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This country apple pie recipe will shave hours from your holiday schedule since it gives you three delicious pies, though they needn’t all be baked at once! I’m convinced that this foolproof pastry crust, tender apple slices, and sweet cinnamon flavor is the best Thanksgiving apple pie ever!
If you love pie recipes, be sure to check out my recipes for Farm Recipe Green Tomato and Raspberry Pie or Rich & Silky Chocolate Pie.
Quick Look: Country Apple Pie Recipe
- ⏲️ Prep Time: 30 minutes
- ⏲️ Cook Time: 55 minutes
- ⏲️ Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
- 👨👩👧👦 Servings: 3 pies with 8 servings per pie
- 🌽 Cuisine & Heritage: Classic American
- 🍽️ Calories: 362 calories per serving (more nutritional info in recipe card)
- 🥦 Dietary Info: Vegetarian (can be made Gluten Free and Dairy Free)
- 🟢 Difficulty: Easy
- 🔥 Cooking Method: Oven Baked
- 🌶️ Flavor Profile: Sugar, cinnamon, tender apples, and flaky buttery pastry.
- 🔑 Top Tip: Use extra pastry to decorate the pie with leaf shapes, then dust them with cinnamon and sugar for a wonderful autumn look.
- 🍷 Drink Pairings: Pair this with a warm mug of spiced chai or hot apple cider, a slightly sweet wine like Moscato d’Asti, or a bourbon apple smash.
- ❄️ Storage: Diced and peeled apples and leftover pastry can freeze for up to 3 months. Leftover baked pie can keep in the fridge for up to 3 days.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Easy Recipe, Beautiful Flavor: This recipe is as basic as it gets. Apples, sugar, cinnamon, and a beginner-friendly homemade pie crust that’ll knock your socks off.
- Makes Either One Pie or Three: Make pies in bulk to make dessert easy, or make just one.
- Foolproof: The beautiful way this pie turns out every single time will restore your faith in your ability to create beautiful and delicious things!
Table of Contents
Ingredients
Curious what ingredients you’ll need to make this easy country apple pie? Grab these key ingredients, along with a few others, and you’ll be ready to start baking!
- Shortening: This fat melts at a higher temperature than butter, which makes the pastry extra flaky and delicious.
- Distilled White Vinegar: The vinegar inhibits gluten formation in the pastry, making it extra tender.
- Apples: I recommend using a firm baking apple, such as Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, or Winesap. Personally, I like using four Granny Smith and one Winesap here!
- Cinnamon: You’ll need cinnamon to season the apple filling, and if you’d like, to sprinkle on pastry ‘leaves’ to put on top of the pie.
See recipe card for full information on ingredients and quantities.
Variations & Substitutions
- Use a combination of apple varieties, like Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, and Fuji, for a more complex flavor and texture.
- Fold a handful of chopped toasted pecans or walnuts into the filling or sprinkle them over the top crust before baking.
- Swap cinnamon for apple pie spice, add a pinch of nutmeg or cardamom, or even a dash of ground ginger for extra warmth.
- Drizzle homemade caramel sauce over the filling before sealing the crust for a decadent caramel apple version.
How to Make Country Apple Pie
Scroll down for the full printable recipe or stick around for the step-by-step breakdown with photos to walk you through every delicious detail.
1
Prep the Apples
Peel, core, and rough chop into 1-inch pieces, then toss them with a squeeze of lemon juice.
2
Make the Pastry
In a bowl, combine shortening, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt with a pastry cutter or hands to blend all until it’s mealy. Beat an egg in a 1-cup measuring cup, then add a tablespoon of white vinegar and fill it to the 1-cup mark with ice cold water.
Pour the egg mixture over the dry ingredients. Use the fork you used to beat the egg to gather the dough ingredients in the bowl and form a ball of dough. Separate the mass into three equal parts and wrap each part (each part represents a bottom pie crust as well as a top pie crust) in plastic film. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.
