Classic Apple Pie with Cinnamon Crust

Classic Apple Pie with cinnamon crust:

The apple pie filling is buttery, slighty boozy (if you are being naughty) and a touch of cinnamon and caramel to bring it all together. The classic apple pie crust is an all butter crust so its flakey AF. The top layer of pie crust is a cinnamon-ey pie crust. Fall, or as we like to say- apple picking season- is always a big hit in my household. Normally we just go apple picking near me, but my kids really make the most of it and we end up with a quite the bounty.

While this may be an issue if we were simply going to eat them “as is”, but why would we when there are so many amazing things to do with them in the kitchen. You could be tempted to make a caramel apple cake, an apple strudel, apple crumble, spicy apple cake or a big ol’ batch of refreshing apple cider.
Now, as fun as all these simple recipes may be, by far the most popular use for our pickings is a homemade apple pie. A simple apple pie is really a must this time of year (even if your apple picking is at the store 😀 ).

Now everyone may have their own easy apple pie recipe on hand, be it their mom’s apple pie filling, their best friends apple pie crust recipe. Well I like to try some different things each year and this year I went with a classic apple pie with cinnamon crust.

As American as Apple Pie??

Interestingly, apples aren’t native to North America and come over with the first Europeans. At which point apple pie was already a well-known treat in several European countries for hundreds of years- including Dutch, French and English variations.

Classic Apple Pie with cinnamon crust:

• All butter Pie Crust: This is an all butter pie crust, I use salted butter for all my baking. Use very cold butter that is cut into little cubes. When the rolling the pie crust is, if at any point you feel like its getting soft to touch; chuck it in the fridge for about 15 mins or 5-10 minutes in the freezer. Dust cinnamon on the pie crust as you are rolling it. USe very cold water for the pie crust. Alternatively you can add ice cubes into the apple cider vinegar and use that. 
• Apple Pie filling: all the goodness of the delightful apple pie… You can use either maple syrup or bourbon or even a splash of whiskey in your filling. You can also use cane sugar instead of brown sugar. A tablespoon of molasses in the apple pie filling is also an interesting addition to the flavour.
• Caramel sauce: You can either use a store bought caramel sauce or make your own at home. Caramel sauce for me is one of the most finicky things, I ruined 2 batches even this time haha! Ps. never ever touch hot caramel sauce, trust me on that.
  The recipe for my homemade caramel sauce can be found here 
• Pie crust cut outs:  I used autumn themed pie crust cutter. I found these on amazon
• Cinnamon Sugar for the topping: This is totally optional, you can mix 1-2 tsps cinnamon powder into 50gm sugar and mix. Use this instead of regular sugar on the crust after the egg wash.

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Classic Apple Pie

Classic Apple pie with All Butter Crust, The apple pie filling is caramelised apples with bourbon and caramel sauce. A cinnamon-ey all butter pie crust

Course Dessert

Cuisine American

Keyword Apple Pie, pies

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 1 hour

Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes

Servings 6

Ingredients

All Butter Crust

• 360 gm All purpose Flour 3 Cups
• 125 ml Cold water ½ cup
• 300 gm Cold Salted Butter 2¾ stick
• 3 tbsp Apple Cider Vinegar
• 2 tsp Cinnamon Powder

Pie Filling

• 750 gm Apples 5-6
• 30 gm Butter 2 tbsp
• 50 gm Brown Sugar 1/4 cup
• 2 tbsp Maple syrup / Bourbon optional
• 2 tsp Cinnamon powder
• 50 gm Toasted Walnuts & Pecan Chopped
• 1 tsp Corn Starch/flour
• 2 tsp Lemon Juice
• 75 gm Caramel Sauce 1/3 Cup

Egg Wash

• 1 Egg
• 3 tsp Sugar

Cinnamon sugar

• 2 tsp Cinnamon powder
• 50 gm Granulated sugar

Instructions

Pie Crust

1. In a large bowl, add the flour and salt. Cut the cold butter into cubes and add them into the dry ingredient. 

2. Using your finger, lightly rub the butter and flour until the flour is slightly covered with butter. Try to not break the butter into tiny bits as the larger pieces of butter in the dough helps it to be flakey AF. 

3. Add the apple cider vinegar and gently work the dough to come together. Add the chilled water as needed, so that the dough can stick together. 

4. Divide the dough into 2 and wrap it with cling film like a disc, this makes it easier to roll out. 

5. Rest the dough in the fridge either for couple of hours or overnight (preferable).

Apple Pie Filling

1. Peel and chop the apples into small wedges. Add the apples, lemon juice, butter, maple syrup/ Bourbon, brown sugar, cinnamon powder into the pan. 

2. Cook for 4-5 minutes, tossing around so the apples are just caramelised on the outside and still crunchy on the inside. 

3. Strain the apples from the juices using a colander. Add a teaspoon of corn starch to thicken the juices.

Pie Assembly

1. Take out the dough from the fridge and let it thaw for 15-30 minutes. On a well floured surface, place one disc and start rolling out the dough to about 1/4-1/2 inch thick. 

2. On a lightly greased and floured pie tin, roll over the pie dough base. Let it chill for 15-30 minutes in the refrigerator again.  

3. Roll the second dough disc out and sprinkle with cinnamon powder and roll over couple of times for it to sit. 

4. Using pie cutters or cookie cutter, cut out the pattern you like. I used apples and leaves cutter. 

5. Add the cooked/ caramelised apples in the pie tin, pour the apple sauce and spoonfuls of caramel sauce and toasted nuts. 

6. Add layers of cinnamon pie crust cut outs on top of the apple pie filling. Let it chill in the freezer for 10 minutes or fridge for 15-30 minutes.

7. Preheat the oven to 450 F /230 C degrees. When the oven is ready, whisk the egg and brush it over the pie crust. Sprinkle sugar over the egg wash. (Check notes before recipe for using cinnamon sugar instead)

8. Let it bake for 20 minutes on 450F and reduce it to 350F for another 20-30 minutes. This helps the base cook through without being soggy! 

9. Once baked and gooey golden crusted. Let it cool to room temperature or cool it overnight. 

10. Enjoy with dollop of ice cream or Chantilly cream 

Some other pie recipes you can try

• Blueberry pie
• Cranberry and Orange Pie

looking for something apple-y? 

• Brown butter Apple cake

Happy Fall and Happy Baking

xx