The Ultimate Homemade Flaky All-Butter Apple Pie: Achieving a Crispy Bottom & Irresistible Filling
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What defines a truly exceptional homemade flaky apple pie? Is it the unparalleled richness of a buttery, flaky all-butter crust that shatters with every bite? Perhaps it’s the perfectly balanced, subtly spiced, and fragrant apple filling that truly captures the essence of a cozy dessert. Or maybe it’s the sheer joy of decorating the crust with your own creative flair, turning a simple pie into a work of art. For many, including us, the answer is a resounding “all of the above!” This recipe guides you through crafting an apple pie that excels in every single one of these aspects, ensuring a crispy bottom and a beautifully tender, flavorful filling, all without the hassle of pre-baking your crust or pre-cooking your apples.
Crafting the Perfect Flaky All-Butter Pie Crust
The journey to this perfect apple pie began with a quest for the ultimate flaky, all-butter pie crust. Over the years, we’ve refined techniques to ensure maximum flakiness and flavor. A key ingredient in our crust is a touch of apple cider vinegar, which adds a subtle tang that beautifully offsets the richness of the butter. While some culinary experts suggest that vinegar inhibits gluten production, thereby preventing overworking the dough and contributing to flakiness, the small amount used often makes a minimal difference in gluten development. However, vinegar does play a crucial role in reducing the risk of dough oxidation during resting, which helps the crust brown more evenly and beautifully in the oven. Regardless of the scientific debate, we wholeheartedly embrace the extra depth of flavor that apple cider vinegar imparts, creating a more complex and delightful taste profile for your pie crust.
The true secrets to achieving an incredibly flaky crust lie in a few fundamental principles. Firstly, using very cold butter is absolutely non-negotiable. The cold butter creates steam pockets during baking, which separate the layers of dough, resulting in that signature flaky texture. Secondly, handling the dough as little as possible is crucial. Warm hands can quickly melt the butter, which then integrates into the flour, leading to a tough, less flaky crust. Work swiftly and with cool hands. Finally, our unique folding method – where the dough is flattened into a disk and then folded a few times before chilling and rolling – is paramount. This simple technique helps create numerous distinct layers of butter and dough, which expand in the oven to produce those desirable, airy, and incredibly flaky strata.
Achieving a Crispy Pie Bottom Without Pre-Baking
One of the most common challenges in apple pie baking is preventing a soggy bottom crust. Traditionally, this is tackled by pre-baking the crust (blind baking) or pre-cooking the apple filling. However, we’ve discovered a few simple yet highly effective steps that will help you achieve a perfectly crispy bottom without either of these time-consuming processes. This means less effort for a truly perfect flaky all-butter pie crust with a satisfyingly crisp base – a win-win for any home baker!
The first ingenious trick involves the apple slices themselves. After slicing, mix the apples with sugar and let the mixture sit for about 30 minutes. This crucial resting period allows the apples to “weep out” their excess moisture, which would otherwise be released during baking and make your bottom crust soggy. By draining this liquid before assembly, you significantly reduce the moisture content within the pie, ensuring a firmer, crispier base.
The second trick involves your bakeware and oven placement. We highly recommend baking your pie in a clear glass pie pan. Glass cookware distributes heat more evenly than metal, promoting consistent baking. Place this glass pie pan directly onto a dark-colored cookie sheet. The dark color of the baking sheet is key, as it absorbs and conducts more heat to the bottom of the pie, encouraging better browning and crisping. This combination ensures that the base of your pie receives ample heat to become wonderfully golden and firm. While a clear glass dish is ideal for visually monitoring the browning of the bottom crust, a ceramic or aluminum pie dish will still yield excellent results, especially when paired with the dark baking sheet. For an extra layer of insurance against sogginess and to maximize crispness, always bake your pie in the bottom third of your oven, where heat is most concentrated.
Making the Flaky All-Butter Crust
- **Combine Dry Ingredients:** In a food processor, combine the all-purpose flour and salt. Pulse briefly, about 2-3 times, just until they are well incorporated.
