Classic Homemade Apple Pie | Olive & Mango

Updated 25th September 2024

This deeply delicious deep dish apple pie recipe is full of layers of sweet spiced apples packed in a buttery flaky pie crust. The words “apple pie” always conjure up warmth, cinnamon spice aroma, and fall. This truly is the perfect pie for fall and special occasions. Add some vanilla ice cream and it becomes the ultimate and classic home-style dessert. There are a few steps to making this pie, but I promise that it’s not too difficult. The filling is incredibly easy to make and sweet, but not too sweet. I love to top this apple pie with a simple lattice design, but you could also cut out some pie crust to decorate the top or just cover it with a full piece of pie crust.

Apple Pie Filling

A lot of recipes out there call for precooking the apples for the filling. This ensures apples are tender and reduces the chance of your filling slumping or shrinking and creating a large gap between the filling and the crust. It’s an added step and one I have always wanted to avoid so I did some research and according to Stella Parks – BraveTart book, macerating the apples for at least 1 hour to up to 4 hours helps. The apples soften, allowing you to put a lot more in the filling and leading to pie slices stacked to the brim with apples slices. You may think that 4.5 lbs of apples is too much but for this pie it’s the perfect amount. The recipe I came across with all this info is actually Smitten kitchens. She uses the same amount of apples in a regular 9 inch pie plate and piles the apple like 3 inched higher than the pie plate – sky high like a diner style apple pie.

Apple Pie Dough

I opted for a very simple pie crust recipe. It’s an all butter pie crust with super basic ingredients – no extras like vodka, vinegar, cornstarch. Just plain flour, butter, sugar a pinch of salt and ice cold water. It never fails me and always turned out great for all my fruit pies. The key thing to a successful pie crust is making sure your butter and water is cold. You can use a pastry cutter or your hands to cut in the butter but I’m quite happy using the food processor. It’s quick and easy. But if you don’t have a food processor to make the pie dough – no problem. Just combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl and whisk them together. Then use fork or two butter knives or a pastry cuter to cut in butter cubes into the flour mixture. Use hands, fork or wooden spoon to mix in the cold water.

What Are The Best Apples to Make Apple Pie?

When it comes to what variety of apples to use in your apple pie try to stick to baking apples like Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Braeburn, Jonagold, Cortland, Honeycrisp, Jazz, or Fuji. The only ones I avoid are Red delicious or golden delicious apples and McIntosh apples especially as they lack crispness. I really like to do a combination for added flavour as they do each have a distinct flavour difference, small but enough. Variety is nice in pie so feel free to mix it up with sweet and tart apples. I peel them and core them and try to slice them the same thickness as well. I didn’t add lemon juice or zest in this pie and I have to say I really didn’t miss it. If you love that extra bit of tartness in your apple pie feel free to add a teaspoon or so in the filling. I used a simple blend of spices cinnamon and apple pie spice but if you like more of any of them feel free to adjust the amounts and if you like adding extra spices definitely feel free to do so. If you wanted to add a hit of salted caramel to your filling feel free to stir in a few spoonfuls of it into the filling. I personally love a simple classic version.

Apple Pie Recipe Ingredients

• PIE CRUST: Feel free to use the pie crust recipe I have included or your own homemade pie crust recipe – or feel free to use store bought ones you love.
• APPLES: You will need 4.5 lbs of apples peeled, cored and thinly sliced. Try to slice the apples roughly the same thickness for even baking. See above for the best apples to use for apple pie.
• SPICES: I use a blend of ground cinnamon, and apple pie spice which is a blend of ground nutmeg, ground ginger, ground clove. Feel free to adjust amounts to taste and if you would like to add more warming spices like cardamon or all spice you can. Instead of using Apple Pie spice you can use an extra bit of ground cinnamon and add ¼ teaspoon ground or freshly grated nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger and ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves
• CORNSTARCH: Cornstarch or tapioca starch helps thicken the juices the apples release.
• SUGAR: I use a combination of brown sugar and granulated sugar for a nice flavour.
• CREAM & EGG (EGG WASH): The combination is for the egg wash over the pie dough. If you don’t have cream you can use milk or water. The egg wash is optional but gives the pie a nice shiny finish
• TURBINADO SUGAR: Or coarse sugar or sanding sugar is optional but I use it to sprinkle over baked goods including pie to give them a little texture and crunch and a nice finish
• CRUST DUST: This is a combination of sugar and flour that I sprinkle on the bottom/base of the pie crust which helps prevent the base of the pie from becoming soggy. It’s optional but recommended. I use all purpose flour and either granulated sugar or brown sugar
• OPTIONAL ADD INS: Feel free to add touch of freshly squeezed lemon juice and zest, a tablespoon of caramel sauce, or even a splash of rum or bourbon for extra flavour.

