The Best Homemade Apple Pie Recipe

If you are looking for the best way to make a Homemade Apple Pie this is your recipe! This pie recipe takes out the busy work of making filling and instead uses a sugar and butter mixture poured over the entire pie so that it bakes to sweet and flavorful perfection!

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Apple Pie from Scratch

Who doesn’t love a good apple pie!?

Baked apples, flaky pie crust, just a hint of cinnamon! Served a lá mode with Vanilla Ice Cream or just on it’s own there is no wonder why it is considered a classic Americana dessert.

My recipe uses a little bit of a different method from most, I have been making it this way for years. It is a slight adaptation of what the internet refers to as Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. This particular recipe has somewhat of a cult following but I found it was lacking in a few ways, like no cinnamon! So sorry Grandma Ople I just had to make your pie better…

What makes this pie different is that instead of making a filling with the apples and then adding it to the pie you will fill the pie with freshly sliced apples add a lattice top, and then proceed to make a filling with butter, sugar, and flavorings, and then pour this filling overtop the entire pie, including the lattice top.

The result it amazing! The inside of the pie is almost caramel like surrounding the soft apples and the top of the pie crust is covered in this delicious coating almost toffee like on top of the flaky pie crust. It is truly an apple pie that no one could resist.

And if you are looking for a fun fall recipe to make with your kids along with this pie try this easy apple recipe for kids.

Equipment

You really don’t need a lot for this pie. If you are making your own pie crust from scratch it will be a little more involved but if you are using a store bought crust you won’t need a lot besides a standard pie plate, a small saucepan, and standard kitchen tools like measuring cups, knife, ect…

Ingredients

• DOUBLE Pie Crust – I suggest making a double batch of my All Butter Pie Crust, it is simple and never fails to make an amazing pie. Obviously feel free to use a store bought crust or your favorite crust recipe as well.
• Unsalted Butter – Because we are baking and we don’t want a salty pie make sure you use unsalted butter for the filling.
• All Purpose Flour – Just a little bit, it’s purpose is to be used as a thickening agent for the filling mixture.
• Apple Cider – So this is one of those ingredients that I believe really elevates this pie. It adds extra flavor that you didn’t even realize was missing. Typically this is water, and if you don’t have apple cider available you can substitute in water.
• White/Granulated Sugar – This pie uses two types of sugar so you know it is going to be good. By using both granulated sugar and brown sugar you get an even mix between consistency of the filling and flavor.
• Light Brown Sugar – For the brown sugar I have always used light brown sugar, if need be you may substitute in dark brown sugar.
• Ground Cinnamon – In the original version of this recipe there was no cinnamon and it made me so sad, it absolutely needs some cinnamon in my opinion and so here it is!
• Ground Nutmeg – Just a slight pinch of ground nutmeg.
• Vanilla Extract – Vanilla extract is enough addition made by me, I mean it mellows out the pie but while adding in a more elevated flavor profile.
• Granny Smith Apples – Do you have to use Granny Smith Apples? No but you do need to use baking apples. Should you use Granny Smith apples? Yes, they really have the prefect flavor profile and texture for an apple pie, not overly sweet but also a hard texture lend itself useful for pie. If you wanted to use a different variety you certainly can. If you are looking for an alternative for baking you could try these varieties of apples: Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Braeburn, Mutu/Crispin, Winesap, or Pink Lady. If you are out apple picking and want to make a pie after just pay attention at the apple orchard they will most likely have listed what the different varieties of apples are good for whether it be baking, applesauce, or eating.

For a complete detailed list of the ingredients continue towards the bottom of the page.

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 425º F.

Peel, core, and slice the apples.

Place the bottom crust in the pie plate. Fill with the apples, mounded slightly.

Create a lattice top with the second piece of pie dough. Cut the pie dough into strips about 1/2 to 1 inch in size. To make the lattice take 5-6 strips of the pie dough and place it on the pie. Peel back every other strip of the pie dough and place 1 new strip perpendicular and close to the edge. Place the strips that were pulled back back over top the pie. pull back the opposite strips and place a new perpendicular piece. Lay back those pieces of pie crust. Continue the process until the whole pie is covered with the lattice top.

Melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium heat. Stir in the flour to form a paste, letting the mixture get bubbly. Add in the cider, white sugar, and brown sugar. Mix well and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature slightly and add in the cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla. Let simmer 3 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat.

Very carefully and gently pour the sugar and butter mixture over the crust SLOWLY so that it runs into the pie inbetween the lattice work. Make sure to run slowly so that it does not run off the side of the pie. 

Transfer to the oven and back for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350º F. Continue baking 35 to 45 minutes until the pie is bubbly and the apples are soft. 

Let cool completely before cutting to serve.

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