- **Incorporate Cold Butter:** Add the cubed, very cold unsalted butter to the flour mixture. Pulse 5-8 times until the mixture resembles very coarse bread crumbs, with some pea-sized pieces of butter still visible. These butter pieces are essential for creating those flaky layers. Avoid over-processing.
- **Prepare Liquid Mixture:** Transfer the crumb mixture into a large mixing bowl. In a separate small bowl, whisk together the ice water and apple cider vinegar.
- **Add Liquid Gradually:** Add the liquid mixture to the butter-flour crumbs, one tablespoon at a time, mixing quickly with a wooden spoon or spatula after each addition. Stop adding liquid as soon as the dough just begins to come together in large clumps. You likely won’t need all of the liquid; the goal is just enough moisture for the dough to hold together without being sticky.
- **Fold for Layers:** In the same bowl, quickly gather the dough into a ball. Flatten this ball into a disk with your hands, then fold the disk in half. Repeat this flattening and folding process two more times. This unique folding method is critical for developing the multitude of buttery, flaky layers that define a perfect pie crust.
- **Chill the Dough:** Shape the dough back into a smooth disk, then cut it in half. Form each half into a separate disk, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. This chilling period allows the gluten to relax and the butter to firm up, making the dough easier to roll and ensuring maximum flakiness.
- **Prepare Filling:** While the dough is chilling, proceed to prepare your delicious apple pie filling.
The Apple Pie Filling
Selecting the right apples is crucial for a great apple pie. We recommend crisp, tart varieties such as Northern Spy or Granny Smith, or a mix of both for a balanced flavor and texture. These apples hold their shape well during baking and provide a bright counterpoint to the sweetness. Cutting them into thicker slices (around 0.5cm thick) ensures a satisfyingly chunky filling that doesn’t turn to mush.
- **Prepare Apples:** Peel, core, and slice your chosen apples into approximately 0.5 cm thick pieces for a robust, chunky filling. Place the slices into a large non-metal bowl to prevent any metallic taste from affecting the apples.
- **Sweeten and Spice:** Add the brown sugar, cinnamon, and freshly squeezed lemon juice to the apple slices. Stir the mixture thoroughly, ensuring all apple slices are evenly coated with the sugar and spice blend. The lemon juice brightens the flavor and helps prevent the apples from browning too quickly.
- **Allow to Weep:** Let the apple filling rest on the counter for 30 minutes. This vital step allows the apples to release their excess moisture, preventing a soggy bottom crust later. You’ll notice a significant amount of liquid at the bottom of the bowl.
- **Thicken the Filling:** After 30 minutes, add your chosen starch (we prefer arrowroot for its clear finish, but cornstarch works just as well) to the filling. Mix well to evenly distribute the starch, which will help thicken the juices during baking and prevent a watery pie.
Assembling the Pie
Assembling your apple pie is where all the prepared components come together. Take your time with these steps to ensure a beautifully crafted pie that bakes evenly and looks as good as it tastes.
- **Prepare Pie Dish:** Lightly grease a clear glass 9-inch pie dish. You can use cooking spray or rub a stick of cold butter all over the inside surface. A clear glass dish is preferred as it allows you to easily monitor the browning of the bottom crust.
- **Roll Out Bottom Crust:** On a lightly floured surface, take one of your chilled dough disks. Roll it out evenly to a thickness of about ⅛ inch, ensuring it’s approximately 2 inches larger than your pie dish all the way around. To check the size, you can invert your pie dish over the rolled dough.
- **Position Bottom Crust:** Carefully place your rolling pin along one edge of the rolled dough and gently roll the dough onto the pin. Transfer the dough over your greased pie dish. Gently unroll it, allowing the dough to fall naturally into the dish without stretching it. Stretching can cause the crust to shrink during baking.
- **Trim and Crimp Edges:** Using a sharp knife or kitchen scissors, trim any excess dough, leaving about a ½-inch border around the edge of the pie crust. Fold this excess dough underneath itself to create a thicker, more robust edge. Then, use your fingers to crimp the dough into an attractive wavy pattern around the rim of the dish.
