Tips From The Betty Crocker Kitchens
- tip 1 Serve pie warm or room temperature with fresh whipped cream or a scoop of ice cream on top.
- tip 2 Pie will keep frozen, wrapped in plastic wrap and foil, up to 4 months.
- tip 3 Feel free to swap in a refrigerated rolled pie pastry for the bottom crust if scratch pastry making isnt your thing. We recommend Pillsbury brand.
- tip 4 Choose crisp and tartly-sweet applesconsider Empire, Granny Smith, Honey Crisp, Braeburn, Cortlandas they hold their shape and arent too juicy.
- tip 5 What makes a Dutch pie? The streusel topping, a nearly irresistible, crunchy sweet mixture of sugar, butter, flour, and nuts, probably comes from other Germanic-styles of baking. Its a simpler finish for not only a pie but for coffee cakes, muffins, and bar cookies. Feel free to add a small spoonful of ground spicecinnamon or an apple pie spice blend.
How Do You Prepare Apples For Apple Pie Filling
Apple Pie By Grandma Ople
This was my grandmother’s apple pie recipe. I have never seen another one quite like it. It will always be my favorite and has won me several first place prizes in local competitions. I hope it becomes one of your favorites as well!
- 1 recipe pastry for a 9 inch double crust pie
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- ½ cup packed brown sugar
- 8 Granny Smith apples – peeled, cored and sliced
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F . Melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer.
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- Step 2
Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Cover with a lattice work crust. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the crust. Pour slowly so that it does not run off.
- Step 3
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F . Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.
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How Do You Make Homemade Apple Pie Filling From Scratch
This is one of the easiest recipes you can make.
What Are The Best Apples To Use For Pies
Try to find a firm apple to use in this recipe. I like a mix between sweet and sour apples. You can use Granny Smith, Jonathan, Jonagold, Winesap, Golden Delicious, Honey Crisp, Gala, or Rome Beauty. I used a mix between Golden Delicious and some kind of tart firm apples from our trees for this pie, and it was great. Its very forgiving, so experiment!
- Granny Smith Tart, green, flavorful, and perfect for apple pie
- Jonathan red on yellow, bright flavor, and juicy
- Golden Delicious Softer, sweet, and yellow in color
- Gala light red, crispy, and mildly sweet
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How Do You Make Apple Pie Filling
Soft apples are a must for us in apple pie. Because of this, we like to soften our apples first in a saucepan on the stovetop. Combine the apples, flour , sugar, cinnamon and lemon juice. Cook these over medium low heat until the apples start to soften which will be about 10-15 minutes. Stir the apples often so that the sugar doesnt burn on the bottom of the pan. This will create a nice, syrupy apple mixture that you can pour into your pie shell.
*A note on the sugar. You can try lowering the sugar if youd like. Weve gone down to ½ a cup of sugar at different times. Its really a matter of tasteand even what apples you choose. If your apples are more tart, then you might want the full ¾ cup sugar. If they are sweeter apples, try lowering the sugar.*
How To Make A Basic Apple Pie
Every year, especially around the holidays, the desire to make apple pie surges. With the tart taste of apples, the sweetness from the cinnamon sugar, and the crunch of that delicious flaky crust apple pie undeniably embodies the flavors of fall.
If you’re like us and were a little overzealous when you went apple picking, you’ll need a way to use up that bounty. Sure, you can whip up apple butter and applesauce, but nothing beats a classic apple pie, particularly when apple season is at its peak.
Below we provide a step-by-step tutorial of how to make your basic apple pie with either a lattice or standard top crust. No matter if you are a beginner, or veteran baker looking to brush up on their apple pie making skills, we’ve got you covered.
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What Kind Of Apples Should You Use For Apple Pie Filling
For just about any apple dessert, you want to have an apple that can hold its shape, has a nuanced flavor and a slight tartness to break up the sweetness of the sugar. Using a combination of apples is helpful because it introduces a few different types of flavors and textures to the pie. Gala and Granny Smith apples are both good choices for apple crisp because they dont get mushy after a long bake in the oven, and because they have a sweet and tart flavor to them.
How To Make Apple Pie From Scratch
To make the best apple pie, youve got to start with a top-rated recipe, like this apple pie recipe from Maggie Greene, a reader in Granite Falls, Washington. Heres what youll need to make this pie.
What You Need for Homemade Pie Crust
Youll need a good foundation for this pie. We recommend our Test Kitchens favorite butter pie pastry.
- 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup cold butter, cubed
- 1/3 to 2/3 cup ice water
Ingredients for the Apple Pie Filling
- 1/2 cup sugar
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How To Make Apple Pie Pastry
Homemade pastry: Apple pie pastry is a homemade sweet shortcrust pastry. Once you’ve made it, you’ll become OBSESSED and want to use it in everything!
And best of all, you only need: plain flour, butter, caster sugar and water.
