The Best Homemade Apple Pie

This classic apple pie recipe is a favorite dessert for Thanksgiving. It has the perfect homemade apple pie filling and flaky crust!

Prep Time30

Cook Time55

Chill Time1

Total Time2 25

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: apple recipe, pie, Thanksgiving dessert

Servings:

Calories: 465kcal

Author: Camille Beckstrand

Equipment

Mixing bowls
Fork
apple peeler
Rolling Pin
pie pan
Pastry Brush

Ingredients

Pie Crust:

2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
¾ cup butter cold and cubed
½ cup ice water more or less as needed

Pie Filling:

2 ½ pounds Granny Smith Apples about 5-7 apples; cored, peeled, and cut into pieces
½ cup sugar
¼ cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1 egg beaten
1 Tablespoon sugar

Instructions

In a bowl, stir together the flour and salt. Mix with fork until combined.
Add in cubed butter and break up into flour with a fork. This mixture will still have small lumps - that's perfectly fine.
Slowly pour in the ice water and continue to mix with a fork until the dough starts to come together (you might find it helpful to just use your hands to help the dough come together at this point). You may not use all of the water, but if the dough feels dry then add more. The dough should not be sticky.
Work the dough into a ball shape and wrap in plastic wrap. Place dough in the fridge for about an hour.
While the dough is chilling, peel, core and cut the apples into small pieces (you can do slices or cubes - whatever you prefer). Add all the cut apples into a bowl along with sugar, brown sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, and lemon juice. Mix together until all the apples are coated, then set bowl aside.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Lightly dust a surface with flour. Remove the dough from the fridge and the plastic wrap and set on the floured surface. Cut the dough ball in half. Roll each half out in a circle that is about 1/8" thick.
Place one of the rolled out circles of dough into a 8 or 9 inch pie pan. Make sure that the dough covers the entire pan (trim off any overhang if necessary).
Add the pie filling to the pie crust.
Place the other half of the pie dough on top of the apple filling.
Trim the extra dough off the edges and pinch the pie dough edges together to make a "crimp" or wave pattern around the edge of the pie. You will want to make sure that all the edges are tightly sealed so that your apple filling doesn't escape while baking!
Using a pastry brush, brush the top pie crust and edges with the beaten egg. Sprinkle the remaining sugar on top.
Using a sharp knife, cut at least 4 slits in the top of the pie (you can make any design you want).
Bake for 50-60 minutes in the preheated oven or until the crust is a golden brown color. Allow to cool and serve.
We love to top ours with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream. Serves 8-10, depending on what size of slices you serve.

Notes

Our go-to apple for baking pies is the Granny Smith apple, but since there are so many different types of apples out there it's nice to know what else could be used in its place. Get a good run down of the different types of apples you can use for your pies with the best apples for apple pie article.
If you are one that likes to get creative with your pie and make it absolutely stunning, you NEED to look at these beautiful pie crust design ideas by Sally’s Baking Addiction. You might just get inspired to do something extra fancy this year!

Nutrition