BA’s Best Apple Pie

This was our Christmas eve dessert and it was a big, big hit! Yes, it is a little extra work, but if you break it down properly, it’s doable and worth it. I always make my dough at least a day before baking (I got into resting dough in the refrigerator during my sourdough bread-baking days), so for this one I started it two days in advance, following the directions to a T. The next day I prepped the apples per the directions and let them rest overnight in the fridge. They leached off a lot of excess liquid that went back into the sauce. Then, on pie day I finished the apples with the apple cider and vanilla bean mix. Be sure to both cook this down, and then to cook down the added apple juices before adding the cornstarch. The crust comes out beautifully (I cooked it for 1 hour and 50 minutes). The long cook time, plus the drained apples mean no soggy bottom! The crust came out as a mix between traditional pie crust and a puff pastry (the method is a combination of the two). This is a keeper and I look forward to many more pies with this fabulous crust and tasty fruit. Make sure you use apple CIDER, not apple cider vinegar (I feel for those who did not read the recipe carefully) and follow all the steps. And give yourself time. Resting both the dough and the apple filling is the key. Claire Saffitz is a treasure! I trust any recipe she writes.

• Mari

• San Francisco, CA

Good!

• Anonymous

• NY

I made this apple pie this Thanksgiving and I don’t mind how long it took, but unfortunately, it just tastes so terrible. Unless someone likes Apple cider vinegar, I don’t think it adds any good flavor to the crust. I was not a big fan of the filling as well. I think some of the instructions were unclear on some parts. I think this pie is great if you are an avid pie baker and want to try the recipe but I highly don’t recommend not making it for your family gatherings. This is your average aesthetic Instagram pie.

• Anonymous

• Minnesota

This is a fine pie, but it’s not the best apple pie recipe on BA. The filling was superb (I used honeycrisp apples) and I will be remaking it, but the crust was nothing special and came out kind of strange. It never really lost the vinegar taste and smell, which was off-putting. It got incredibly limp and spilled over the sides when baked, like no crust I’ve ever seen. The process of making it was also incredibly tedious – so much resting and moving the dough to and from the fridge and freezer.

• Melissa

• Chicago

I just made this for Thanksgiving. Although my family said they liked it, I thought it was just ok. It wasn’t that sweet and the apples were not soft after baking on convection for 1.5 hours. I’ll definitely give it another go, maybe bake longer, add a bit more sugar.

• Anonymous

• Mission Viejo, CA

Due to time constraints, is it possible to make this with store bought pie crust and have it still turn out pretty good? The filling sounds amazing!

• Anonymous

• Milwaukee

This is indeed the best apple pie: flakey crust, divine apple filling. All ’round a worth while endeavor. Upon reading the reviews below, I observed some people mistakenly subbed apple cider *vinegar* for the apple *cider* (full stop!!) in the filling – and my heart truly aches for those people who suffered the loss of what could be such an awesome pie. Don’t be like them. ALSO, it did take me half a day to make this pie, which for me happens to be the perfect way to spend a Sunday, HOWEVER I think it would be ideal for most people to break up the prep over a couple of days, ie. crust one day, filling the next; I do not think the quality of pie would suffer at all.

• Lyds

I’ve made this one twice and it was a success both times. The key to this is following the directions very carefully. I’d like to make this but with mixed berries- any recommendations on how to go about this?? Thank you!

• Emisqwe

• Brooklyn

Honestly I don’t think this takes any extra effort because most of the time is waiting and I just do/prepare other things while I wait. There’s not really special out of reach ingredients IMO either if you just sub the vanilla pods for vanilla bean paste. I have an apple peeler, which helps speed things up too. My family prefers more cinnamon so I added an extra 1/2 teaspoon. I was very careful about reducing to 1/2 cup (I measured it out) before adding the cornstarch slurry and I did the egg white trick on the bottom crust to keep it drier. Mine came out perfectly, no soggy bottom and very flavorful. Would make this every Holiday season.

• Anonymous

• SF

I think there were too much cinnamon. Next time I would also use 1-2 more apples.

• Rima

• Chicago IL

Made this pie for Thanksgiving and it was a HUGE success! This was my first time make an entire pie from scratch, so I was a bit nervous to serve this as our main dessert at a dinner with lots of family. Fortunately, it was a major hit. Everyone said it was the BEST apple pie they’ve ever had and I totally agree. I’ll definitely make this again!

• Kim

• Texas

I am in the middle of making this pie. Yes many steps but I did watch the entire process on TVPLUS so knew what to expect. I expect it to be fabulous! For those who had trouble ….follow directions closer…..

• Dee

• Long Island NY

This is the worst recipe I have done. It is VERY difficult and ingredients like vanilla bean are not easy to find. If you have spare 4-5 hours of your life – go ahead. Otherwise I would not recommend it to anyone.

• Anonymous

• Michigan

There’s no mention of the water in the dough ingredients. It comes up in the method portion of the recipe you should’ve listed the half cup of ice water in the ingredients list so that you have a water is cold as possible butter has been incorporated into the flour. .

• Richard Freimark

• Portland, OR

Maybe i didn’t let the vinegar reduce enough, and maybe I should have let the apples “juice” for longer than an hour. The flavor was too vinager-ish for me. Even though the apples and goo were the right consistency, there was too much “wet” in my pie after baking. I will make it again, but use apple cider, not apple cider vinegar, and I will be sure to let the apples “juice” for much longer than 1 hour. The recipe calls for 1-4 hours…that’s quite a time spread.
Everyone loved it, but I have to try those changes to keep it in my repertoire!

• Cheryl Casamento

• Andover, Kansas