- **Fill the Pie:** Spoon the prepared apple filling into the pie crust, being sure to leave any excess liquid that has accumulated at the bottom of the apple bowl. You want a generous mound of apple slices, as the filling will settle and compress during baking. For an optional decorative touch, you can artfully arrange thinly sliced red-fleshed apples on top of the filling, overlapping them to create a beautiful pattern.
Decorate!
This is where your creativity can truly shine! A beautifully decorated pie adds an extra layer of homemade charm. Whether you choose a classic lattice, an artistic wreath, or freehand designs, ensure there are openings for steam to escape during baking. This prevents the top crust from puffing up and ensures a perfectly cooked filling.
- **Roll Out Top Crust:** On a lightly floured surface, roll out the second half of your chilled dough to about ½ cm thick. Now, unleash your inner artist! Decorate the pie however you like, making sure to cut vents or create a lattice pattern to allow steam to escape during baking.
- **Creative Decoration Ideas (Wreath Example):** To create a festive wreath design, use a cookie cutter or a small knife to cut out various sizes of leaves from the rolled dough. For a braid, cut three 1 cm wide strips of dough and gently braid them together. To make fir branches, cut 3 cm wide strips of dough. With scissors, make cuts halfway through the strip at a 45° angle, repeating down the strip for a feathery effect. Then, repeat on the other side, making cuts perpendicular to the first set. For berries, roll small pieces of dough into spheres, about 1 cm in diameter. Arrange the braid onto the pie filling, then place the leaves and fir branches around it to mimic a wreath. Tuck the “berries” in groups of three to resemble holly, scattered across your wreath design.
- **Brush for Shine and Color:** Using a pastry brush, gently brush the entire top of the pie with heavy cream. This helps achieve a beautiful golden-brown color and a slight sheen during baking.
- **Final Chill and Preheat:** Place the assembled pie into the freezer for 10 minutes. This final chill ensures the butter in the crust is very cold, preventing it from spreading too quickly and preserving those flaky layers. Meanwhile, place an oven rack in the bottom third of your oven and preheat it to 175°C (350°F).
- **Bake to Perfection:** Carefully place the pie dish (which is on a dark-colored cookie sheet) into the preheated oven, on the bottom third rack. Bake for 1 hour and 20 minutes. After the first 30 minutes of baking, tent the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent them from over-browning or burning. Check the pie after 1 hour; the top and bottom crusts should be golden brown, and the filling should be soft and bubbling.
- **Cool and Serve:** Once baked, remove the pie from the oven and allow it to cool on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing and serving. This resting time is essential for the filling to set properly, ensuring clean, beautiful slices.
Tips for Success: Ensuring a Flawless Apple Pie
Achieving a bakery-quality apple pie at home is entirely within reach with these expert tips:
- **The Importance of Cold Butter and Gentle Handling:** The foundation of a truly flaky crust is butter that remains in small, distinct pieces within the dough. Very cold butter, cut into small cubes, prevents it from fully incorporating into the flour. When the pie bakes, these butter pieces melt and release steam, creating air pockets that separate the dough into countless flaky layers. It’s equally important to handle the dough as little as possible. Warm hands can quickly melt the butter, transforming it from distinct pieces into a uniform blend, which results in a tough, less flaky crust. Work swiftly and efficiently, keeping your hands cool.
- **Mastering the Folding Technique:** Our recommended folding method for the pie dough is a simple yet powerful technique that enhances flakiness. By flattening the dough into a disk and folding it in half multiple times, you effectively create additional layers of butter and dough. Think of it as a simplified form of lamination. This layering maximizes the steam pockets during baking, leading to an incredibly tender and airy crust. Be cautious not to overdo the folding; too many folds can develop too much gluten, which will make your crust tough.
