Every time I bake this apple pie, it’s met with endless compliments! With its buttery, flaky crust and a rich, spiced apple filling that’s perfectly sweet and tart, I guarantee this will be one of the best apple pies you’ll ever taste.
Why You’ll Love This Apple Pie Recipe
Spiced Apple Filling – The apple filling for this pie is packed with flavor and perfectly balanced between sweet and tart. In addition to cinnamon, this recipe includes a few other spices to really elevate the flavor. Lemon zest and lemon juice add a wonderful tanginess, ensuring the filling isn’t overly sweet.
Rich, Flaky Crust – The pie crust in this recipe comes from my all-time favorite homemade all-butter crust recipe. While you can use a premade crust, I highly recommend making your own—it’s super easy and tastes so much better than store-bought!
Not Soggy – The apple filling is precooked before being added to the pie crust. This step reduces and thickens the liquid in the apples, ensuring the baked pie isn’t too wet and that the bottom crust doesn’t become soggy from excess moisture.
Apples to Use for Apple Pie
Choosing the right type of apples, often called “baking apples,” is crucial when making apple pie, as the variety you use can greatly impact the pie’s taste and texture. Baking apples are firmer and hold their shape better during baking, ensuring that the apple slices in your pie retain some texture rather than turning into mush.
For this recipe, I use Granny Smith apples. They are my top choice for apple pie because they’re crisp, hold their shape beautifully, and have a tart flavor that balances the sweetness of the filling. You can also use other popular baking apples like Honeycrisp, Jonagold, Braeburn, or Royal Gala (like I use in my spiced apple cake recipe and popular apple muffins), though I recommend sticking with Granny Smith for this recipe.
Avoid softer apples like Red Delicious or Golden Delicious, as they tend to become too soft and watery when baked—and no one wants a watery pie!
How to Make Apple Pie
You can find the full list of ingredients in the recipe card at the end of the blog post (for easy navigation, hit the ‘jump to recipe’ button at the top of the blog post). Here is a quick visual breakdown of the recipe (recipe video is also provided in the recipe card below).
Begin by preparing the apples. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin slices (just less than a ¼ inch thick per slice). Don’t make them too thin otherwise you’ll have a mushy filling. Place the apples into a large pot.
Add brown sugar and white sugar to the apple slices and mix well. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Once done, there should be liquid at the bottom of the pot.
To the pot add in lemon zest, lemon juice, flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, salt and vanilla. Mix well and then place pot over medium heat. Once the liquid starts to gently bubble, cook the apple mixture until the apples have softened slightly and the liquid has thickened and reduced—about 10 minutes. Stir frequently and be careful not to overcook the apples.
Once ready, transfer the apples to a shallow dish or tray and allow to completely cool.
While the apples are cooling, prepare the two pie crusts as per my pie crust recipe and allow to chill for 1 hour (you can make this ahead of time as well). Once ready, lightly flour your workbench while rolling one of the pie crusts out to a 12-inch circle (make sure to keep the second crust in the fridge in the meantime).
Wrap the rolled-out pie dough around your rolling pin and gently unroll it over a 9-inch pie dish. Press the dough into the dish without stretching it, leaving some overhang around the edges. If the apple pie filling is completely cool, proceed to the next step; otherwise, place the pie dish in the fridge while waiting for the filling to cool.
Once the apples are at room temperature, add them a little at a time to the pie pan, spreading them out as you go and creating a slight mound in the centre. Be sure to add in all the leftover thickened juices too. Place the cubes of butter all around the top of the apple pie filling.
Roll the second pie crust out on a lightly floured surface into an 11-inch circle and cut out 1-inch thick strips (I use a sharp knife to do this, but a pizza cutter works great too). Use the strips to create a lattice pie crust top and flute the edges if desired (see video for demonstration).
Lightly beat the egg and use a pastry brush to coat the top of the crust with the egg wash. Avoid putting on more than you need. Sprinkle the granulated sugar all over the top of the pie crust if using.
Place the unbaked pie in the fridge while you place an oven tray in the lower third rack of your oven and preheat your oven to 220C/425F. Once the pie crust feels firm (about 20-30 minutes), place the pie on the tray and bake for 15 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180C/350F and bake for another 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until you can see the apple filling slightly bubbling and the crust is golden brown. If you feel the top is overbrowning while baking, cover it loosely with foil.
Once ready, allow the apple pie to cool for 3 hours before slicing and serving. A scoop of vanilla ice cream is a great addition to apple pie!
How to Store Apple Pie
Apple pie can be stored at room temperature in an airtight container for 1–2 days. After that, refrigerate it for up to 5 days to keep it fresh.
My Best-Ever Apple Pie Recipe
Print Pin VideoIMPORTANT: For accuracy, I would recommend using the gram measurements provided, as those are the exact quantities I use. Cup measurements are given as estimates (based on US cup measurements) to make it easier for those who do not have a scale.