3
Assemble the Apple Filling
In a separate mixing bowl, stir together granulated sugar, all-purpose flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add the apples (6-cups frozen apple slices or chopped pieces) and stir to have the sugar mixture stick to the apples.
The amount of sugar you use is up to you, but this is my rule of thumb. If I’m using tart apples like Granny Smith, I use ¾ cups of sugar. For all other apple varieties, I use ½ cup of granulated sugar.
4
Roll the Dough
Pull a dough ball from the refrigerator and use a bench scraper to cut the ball in half. On a lightly floured work surface, roll each half of the dough into a circle.
Place the rolled pastry into the pie plate and trim off any excess dough to within an inch of the edge. Scrape the apple filling into the pie crust and fit it with the second half of dough that you’ve rolled.
Crimp all the way around and cut slits in the top of the pie to vent. Brush the pie lightly all over with an egg wash and sprinkle liberally with additional granulated sugar.
5
Baking the Pie
Bake pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet on the center rack for 20 minutes at 450°F, and then reduce to 350°F and bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes. Toward the end of the bake, you’ll notice a lot of bubbling from within, so it’s always very helpful to have that parchment-lined sheet beneath. Cool, slice, and enjoy!
Recipe FAQs
Baking with apples means beginning with the right variety of apple. They needn’t necessarily be ‘tart’, but they do need to be firm and stable so they don’t turn into applesauce when baking.
When selecting apples to use in pies, cakes, cobblers, or any other bake, consider Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Pink Lady, Fuji, Golden Delicious, Jonagold, and Granny Smith apples, or my personal favorites, Winesap.
Use firm baking apples, make your own pastry, and keep the pastry cold so it stays flaky as it bakes. Brush the crust with beaten egg before baking, and bake it on top of a cookie sheet to catch any overflow.
Cornstarch or flour are both great options to thicken apple pie filling! If you’re gluten free, use cornstarch; otherwise, flour is what I prefer.
Serving Suggestions
If you are like me, you get invitations to lots of holiday gatherings. I always want to bring something, and this pie works beautifully as a gift for your hostess. She can either serve it immediately or keep it for a later time. It tastes fabulous served as is or with vanilla ice cream.
If you want to check out more pie ideas for Thanksgiving, check out my recipes for Walnut Bottom Peach & Apple Pie and 15 Minute Peanut Butter and Chocolate Cream Pie.
Expert Tips
- If you are not planning to roll the dough immediately, dually wrap in aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
- If you have a lot of extra pastry left over, roll it and use seasonal cookie cutters to cut shapes and apply them to the top of your pie crust using egg wash. Sprinkle the leaves with ground cinnamon and sugar before applying to the pie, but only sprinkle sugar on the pie. Once baked, the leaves will look brown on top of the pie.
- Every six cups of apples are equal to one baked pie. I use four Granny Smith and one Winesap, and I muster just around six cups.
- If you’re not using the apples right away, bag them in 6-cup increments in freezer-safe zippered bags and pop each bag into your freezer.
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Country Apple Pie Recipe
Equipment
- 9-inch pie dish
- pastry cutter
Ingredients
Pastry Ingredients for 3 Double-Crust Pies
- 18 cups apples, about 13-15 large apples; peeled, cored, and chopped into 1-inch pieces
- fresh lemon juice, for combining with apples
- 1 pound cold shortening
- 5 cups all-purpose flour, plus, more for rolling the pie crusts
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, warmed to room temperature
- 1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar
- cold water
Filling Ingredients for 1 Pie
- ¾ to 1 cup granulated sugar, divided with 1/4-cup reserved
- 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon Kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold and cut into small cubes
Instructions
Making the Pastry
- Gather all equipment and ingredients. Remove 2 eggs from refrigeration and allow to come to room temperature.
- Every six cups of apples are equal to one baked pie. With this in mind, peel, core, and rough chop into 1-inch pieces. Squeeze and toss with lemon juice and divide into 6-cup increments. Bag in 3 separate freezer-safe zippered bags and place into freezer. Label and date if these are going to be made into pies at later times.
