Fall hits, and before you know it, we crave apple pie made from our family’s heirloom apple pie recipe. The flaky crust, the buttery brown sugar apple filling, and the crispy cinnamon sugar topping is heaven. Top with some local Wisconsin frozen vanilla custard and you’ve single-handedly created an autumnal masterpiece. 

We have a local organic apple farm up the street that sells apples by the peck and bushel, and pick-your-own as well. We take the boys there a couple times a season to enjoy the experience. I’ve been trying to get them involved in the process of cooking and baking to encourage them to try new things. Neither of the boys have tried apple pie before, and getting them involved from picking the fruit to baking seemed a logical way to get them excited about trying something new.

Eric bought an apple peeler from Amazon this year to help peel the apples and get the boys excited. Normally I would roll my eyes at such a purchase, but he made me a believer. I will never peel apples by hand again. We probably saved a good 30 minutes of coring, cutting, and peeling the apples by using this handy apple peeler instead.  

The boys LOVED being big helpers. Cranking the apple peeler and playing with the long peels was the best part! This peeler creates the most perfect spirals, and from there, we just cut each spiral into quarters for the perfect apple slice.

On to the recipe. Normally I make my own crust, but for this version I simply call for a frozen crust (double, one layer for the bottom, and one for the top). I normally use Pilsbury if I don’t have time to make my own.

What you’ll need:

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Apple Pie with Brown Sugar Filling 

8-10 Apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 

1 double crust for a 9” pie 1 crust for bottom, 1 crust for top (or homemade if you prefer) 

½ cup butter

3 TB flour

1/4 cup water

1/2 brown sugar

½ cup white sugar

½ tsp cinnamon

¼ c cinnamon/sugar mixture (for sprinkling on top crust)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Melt butter in a medium-sized saucepan. Stir in flour until dissolved. Add water, brown sugar, white sugar, and bring to a gentle boil while stirring constantly to ensure the sugar does not burn. Reduce temperature to low and simmer, stirring occasionally.

Place the bottom crust dough in your pie plate. Fill with the sliced apples up to the rim, mounding in the middle. Remove the sugar mixture from the stove and pour carefully over the apples. Take reserved pie crust dough and cover the top, pinching together the edges of the top and bottom crust to seal. (I typically do a “lattice work” crust, but will opt not to if I am short on time.) To vent the pie, cut an “X” in the middle (or you can get creative here!). Top the crust with sprinkled cinnamon and sugar to taste, the more, the better. 

Bake* at 425 degrees F for the first 15 minutes, then decrease to 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes, or until you crust is golden brown and your apples are soft. Let pie cool before serving to allow the filling to set.

*NOTE: I have had bad experiences with burning crust edges, so I recommend cutting out long strips of aluminum foil and wrap the edges to protect them from burning. You can remove the foil 15 minutes before the pie is done so your crust edges get golden brown. I have purchased silicone pie crust protectors which have proven to be a lot easier than foil. I find they stay on better and are more gentle on the dough.  

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We serve this pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, or frozen custard. My Dad, however, likes to melt a slice of cheddar cheese on the top. Apparently, it’s a thing where he comes from.  *sighs*  We’ll let him have that.

Enjoy!

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