Simple Apple Pie Recipe (Easy Recipe for Beginners!)
This easy Apple Pie recipe features classic flavors, a buttery homemade crust, and a simple spiced apple filling. Perfect for beginners and delicious for any occasion!
Servings 12
Ingredients
For the Crust Ingredients
- 2 cups organic all-purpose flour + ½ cup for dusting
- 1 tsp. sea salt
- 10 oz. cold unsalted butter
- ½ cup cold water
For the Apple Pie Filling
- 3 lbs. Granny Smith apples
- ½ cup organic sugar
- ⅓ cup cane brown sugar
- ¼ cup organic all-purpose flour
- ½ tbsp. ground cinnamon
- ¼ tsp. ground nutmeg
- 3 tbsp. unsalted butter + 1 tbsp. for greasing the pie dish
Instructions
How to Make Apple Pie
- Making this delicious Thanksgiving dessert at home couldn't be easier than this! It's an incredibly easy pie crust recipe, and the apple pie filling recipe is super simple too.
- My apple pie recipe shares everything you need to do to make this from scratch. Let's look at how to make it step by step:
- Next, drizzle cold water over the pie crumbs while mixing the crumbs with your hand. Slowly drizzle in the cold water while stirring the mixture with your hand or a spatula. Form the dough into a ball (do not knead the dough).
- Dust a bowl with a tablespoon of flour and roll the dough into a ball. Then split the ball into 2 even pieces, and flatten each piece into disks.
- Wrap each dough disk with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for an hour or so.
- NOTE: I have also previously refrigerated the dough overnight. You can even freeze the disks and then place them in the fridge and let them thaw overnight before using them the next day.
How to Make Apple Pie Filling
- Now let's make our apple pie filling! It'll take about 45 minutes to prepare the apple filling, which is perfect while you refrigerate the dough.
- In a large bowl, combine all dry ingredients, namely the cane brown sugar and regular white sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and sea salt. Stir with a hand whisk to combine.
- Next, let's prep the apples by rinsing, peeling, and slicing them.
- Place them in a medium glass bowl. Sprinkle the dry filling mixture over the apples and toss and mix to coat all the apple slices with the filling mixture.
How to Assemble and Bake Apple Pie
- Time to bake our pie! Place the rack in the lower third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400℉.
- Grease the pie dish or pie plate. This is optional but preferred to prevent the crust from sticking to the dish.
- Take one of the discs of dough out of the fridge. Roll the disc using a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface till it's 12 inches in diameter.
- Next, place the rolled pie dough over the pie dish and cut the edge off evenly with a pizza cutter.
- Lay the apple slices as compactly as possible into the pie dish on top of the bottom crust. I don't just pour the apple slices into the crust, I tuck them in tightly so there are barely any air pockets.
- Dust the working surface again with flour and roll out the second disk about ⅛ of an inch thick. Cut out leaves and place them on the edge of the pie.
- Now place sliced, thin pieces of butter over the top of the apples. Cover the pie with aluminum foil and bake for 1 hour, covered until the juices begin to bubble, then remove the foil and bake for an additional 15 minutes, uncovered until the pie is perfectly golden brown.
- While the pie is baking, you can work on the leaf topping. Cut out the leaves and place them on a large 16 X 22 baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You should have enough dough for decoration, and there shouldn't be a lot of excess dough left.
- Bake the leaves at 400 ℉ for 20 min. Remove from the oven and slide the parchment paper with the baked leaves onto the countertop. If you leave them on the baking sheet instead, they will continue to bake and will turn out very dark.
- Remove the pie from the oven and let it cool to a warm temperature before topping it with baked pie leaves.
- Insert the leaves into baked apples and serve. The leaves will be crunchy, but if you prefer the leaves soft then place the leaves while the pie is still hot and let the pie cool with leaves on top.
- Slice the pie after it has cooled down. Top it off with some whipped cream or serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Notes
- Choose the Right Apples: Combine tart Granny Smith with sweet Honeycrisp apples for a balanced filling.
- Use Cold Ingredients: Cold butter and water help create a flaky, buttery homemade crust.
- Chill the Dough: Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour before rolling to make it easier to handle.
- Layer Apples Tightly: Arrange the slices compactly to minimize air pockets and create a fuller pie.
- Protect the Crust: Cover the pie loosely with foil during baking to prevent the edges from over-browning.
- Let It Cool: Allow the pie to cool to room temperature so the filling can set before slicing.
- Add Decorative Leaves: Use leftover pie dough to create leaves or other shapes for an elegant finish.