Your holiday table needs the best apple pie recipe! With a flaky golden crust and perfectly spiced apples, you don’t need much more than some vanilla ice cream for a dessert everyone will love.
In a large mixing bowl, toss the apple slices with the lemon juice. Add the sugar, flour, and spices. Stir until the apples are well coated.
On a lightly floured surface, roll one disc of pie dough into a 12-inch to 14-inch circle. Line a 9-inch pie pan with the dough, letting the excess hang over the edge. Pour the apple filling into the crust and pat it into an even layer, mounding it slightly in the center. Dot with butter.
Roll the second pie dough into roughly an 11-inch circle (about ⅛-inch thick). Place on top of the filling for a solid top, or cut the dough and arrange in the desired pattern. Trim the excess pie dough to about an inch from the edge of the pie plate, tuck the excess under and crimp the edges as desired. Cut slits in the top of the pie to create steam vents if covered with a solid top crust. Place on a rimmed baking sheet. Brush the crust with the beaten egg and sprinkle with additional sugar, if desired.
Bake for 20 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375°F and continue baking until the crust is a deep golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 50 minutes to 1 hour. (If the crust browns too quickly at any point, loosely cover the whole pie or the edges with foil.) Let cool completely on a wire rack, about 4 hours.
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Notes
Choose a mixture of tart apples and sweet apples. Granny Smith apples are arguably the best apples for apple pie and with good reason. They are tart, firm, and hold their texture well after being baked. I balance the tartness with sweet Honeycrisp and Fuji apples. You can also use Golden Delicious apples, Jonagold apples, Pink Lady apples, Braeburn apples, or Mutsu apples for this homemade apple pie filling recipe. Choose your favorites, and it will be delicious!
Peel the apples. This might seem like a small thing, but peeling the apples makes a difference in how your apple pie will taste! Some apple skins are tart or chalky, and they are typically coated in wax, which can have a bitter flavor, so don't skip this step.
Get creative with the top crust. In this apple pie recipe, I sometimes use a solid top crust with a few slits cut into it to allow steam to escape. Other times I like to use a lattice crust instead for a more striking presentation. A lattice top helps excess moisture escape effectively as well. (Get some tips for how to create a lattice in my blueberry pie recipe). Another alternative is to crimp the edge of the bottom crust and then use pie crust cutters or cookie cutters to create beautiful shapes with the top layer of dough. Place those dough cutouts on top to cover the filling.
Sprinkle some sugar over the top of the pie crust. A sprinkle of turbinado sugar or granulated sugar will give this apple pie recipe a slightly crunchy topping, adding some textural interest and a little extra sweetness.
Prevent the crust from browning too much. A common issue with baking pies is that the crust browns too fast, especially the edges. If you notice that your crust is gaining too much color too fast, cover the top of the pie loosely with foil. Or, if it’s only the edges that are browning too quickly, cover just the edges with foil.
For picture-perfect cuts, slice the apple pie after refrigerating. A cold pie is so much easier to slice neatly! You can always heat up each slice if you want to enjoy it warm.