Salted Caramel Apple Pie Biscuit Bites | Best Apple Pie Dessert Recipe (2024)

FAQs

What is the best apple mix for pie? ›

The perfect apples for pie comes down to using a perfectly balanced mix of sweet- and sour-flavored apples that all have a firm (neither soft nor mealy) texture, she contends. "For firm-sweet apples, I like Baldwin, Jonagold, Gravenstein, Pink Lady, Opal, and Jazz," Traveso continues.

You can use any apple to make an apple pie. Full stop. However, some are better than others when it comes to flavor and texture. And instead of choosing just one type of apple, a combination of at least two or three is a smart way to get more complex flavors and textures into your pie.

If you're out at an apple orchard, or you're eyeing a pile of ripe Courtlands at the farmer's market, it's easy to over or underestimate how much fruit you'll need. If you stick to around eight to 10 apples, you'll almost always have the exact amount of fruit for a standard-sized pie.

Cortland. Flavor: Similar to that of a McIntosh, but much sweeter and more tart. Like its cousin, it's got very white flesh and a mild flavor.

When thickening a fruit pie filling, there are several options to consider. Very often flour or cornstarch is used, but in certain instances tapioca, arrowroot and potato starch can also help achieve the desired consistency.

Should you cook the apples before baking apple pie? You don't have to pre-cook the filling before spooning it into the pie crust, but it's a quick step I recommend. Just 5 minutes on the stove begins the softening process, and also helps the flavors start to mingle.

A cooking apple such as the Bramley apple or Granny Smith can be eaten like eating apples, or dessert apples, however their sharp taste means these apples are generally best enjoyed as a baked apple within a dessert or apple sauce.

While there is an extremely wide variety of apples, all with varying flavors, the sweetest-tasting apple is fuji, followed by gala, honeycrisp, and Red Delicious apples. These apples are great for snacking and eating as is.

After slicing the apple into quarters and removing the core, slice the apples as desired for your pie. You can dice each quarter crosswise for slightly bigger apple chunks, or you can slice the quarters lengthwise for thin apple slices.

What size apple slices are best for apple pie? ›

It's best if you slice apples about 1/4 – 1/2 inch thick. Any thicker, and they won't cook through by the time your crust does. Any thinner, and they'll dissolve and leave you with a soggy bottom crust.

Since we know that three medium-sized apples (or four small ones) make a pound, you can use this as a guide to know how many large apples make up a pound. In general, 2 large apples can often make up a pound, with large apples that are close in size to a softball.

For more on all these apples, including what they look and taste like, see our baking apple guide below. There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

McIntosh apples are still a cultivated variety in the modern-day, but growers have decreased production due to the apple's soft, easily damaged flesh in favor of modern, hardier cultivars.

Cortland Apple

It's easy to understand why a lot of people could confuse this apple with the McIntosh, because Cortland is actually a cross between a McIntosh apple and a Ben Davis apple. The Cortland apple is bright red, with a crisp white flesh that is incredibly juicy with a sweet-tart flavor.

For the best pies, crisps, and other baked treats, apples need to be firm enough to hold their own during the cooking process. We call these apples “baking apples” and to namedrop, they include Braeburn, Cortland, Honey Gold, Jonathan, Fuji, Gala, Granny Smith, Haralson, and Newtown Pippin.

For a basic applesauce, use McIntosh and Golden Delicious apples. Golden Delicious is a soft apple variety with a mellow flavor, so it cooks down easily and provides a great foundation for your applesauce. McIntosh apples are slightly tart and crisp, but soften easily, making them a stellar choice for pies and sauces.

Honeycrisp. One of the sweetest apples around, this Midwestern favorite is good for anything—including baking. It boasts a distinctive juicy crispness and is firm enough that it won't cook down much. It complements just about any other apple variety to make a stellar pie.