How To Make Homemade Apple Pie

This tasty Apple Pie is quiet easy to make and here are the simple instructions (full details in recipe card below)

1. PREPARE FILLING: Peel, core and slice apples and toss them with the sugar, spices and let them sit for 1-4 hours while you make pie dough.
2. MAKE PIE DOUGH: You can use store bought pie dough/pie crust for this recipe if you prefer or even use your own recipe. For a tried and tested simple all butter pie dough recipe please refer to the recipe card below – recipe, directions for making dough, rolling it out included.
3. ROLL OUT PIE DOUGH & CHILL: Roll out the pie dough, fit into pan, sprinkle bottom of crust with crust dust. Chill pie crust while rolling out the second layer/top layer of pie dough – create lattice or cut outs or leave whole.
4. FILL PIE WITH APPLES: Toss the apples with the starch. Empty into pie. Place top layer of pie dough over apples (lattice, cutouts or whole layer cutting vents into the top as needed), trim, tuck and flute edges, brush pie dough with egg wash and chill pie while you preheat oven.
5. BAKE PIE: Carefully transfer pie to oven and bake at 400°F for 75 min or until pie is deeply golden brown and juices are thick and bubbly and internal temperature is approx 195°F. I place a pie shield on top of the pie or tent loosely with foil to prevent the edges and top from browning too quickly at the 20-30 minute mark
6. COOL PIE: Remove pie from oven when done and allow to cool completely on cooling rack for 3-6 hours before slicing and enjoying

Storage, Make Ahead & Freezing Homemade Apple Pie

• STORAGE: Leftover pie can be wrapped tight with plastic wrap and aluminum foil stored in the fridge for up to 5 days. Rewarm slices in a 350°F oven for 5 to 10 minutes before serving them.
• MAKE AHEAD: The Pie Dough – can be made in advance and stored wrapped in plastic wrap in the fridge for up to 3 days. It can also be wrapped and frozen for up to one to three months. Thaw in the fridge overnight and then roll out as directed. The Entire Pie can be made and baked the day before which will allow plenty of room for filling to cool and set making this a great make ahead pie recipe, or wrapped and stored ini the fridge for 2-3 days.
• FREEZING: Baked pie freezes well for up to 2 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving. Here is how to do It – Bake and cool pie as directed. Place your pie into the freezer to allow it to initially freeze, for 1-2 hours or preferably overnight. Then, wrap your frozen pie in a layer of plastic wrap, followed by a layer of aluminum foil. Place the wrapped pie into a freezer-safe storage bag, squeezing out any excess air. Thaw it by moving it to the fridge overnight (or up to 24 hours). Remove wrappings and serve chilled or reheated or let come to room temperature before serving. Unbaked Pie can also be frozen, wrap the assembled unbaked pie in a few sheets of foil, then place it into a freezer-safe bag. Freeze for up to 2 months. Thaw the pie overnight in the fridge, then bake as per recipe.

So what are you waiting for? Put that abundant Fall apple harvest to use with this tasty classic. This delicious, easy to make from scratch apple pie recipe has a flaky butter crust and tender apple filling that’s bursting with flavor and perfectly sweet. It’s also a fantastic recipe to make the day before so that you have dessert ready the next day. Happy baking!

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