Active Time
1 hour
Total Time
3 hours plus cooling
This recipe for homemade apple pie delivers on every front. It’s got a perfectly flaky pie crust, no soggy bottom in sight, and a filling loaded with thinly sliced apples enrobed in a saucy (not gloopy or runny) glaze, hit with just the right amount of warming spice.
You’ll need a deep-dish pie plate to hold the four pounds of fruit packed in here, and we suggest being extra choosy when selecting apples for pie. Opt for sweet-tart firm baking apples like Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, or Jonagold in the fall, when apples are in season. The rest of the year, look to tart, reliable Granny Smith apples—and don’t be afraid to use multiple varieties in a single pie (in fact, we encourage it). Some apple varieties have tough skins, so we recommend peeling them all; if you know your apples are thin-skinned (and you know you like the texture of baked apple skin), feel free to leave the peels intact.
You’ll amp up the flavor of your pie with a syrup made from reduced apple cider steeped with a vanilla bean and a whisper of cinnamon, allspice, and cardamom (just enough to enhance the fruit but not overwhelm it). If you’d rather swap in vanilla extract, add 1 Tbsp to the apple pie filling just before scraping it into the pie pan. To finish, sprinkle demerara sugar over the top of the pie for extra sparkle and crunch.
Pastry chef and former BA senior food editor Claire Saffitz explains this apple pie recipe is “something you can’t rush.” It requires ample chilling, baking, and resting, so plan accordingly, particularly if you’re making it for Thanksgiving. Thankfully, like pecan and pumpkin pie, it can be made a full day in advance.
Looking for a different apple dessert? This apple crumb pie has a cozy cinnamon-brown-sugar crumble, while our Dutch Apple Pie gets a big nubby streusel topping. No pie dish? Everyone loves an Apple Pandowdy.
Ingredients
8 Servings
Dough
3½
2
1½
1½
2
Filling and Assembly
4
⅓
¼
2
2
½
¼
¼
1½
1
2
1
2
Special Equipment
Preparation
Dough
Step 1
Pulse 3½ (438 g) cups all-purpose flour, 2 Tbsp. granulated sugar, and 1½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or 1 tsp. Morton kosher salt in food processor to combine. Add 1½ cups (3 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces, and process until largest pieces of butter are pea-size. Transfer to a large bowl.
Step 2
Combine 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar and ½ cup ice-cold water in a small bowl and drizzle over flour mixture, mixing with a fork to combine. Mix until shaggy pieces form, then knead in bowl a couple of times with your hands to bring together (dough will look very clumpy, dry, with loose bits). Transfer large clumps of dough to work surface, drizzle 1 Tbsp. ice water over remaining flour mixture in bowl and knead again to bring it together. Place on top of dough on work surface. Working with half of the dough, press into a single mass, incorporating dry bits, then pat down to make a ¾"-thick square. Using a bench scraper or knife, divide dough into 4 pieces. Stack pieces on top of one another, placing any unincorporated dry bits in between layers, and press down to combine. Form dough into a ¾"-thick disk and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Repeat with remaining dough. Chill at least 2 hours.
Do Ahead: Pie dough can be made 5 days ahead. Keep chilled, or freeze up to 1 month.
Filling and Assembly
Step 3
Toss 4 lb. Pink Lady or other firm, sweet-tart apples, peeled, cored, thinly sliced, ⅓ cup (packed; 68 g) dark brown sugar, ¼ cup (50 g) granulated sugar, 2 Tbsp. fresh lemon juice, 2 tsp. ground cinnamon, ½ tsp. Diamond Crystal or ¼ tsp. + ⅛ tsp. Morton kosher salt, ¼ tsp. ground allspice, and ¼ tsp. ground cardamom in a large bowl to coat. Let apples sit until they start to release their juices, at least 1 hour and up to 3 hours.
