Easy Apple Pie Recipe (2024)

FAQs

Should apples be cooked before making pie? ›

Should you cook the apples before baking apple pie? You don't have to pre-cook the filling before spooning it into the pie crust, but it's a quick step I recommend. Just 5 minutes on the stove begins the softening process, and also helps the flavors start to mingle.

Crust dust is a 1:1 mixture of flour and granulated sugar. When baking a pie, especially a fruit pie, a couple of teaspoons of crust dust sprinkled into the bottom of the crust will help prevent the crust from becoming saturated with juicy filling as it bakes.

You do not need to pre-bake a pie crust for an apple pie or any baked fruit pie really, but we do freeze the dough to help it stay put. Pre-baking the pie crust is only required when making a custard pie OR when making a fresh fruit pie. you should probably get: Pie weights are super helpful to have for pre-baking.

At the end of the day, choosing the best pie apples is a personal decision. My best apple pie would include a combination of these three: Cortland, for flavor; Russet, for texture; and Granny Smith, for its combination of the two.

Baking the apple slices first. It's the magic key to a crispy base, superior flavour and perfectly-cooked-and-never-mushy filling. It's also how you get a generous amount of pie filling without the dreaded giant empty cavity under the lid.

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

Make some good holes in the crust to let steam escape, and you might as well make a design! You can do these with a fork, or cut designs with a knife. You can also lay on extra dough cut into shapes for more styling. Ready to set the pies in the oven!

Choose the Right Rack in the Oven

Which rack you use in the oven can help ensure a crisp crust. Baking the pie on a lower rack will concentrate heat on the bottom of the pie and help the crust crisp.

The key is to avoid the typical apple pie pitfalls — a soggy crust and waterlogged filling — by blind baking the crust and boiling down the juices before filling the pie. These steps add a bit of extra time but ensure a crisp and flaky crust and a cider-flavored filling that's not the least bit watery.

All-purpose flour is an easy solution, as you're sure to have it in your pantry. Since it's lower in starch, you'll use more of it than you would higher-starch thickeners. Quick-cooking tapioca makes filling bright and clear, but also gives it a stippled and somewhat sticky texture.

How many apples to a pie? ›

It's hard to know exactly how many apples you'll need for an apple pie, but for one 9-inch pie, you probably won't need more than 10 apples. If your apples are smaller, you'll probably need 10; if they're really big apples, you'll use fewer of them.

Which apples bake best? For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

Precooking the apples gets you one step ahead of that process; it releases the fruit's liquid, causing them to cook down and lose volume before baking. So it discourages the gap between the top of the apple filling and the top crust, leaving you with a pie that has a thick layer of apples from bottom to top.

Using Water, Lemon Juice, and Citric Acid to Prevent Apples From Browning. One of the easiest things you can do to prevent browning is to submerge the cut fruit in plain water, which reduces the amount of air, and therefore oxygen, that can get to it.

Avoid using overripe apples to prevent your pie from becoming mushy and wet. Southern Living says choosing the perfect apple variety will be for naught if the fruit is overripe.

Skip the Thickener

Adding a few tablespoons of thickener is absolutely necessary to keep your apple pie filling from turning into apple soup. Flour is most commonly used, although it does leave a slight cloud over the filling. Alternatives include cornstarch, quick-cooking tapioca, and apple jelly.