Ingredients
- 1 double pie crust recipe - can be made up to 3 days ahead of time
- 8 large granny smith apples - peeled, cored and thinly sliced (just under ¼ inch slices)
- ½ cup (100 g) soft light brown sugar
- ¼ cup (50 g) white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp lemon juice - freshly squeezed
- 5 tbsp (38 g) all purpose flour
- 1½ tsps ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground ginger powder
- ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground all spice
- ¼ tsp salt
- ½ tsp vanilla extract/essence
- 2 tbsp (28 g) unsalted butter - cold and cubed (small cubes)
Extra
- 1 large egg - lightly beaten (for brushing crust)
- 1 tbsp white granulated sugar or coarse sugar (optional) - for sprinkling on top of the crust
Instructions
- Begin by preparing the apples. Peel, core and slice the apples into thin slices (just less than a ¼ inch thick per slice). Don't make them too thin otherwise you'll have a mushy filling. Place the apples into a large pot.
- Add brown sugar and white sugar to the apples and mix well. Allow to sit for 15 minutes. Once done, there should be liquid at the bottom of the pot.
- To the pot add in lemon zest, lemon juice, flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, salt and vanilla. Mix well and then place pot over medium heat. Once the liquid starts to gently bubble, cook the apples until they have softened slightly and the liquid has thickened and reduced—about 10 minutes. Stir frequently and be careful not to overcook the apples.
- Once ready, transfer the apples to a shallow dish or tray and allow to completely cool.
- While the apples are cooling, prepare the two pie crusts as per my pie crust recipe and allow to chill for 1 hour (you can make this ahead of time as well). Once ready, lightly flour your workbench while rolling one of the pie crusts out to a 12-inch circle (make sure to keep the second crust in the fridge in the meantime—see note 1).
- Wrap the rolled-out pie dough around your rolling pin and gently unroll it over a 9-inch pie dish. Press the dough into the dish without stretching it, leaving some overhang around the edges. If the apple pie filling is completely cool, proceed to the next step; otherwise, place the pie dish in the fridge while waiting for the filling to cool.
- Once the apples are completely cool, add them a little at a time to the pie dish, spreading them out as you go and creating a slight mound in the centre. Be sure to add in all the leftover thickened juices too. Place the cubes of butter all around the top of the apple pie filling.
- Roll the second pie crust out into an 11-inch circle and cut out 1-inch thick strips. Use the strips to create a lattice pie crust top and flute the edges if desired (see video for demonstration).
- Lightly beat the egg and use a pastry brush to coat the top of the crust with the egg. Avoid putting on more than you need. Sprinkle the granulated sugar all over the top of the pie crust if using.
- Place the apple pie in the fridge (see note 2) while you place an oven tray in the lower third rack of your oven and preheat your oven to 220C/425F. Once the pie crust feels firm (about 20-30 minutes), place the pie on the tray and bake for 15 minutes and then turn the heat down to 180C/350F and bake for another 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until you can see the apple filling slightly bubbling and the crust is golden brown. If you feel the top is overbrowning while baking, cover it loosely with foil.
- Once ready, allow the apple pie to cool for 3 hours before slicing and serving.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information are estimates only as they are automatically calculated by a third party application. Actual values may differ based on brands and types of products used.
12 Comments
I’m not much of a baker, but your instructions made this recipe easy to follow. This is the first “from scratch” pie I’ve ever made and it turned out fantastic! The filling is perfectly tart and sweet and the crust, so buttery and flaky! Thank you!
Yay! So glad to hear your first from-scratch pie came out awesome Marc! Appreciate the wonderful feedback 🙂
Absolute best ever Apple Pie & Crust recipes! Been making lots over the years but this one is a 10/10 🤗
Aww yay! Thanks so much Lesley so glad you enjoyed the apple pie 😀
It looks gorgeous!
Can this be prepared ahead and frozen? If so, would you freeze baked or unbaked? And if unbaked, would you defrost or cook from frozen?
Thanks Deb! 🙂
I haven’t tested it myself, but you should be able to prepare this ahead and freeze it unbaked for best results. When ready to bake, you can bake it straight from frozen, just allowing a little extra baking time and covering the top if its overbrowning without the filling having fully cooked yet. Hope that helps and hope you enjoy the recipe! 😊
Made this pie and it turned out EXACTLY like the pictures and tasted A-MAZING.
My hard-to-please 11 year old said it was ‘divine’.
Haha yay this makes me so happy Hina! So glad you loved the recipe and that it was child approved!! 🙂
What is the ingredients for the Pastry
Hi Erna 🙂
You can find the pie crust recipe here: https://cakesbymk.com/recipe/easy-pie-crust-recipe/
Enjoy!
I LOVE IT !
Can you please post pumpkin pie?
Thanks so much Maryam! So glad you loved the recipe 😀
Hope to share a pumpkin pie recipe next year 🙂