You can make this pastry in just 5 minutes using either a food processor or a Thermomix .
While I usually like to blind bake my homemade pastry first, this recipe doesn’t require any blind baking at all! Simply fill it with the homemade apple filling and bake. It couldn’t be easier!
Time saving shortcut: Use store-bought sheets of pastry instead.
Homemade Apple Pie Filling
When you make a pie, there are essentially two components: the pie crust and the pie filling. Both are equally important! Now that weve gone over the homemade apple pie crust, lets talk about the homemade filling. You dont need much to make this, which is what I love this pie. Its delicious in its simplicity, just pure apple flavor with a bit of sugar, cinnamon, and flour mixed in to make the filling. YUM!
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What Are The Best Apples For Apple Pie
It’s best to use a mix of different types of apples in your pie. Some apple varieties cook up faster than others. Some cook up firm, some more soft some apples are more tart, some more sweet.
- Granny Smith – Green and tart, Granny Smith apples have wonderful flavor, but they they often lose their shape and turn mushy when cooked. So use no more than 2 Grannies in your pie, and combine with other varieties.
- Jonagold – A cross between a Golden Delicious and a Jonathan, Jonagolds have a lovely aromatic flavor, they’re both sweet and sharp, and they hold their shape with baking.
- Fuji – Crisp, firm, juicy, balance of sweet and tart, holds its shape in baking
- Golden Delicious – Yellow and sweet, holds its shape after baking
- Braeburn – Sweet and crisp, bakes up firm and juicy
- Cortland – Juicy and tart, relatively soft, great all purpose apple for baking
- Honey Crisp – Honey sweet and tart flavor, crisp and juicy, holds shape in baking
- Avoid Red Delicious apples for pies, they don’t cook well.
For more information on which apple varieties are best for baking, check out our Guide to Apples.
Best Apples For Apple Pie
People often ask me what are the best apples for apple pie. What kind of apples do I use? Some people are dogmatic about what kind of apples they use and will only use baking apples, like Granny Smith apples for pies. Im not so fussy and I use whatever apples are on sale or that I happen to have on hand.
I personally dont like the super tart taste from baking apples and I always needed to add more sugar when I used them. It also seems to take longer to bake using baking apples.
My favorite thing to do with this easy apple pie recipe is to use a couple of different kinds of apples. Dont have a heart attack but, yes, I have used Golden Delicious apples before.
Personally, I think the best apples to use for the best apple pie are Gala apples or Envy apples and they work perfectly with our easy apple pie recipe below. One of our viewers recently suggested using Pink Lady apples for the best apple pie, but I have not tried them yet.
Also, my mom likes to dehydrate all kinds of foods for easy storage. She sometimes uses dehydrated apples for apple pies and the dehydrated apples can make the pie taste sweeter. (If you use dehydrated apples to make apple pie, you do NOT need to add more liquid to the recipe.
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Tips For The Best Apple Pie Recipe
- Let the pie crust come to room temperature before you try to unroll it. Otherwise the cold pastry may tear or crack.
- Once the dough is unrolled, I like to cover the dish and chill it in the refrigerator for about 10-20 minutes before I add the filling. This isn’t necessary, but the cold pastry yields a flakier pie crust! You can do the same for the top layer — unroll the dough at room temperature, then cover and chill the dough before topping the pie.
- Halfway through the baking time , I suggest that you lightly cover the edges of the crust with strips of aluminum foil. This will prevent the edges from burning or getting too dark while the rest of the pie bakes.
- Allow the pie to sit on the counter on a wire rack to cool for about 2 hours before slicing. This gives the filling a chance to set.
- Top each slice of pie with vanilla ice cream or freshly-whipped cream for a real treat!
This homemade easy apple pie recipe is the definition of All-American comfort food, and it certainly wins a blue ribbon in our minds. I hope that your family enjoys it as much as we do!
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How To Make Apple Pie:
The Apples We Use For Apple Pie
To make this apple pie, we use approximately 4 pounds of apples. For the best apple flavor, try adding more than one variety of apple to your pie.
We especially love these varieties of apples for baked desserts and pie:
- Granny Smith Your standard, never-fails baking apple. Tart, crisp, and they keep their structure after time in the oven.
- Honeycrisp Extra crisp and always holds firm after baking. One of our favorites!
- Jonagold Tart with a bit of sweetness. They also hold up well in the oven.
- Braeburn Crisp, sweet apples that hold up well in pie and other baked desserts.
- Mutsu Big apples that look like a large Golden Delicious. Has a sweet honeyed flavor and holds up well in pie.
- Pink Lady A good balance of sweet and tart. Will also hold its shape when baked.
- Golden Delicious Sweet and flavorful apple thats very versatile. Will hold up in pie, but will become softer than some of the varieties mentioned above.
- Jazz Sweet and crisp flavor. Will hold up nicely in pie.
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