- **Chilling is Not Optional:** Refrigerating the pie dough, both after initial preparation and before baking, is absolutely critical. Chilling allows the gluten in the flour to relax, making the dough easier to roll without shrinking. More importantly, it ensures the butter remains very cold and firm. This prevents the butter from melting prematurely in the oven, preserving those crucial layers for flakiness. A final chill in the freezer for about 10 minutes right before baking is an excellent extra step to guarantee a perfectly firm crust.
- **The Magic of a Top Wash:** Gently brushing the top of your pie with heavy cream or an egg wash (a whisked egg with a tablespoon of milk) before baking does wonders for its appearance. Cream provides a lovely golden-brown finish and a subtle sheen. An egg wash, on the other hand, delivers a deeper, richer brown color and an even more pronounced glossy sheen, making your pie visually irresistible.
- **Strategic Bakeware Choices:** The type of pie dish and baking tray you use significantly impacts the crispness of your bottom crust. A clear glass pie dish is ideal because it distributes heat very evenly, ensuring consistent baking. Its transparency also allows you to easily check the bottom crust’s browning without lifting the pie. Placing this glass dish on a dark-colored baking tray is key: dark surfaces absorb and conduct more heat, directing it straight to the bottom of the pie for superior crisping. If you don’t have a glass dish, a ceramic one works wonderfully for even heat distribution. While aluminum foil pie dishes are convenient, they are often thinner and don’t distribute heat as effectively, so always place them on a sturdy cookie or baking tray for support and better bottom browning.
- **Optimal Oven Placement:** For a consistently crispy bottom crust, always bake your apple pie in the bottom third of your oven. This position ensures that the base of the pie receives the most direct and intense heat, promoting thorough cooking and browning from underneath.
- **Preventing Burned Edges:** Pie crust edges tend to brown faster than the rest of the pie. To prevent them from burning, gently tent the edges of your pie with strips of aluminum foil about 30 minutes into the baking process. This acts as a shield, allowing the center to continue baking while protecting the delicate edges.
- **Patience is a Virtue: Let it Rest!** We know the aroma of a freshly baked apple pie is almost impossible to resist, but letting it cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing is crucial. This resting period allows the hot filling to set properly, preventing it from oozing out and ensuring beautifully defined slices.
After reading all of that, if you’re feeling like a much simpler apple dessert, check out my recipe for Apple Cake!
Happy baking! xx
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📖 Recipe
Flaky Apple Pie
Mary
Pin Recipe
Shop Ingredients
Equipment
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Food Processor
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Dark coloured baking sheet
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9″ pie dish, preferably clear glass. Ceramic will do too.
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Pastry Brush
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Rolling Pin
Ingredients
Pie Crust
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose white flour
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 cup very cold unsalted butter cut in ½ inch cubes
- 1 cup ice water with ice cubes
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Pie Filling
- 5 large pie apples (northern spy, granny smith, or any crisp tart apple variety)
- ⅔ cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon arrowroot starch or cornstarch
- 2 red fleshed apples peeled and thinly sliced (optional)
Brushing over
- ¼ cup heavy cream or eggwash
Shop Ingredients on Jupiter
Instructions
Pie Crust
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Combine the flour and salt in the food processor and pulse to incorporate
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Add the cubed cold butter and pulse until the mixture resembles very coarse bread crumbs with pea sized pieces of butter. This takes about 5-8 pulses. Pour contents out into a large bowl.
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Mix together the ice water and apple cider vinegar in a separate bowl.
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Add the water mixture tablespoon by tablespoon into the crumb mixture, stirring with a large wooden spoon or spatula after each addition. Once the dough just starts to come together, stop adding the liquid. You should not need to use all of the liquid.
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Fold the dough: In the same bowl, gather the dough into a ball, working quickly so that the butter doesn’t melt. Flatten out the ball into a disk with your hands and fold that disk in half. Repeat this flattening and folding another 2 times.
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Shape the dough back into a disk and cut in half. Shape each half back into a disk, wrap in plastic wrap, and let rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.