Step 4
Let pie dough sit at room temperature 5 minutes to soften. Working one at a time, roll out disks of dough on a lightly floured surface ⅛" thick. Stack on a parchment-lined baking sheet, separating layers with a sheet of parchment, and chill while you prepare the filling.
Step 5
Place 1½ cups unfiltered apple cider in a medium saucepan and scrape in seeds from 1 vanilla bean, split lengthwise; add pod. Bring to a boil and cook, whisking occasionally, until reduced by two-thirds. Pour off juices that have accumulated in bowl of apples and add to apple cider. Return to a boil and cook until reduced to about ½ cup; remove vanilla pod. Stir 2 Tbsp. cornstarch into 3 Tbsp. cold water in a small bowl to dissolve, then whisk into apple cider. Cook, whisking constantly, until cider mixture is very thick and bubbling, about 1 minute. Let cool slightly, then scrape over apples; toss to coat.
Step 6
Carefully transfer dough round to pie dish. Lift up edges and allow dough to slump down into dish (if too cold to be pliable, let it warm up slightly first). Press dough firmly against sides and bottom of plate. Trim, leaving about 1" overhang. Beat 1 large egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl and brush over edges of dough. Scrape apple mixture into bottom crust, creating a mound in the center; dot filling with 2 Tbsp. chilled unsalted butter, cut into pieces. Place remaining dough round over filling. Trim edges of top round, leaving a ½" overhang. Fold edge of bottom round up and over; press together to seal. Crimp edge and brush top with remaining egg wash. Sprinkle with demerara sugar and use a sharp knife to cut a few vents in top. Place pie pan on a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet and chill in freezer 10 minutes. Plack oven rack in lower third of oven; preheat oven to 375°.
Step 7
Bake pie until top crust is deep golden brown and juices from apple pie filling are thick and bubbling, 1½–2 hours (yes: 2 hours!). Transfer pie to a wire rack; let pie cool at least 4 hours before serving.
Do Ahead: Pie can be made 1 day ahead. Let cool; store covered with foil at room temperature.
Editor’s note: This apple pie recipe was first printed in our October 2016 issue. Head this way for more of our best Thanksgiving desserts →
Leave a Review
Reviews (88)
Back to TopWe described this pie as the “apple-iest” apple pie I’ve ever made. This is a true deep dish apple pie that has a LOT of apples and an amazing crust. I swore to my old pie crust recipe but this one has almost changed my mind. The addition of the cider reduction really makes a difference. It’s a labor of love and best made the day or many hours before. Mine dripped in the oven so put a sheet underneath, and don’t skip the freezing step or your crust will sag. Will make this again perhaps using Granny Smith (less soggy than pink lady), and reduce apples by maybe .5 lb Thanks Claire!!
Julia
Richmond, VA
11/25/2023
This was my first pie and it turned out amazing! I incorporated the butter into the flour by hand (I recommend chilling the butter after cutting and chilling the flour if you do this), the crust ended up having beautiful laminated layers, it was so flaky! I replaced one tbsp of ACV for vodka in the crust as some people noted a vinegar taste in the crust after baking. The filling was delicious, I used honeycrisp apples and it was just the right amount of sweetness. Baked for 1.5hrs in a 9.5inch diameter pyrex (I don't have a deep pie dish).
Nat
Oakland, CA
11/24/2023
This is hands down the worst pie I've ever had. I spent most of the day making this thing for Thanksgiving and the results were far below the quality of most store-bought apple pies. B.A. missed the mark entirely on this one.
