This Cinnamon Apple Pie has a brown sugar cinnamon apple filling baked to perfection inside a flakey all-butter pie crust!
If you follow me on the Gram you already know that I broke my toe a few weeks ago. I stubbornly believed that it couldn’t be broken if I didn’t go to the doctor. So I limped around on a broken foot for 2 whole weeks before I had to admit that the level of pain wasn’t normal.
I also filmed this cinnamon apple pie video on said broken foot. Blame my Dad’s tough lessons growing up or years working on the hotline with a bunch of rough-around-the-edges men, but I believe in being stronger than the pain.
Also, no pain is going to keep me from apple pie! And that is the truth.
I’d like to think that the perfect bite of apple pie would cure just about anything. Except a broken toe. Trust me, I tried! ?
I like a balance of sweet and tart (and sometime salty) in my desserts. If a dessert is so sweet that you can only eat two bites, then it is too damn sweet. With that in mind I chose moderately tart apples (Braeburn, pink lady, Cortland, Macoun, and Ginger Gold), tossed them in granulated and brown sugar, and balanced the sweetness with lemon juice.
Lemon zest adds a nice floral dimension plus you already have the lemons for juice! The cinnamon just makes it a party.
I used my latest pie crust obsession but you could also use this all-butter recipe or this one. I have all the pie crust tutorials you could ever need on YouTube because I believe a flaky pie crust is in everyone’s wheelhouse. [That is such a strange expression, no? ?]
You’ve got this! I made it with a broken toe after all!
Cinnamon Apple Pie
Ingredients
2 Pie Crusts: This all-butter recipe here, foolproof vodka recipe here, or your favorite
- 3 lbs Apples (variety or just all honey-crisp if you want)
- 1 Medium Lemon
- ¾ c Granulated sugar
- ½ c Light Brown Sugar (packed)
- 1 t Cinnamon (optional)
- 2 T All-purpose Flour
- 2 T Butter (cubed)
- Heavy Cream
- Turbinado / sanding sugar
Instructions
Prepare Pie Crusts
- Working one at a time, roll out pie crusts to about ⅛th inch. Keep in mind the shape of your dish. Mine was round, so I kept my pie dough as round as possible. After rolling each piece of dough, place on parchment lined baking dish and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. While crusts are chilling I prepare my filling
Prepare Filling
- Preheat oven to 425°F convection.
- Peal, core and slice apples to about ⅛th inch thick. Try to make sure they are all roughly the same size or you have an unevenly baked filling.
- Place apples in a large bowl. Zest lemon over apples then squeeze the juice into the bowl of apples.
- Add sugars and cinnamon. Mix well with a spoon. Taste a piece of apple and add more sugar if desired. Apple sweetness varies so much that I find tasting my filling and making final adjustments better than blinding sticking to a recipe. After you have made any adjustments add the flour and mix well.
- I let my apples sit for about 30 minutes but this is optional. It helps draw out some of the moisture from the apples and gives you a juicier pie filling later on.
Assemble & Bake
- Remove one pie crust from the refrigerator and line a pie dish allowing the excess crust to hang over the edges. This recipes will work for any dish between 9-10 inches. Pour all the apples into the lined dish and mound them up slightly in the center. Dot the cubed butter around the filling.
- Remove top crust from the refrigerator and lay over the filling. Trim any excess crust over 1 inch from the sides using kitchen shears. Gather the top and bottom crust together and roll inwards. Crimp decoratively and then cut steam vents in the top of the crust. Be sure not to cut too close to the edges or the juices will just run out of your pie and into your oven. Double sadness.
- Place pie dish on a baking sheet (to catch any wayward juices) and bake in preheated oven. Brush the top crust lightly with heavy cream (being careful not to let it pool) and sprinkle the top with the turbinado or sanding sugar. Working quickly so that the crust does not get too warm.
- Bake in preheated oven for 15 minutes, rotate, and then reduce temperature to 350°F. Continue cooking for 45-60 minutes or until the filling is bubbling, the apples are tender when poked with a paring knife or cake tester, and the top crust is a dark golden brown. If the edges begin to burn, tent them with strips of aluminum foil and continue baking.
- All to cool before serving. Can also refrigerate until 7 days.
Video Instructions
Really tasty pie and crust. Thanks for the recipe I will be making this for sure for Thanksgiving.
Hi Stephanie, thank you! Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Baking!