Making the Pie Filling
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Prepare the apples: Peel, core, and slice the apples. I like to cut into thicker slices (~0.5cm thick) for a chunkier filling. Place the slices into a large non-metal bowl.
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Add the sugar, cinnamon, and lemon juice and stir the mixture well so that all apple slices are covered in the sugar and cinnamon.
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Let the filling rest on the counter for 30 minutes so that the apples weep out any excess moisture.
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Add the starch: After 30 minutes, add the arrowroot starch (or starch of choice) to the filling and mix well.
Assembly
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Grease a clear glass 9″ pie dish (or whatever pie dish you have) by spraying with cooking spray or by rubbing a stick of cold butter all over the inside.
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Roll out the bottom crust: On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the dough disks to be about 2 inches larger than the pie dish all the way around. Measure by flipping the pie dish over your rolled dough and looking to see that there is about 2 inches of excess dough all the way around.
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Position the bottom crust: Placing the rolling pin on top of one of the edges of the rolled dough, gently roll the dough onto the rolling pin and over onto the greased pie dish. Gently help the dough fall into the pie dish without stretching the dough.
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Trim any edges with a knife or scissors, leaving a ½ inch border around the edge of the pie crust. Fold excess dough underneath itself so that the crust has a thicker edge. Crimp the dough into a wavy crust by using your fingers.
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Fill the pie by spooning the pie filling into the pie crust, leaving the excess liquid from the apples out of the pie. You want a good mound of apple slices on top because the filling will compress as it bakes. Optionally, arrange the red fleshed apple slices on top of the pie filling, so that the slices are overlapping each other.
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Top crust: Roll out the other half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to about ½ cm thick. Decorate the pie with a lattice or any other way you like, making sure there are holes in the top crust to allow steam to escape. I decorated it as a wreath – read through the instructions in the post to learn how.
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Finishing touches: Using a pastry brush, gently brush over the top of the pie with heavy cream.
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Chill: Place the pie in a freezer for 10 minutes before baking to let the pie dough chill one last time. Place a rack in the bottom third of the oven and preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F).
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Bake: Place the pie dish onto a dark coloured cookie sheet and bake in the bottom third of the oven for 1 hour and 20 minutes. After 30 minutes of baking, tent the edges of the pie crust with aluminum foil to prevent them from burning. Check the pie after 1 hour of baking. The top of the pie and the bottom crust should be golden brown. The pie filling should be soft and bubbling.
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Remove from oven and let cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing to serve. Enjoy!
Notes
- Folding the pie dough a few times helps create those beautiful flaky layers. Be careful to do this as quickly as possible and not too many times so that you don’t have much gluten formation which will make your crust tough.
- Keep the pie dough in the fridge in between handling, and handle it as little as possible. You don’t want the butter to melt while you are working with it because it will destroy all of your flaky layers.
- Refrigerate the pie before baking. I like to stick mine in the freezer for about 10 minutes so that it is nice and cool.
- Gently brush the top of the pie with heavy cream or (alternatively) an egg-wash (1 large egg and 1 tablespoon milk, whisked together). Brushing with cream helps the pie brown and develop a slight sheen during baking. Egg-wash helps the pie get a deeper brown colour and an even glossier sheen.
- Ideally, bake the pie in a clear glass pie dish on top of a dark coloured baking tray to help the bottom of the pie crisp up. The dark baking tray helps attract the heat, focusing it into the bottom of the pie while the glass pie dish helps distribute heat evenly. It is also easy to check through the clear glass if the bottom of the pie has browned. If you don’t have a clear glass pie dish, use a ceramic one – it turns out great too! Aluminum foil pie dishes can be used too, they are just not as sturdy and don’t distribute heat that well because they are so thin. Make sure you place it on a cookie or baking tray to help give it support and help the bottom brown.
- Bake the pie in the bottom third of the oven. That way the bottom of the crust gets a good amount of heat to crisp up.
- Tent the edges of the pie with aluminum foil about 30 minutes into baking so that they don’t burn.
- Let the pie rest for at least 20 minutes before digging in. I know, it’s so hard to wait!