Anonymous
College Station, TX
11/23/2023
oh my god i almost used ACV instead of cider. dont do that. had it cooked almost completely, about to add to the apples before i realized
Anonymous
dallas, tx
11/22/2023
I have made this recipe twice and it has been a huge hit. One of the best apple pie recipes I have ever had
Allie
Missoula, MT, United States
10/30/2023
This was our Christmas eve dessert and it was a big, big hit! Yes, it is a little extra work, but if you break it down properly, it's doable and worth it. I always make my dough at least a day before baking (I got into resting dough in the refrigerator during my sourdough bread-baking days), so for this one I started it two days in advance, following the directions to a T. The next day I prepped the apples per the directions and let them rest overnight in the fridge. They leached off a lot of excess liquid that went back into the sauce. Then, on pie day I finished the apples with the apple cider and vanilla bean mix. Be sure to both cook this down, and then to cook down the added apple juices before adding the cornstarch. The crust comes out beautifully (I cooked it for 1 hour and 50 minutes). The long cook time, plus the drained apples mean no soggy bottom! The crust came out as a mix between traditional pie crust and a puff pastry (the method is a combination of the two). This is a keeper and I look forward to many more pies with this fabulous crust and tasty fruit. Make sure you use apple CIDER, not apple cider vinegar (I feel for those who did not read the recipe carefully) and follow all the steps. And give yourself time. Resting both the dough and the apple filling is the key. Claire Saffitz is a treasure! I trust any recipe she writes.
Mari
San Francisco, CA
12/25/2022
Good!
Anonymous
NY
11/28/2022
I made this apple pie this Thanksgiving and I don’t mind how long it took, but unfortunately, it just tastes so terrible. Unless someone likes Apple cider vinegar, I don’t think it adds any good flavor to the crust. I was not a big fan of the filling as well. I think some of the instructions were unclear on some parts. I think this pie is great if you are an avid pie baker and want to try the recipe but I highly don’t recommend not making it for your family gatherings. This is your average aesthetic Instagram pie.
Anonymous
Minnesota
11/28/2022
This is a fine pie, but it's not the best apple pie recipe on BA. The filling was superb (I used honeycrisp apples) and I will be remaking it, but the crust was nothing special and came out kind of strange. It never really lost the vinegar taste and smell, which was off-putting. It got incredibly limp and spilled over the sides when baked, like no crust I've ever seen. The process of making it was also incredibly tedious - so much resting and moving the dough to and from the fridge and freezer.
Melissa
Chicago
11/25/2022
I just made this for Thanksgiving. Although my family said they liked it, I thought it was just ok. It wasn't that sweet and the apples were not soft after baking on convection for 1.5 hours. I'll definitely give it another go, maybe bake longer, add a bit more sugar.
Anonymous
Mission Viejo, CA
11/25/2022
Due to time constraints, is it possible to make this with store bought pie crust and have it still turn out pretty good? The filling sounds amazing!
Anonymous
Milwaukee
11/17/2022
This is indeed the best apple pie: flakey crust, divine apple filling. All 'round a worth while endeavor. Upon reading the reviews below, I observed some people mistakenly subbed apple cider *vinegar* for the apple *cider* (full stop!!) in the filling - and my heart truly aches for those people who suffered the loss of what could be such an awesome pie. Don't be like them. ALSO, it did take me half a day to make this pie, which for me happens to be the perfect way to spend a Sunday, HOWEVER I think it would be ideal for most people to break up the prep over a couple of days, ie. crust one day, filling the next; I do not think the quality of pie would suffer at all.
Lyds
10/16/2022
I've made this one twice and it was a success both times. The key to this is following the directions very carefully. I'd like to make this but with mixed berries- any recommendations on how to go about this?? Thank you!
Emisqwe
Brooklyn
7/16/2022
Honestly I don't think this takes any extra effort because most of the time is waiting and I just do/prepare other things while I wait. There's not really special out of reach ingredients IMO either if you just sub the vanilla pods for vanilla bean paste. I have an apple peeler, which helps speed things up too. My family prefers more cinnamon so I added an extra 1/2 teaspoon. I was very careful about reducing to 1/2 cup (I measured it out) before adding the cornstarch slurry and I did the egg white trick on the bottom crust to keep it drier. Mine came out perfectly, no soggy bottom and very flavorful. Would make this every Holiday season.
Anonymous
SF
12/24/2021
I think there were too much cinnamon. Next time I would also use 1-2 more apples.
Rima
Chicago IL
11/29/2021