeling. I cut in rounds first
Great idea!
It turned out delicious. Thanks for the recipe
I am so glad you liked it!
Baked this last night! In addition, I added a bag of Trader Joe’s frozen brussel sprouts and I substituted the raisins/dried cranberries with a bag of fresh! THIS WAS SO GOOD!!!!!
That is a good idea! So glad you liked it!
This is one of our new favorites. I doubled the brown sugar and the butter, because I love both of them. I also decreased the cinnamon to 2 tsp, but then again, that’s my personal taste. I think substituting apple pie spice for the cinnamon might be a tasty variation and I plan to try that next time.
I am so glad you enjoyed it! Love the idea of apple pie spice!