- In a bowl, add cold shortening, all-purpose flour, baking powder, and salt. Use your pastry cutter or hands to blend all until it's mealy. Grab a 1-cup measuring cup and crack 1 egg into it. Beat it lightly. Add a tablespoon of white distilled vinegar to the egg, then fill the measure cup to the 1-cup mark using ice cold water.
- Beat the egg mixture directly over the bowl of dry ingredients, scattering that egg all over as you go. Use the fork you used to beat the egg to gather the dough ingredients in the bowl and form a ball of dough.
- Separate the mass into three equal parts and wrap each part (each part represents a bottom pie crust as well as a top pie crust) in plastic film. Refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.
Assembling & Baking the Pie
- If you're baking a pie(s) immediately, preheat the oven to 450°F.
- Stir together the granulated sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Remove 1 bag of frozen apples from freezer. Add to sugar mixture and stir so the mixture sticks to the frozen apples. (The amount of sugar you use is up to you. For tart apples like Granny Smith, I use ¾ cups of sugar. For all other apple varieties, I use ½ cup of granulated sugar. Set aside ¼ cup for sprinkling on the top of the crust before baking.)
- Use a bench scraper to cut one dough ball in half equally. On a clean lightly floured work surface, use your pin to roll each half of the dough into either a 10-inch circle for a 9-inch pie plate or a 12-inch circle for a 10-inch pie plate. Fit a rolled dough half into the plate and trim any excess dough. Scrape the apple filling into the pie crust and fit it with the second half of dough that you've rolled.
- Crimp all the way around (I go over it twice!) and use kitchen shears to cut slits in the top of the pie to vent. Brush the pie lightly all over with an egg wash you make by lightly beating the remaining egg and sprinkle liberally with additional granulated sugar.
- Bake pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet on the center rack for 20 minutes at 450°F and then reduce to 350°F and bake an additional 35 to 40 minutes. Allow to cool on a wire rack for 45 minutes to 1 hour before cutting. Slice and enjoy!
Notes
- If you are not planning to roll the dough immediately, double wrap in aluminum foil and freeze for up to 3 months.
- If you have a lot of extra pastry left over, roll it and use seasonal cookie cutters to cut shapes and apply them to the top of your pie crust using egg wash. Sprinkle the leaves with ground cinnamon and sugar before applying to the pie, but only sprinkle sugar on the pie. Once baked, the leaves will look brown on top of the pie.
- Six cups of apples are equal to one baked pie. I use four Granny Smith and one Winesap, and I muster just around six cups. If you’re not using them right away, bag them in 6-cup increments in freezer-safe zippered bags and pop each bag into your freezer.
- To make 1 double pie crust only, use these measurements: 1 1/3 cups all-purpose flour together with 1/2 teaspoon Kosher salt, 1/4 teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 cup of cold shortening, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon distilled white vinegar, and about 1/2-cup of ice cold water.
- Refrigerate leftovers under plastic film up to 3 days.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I seldom make pies, because when I do, they don’t come out; usually a little tough. So I will try your recipe. I thought using baking powder in it is interesting. Since I am making this recipe for the first time, I will divide it so I can make only one. I am sure that will work. Hope so!
Barbara!!! I completely understand your hesitation with pies — they can be finicky, but I have every confidence you’ll have success with this Country Apple Pie recipe. Dividing it into one-third will work, though just note that sometimes scaling down can slightly change the texture or bake. If you decide to make the full recipe, the good news is that all three pies don’t have to be baked at once — they freeze beautifully. That way, you can enjoy one now and have the others ready for Thanksgiving or even Christmas. I’ll be excited to hear how your first pie turns out (and hearing from you again!) <<>> Jenny
Awesome recipe I love ❤️ making my own crust to anything I bake that requires a dough crust. This crust sounds delicious 😋
Connie, you are among my heroes then because, until THIS crust method, I would automatically walk away from a recipe that required a scratch crust due to the time it took and my poor crust skill level. Not now, not with this one, which can be used across the board for so many pies including slab pies. Thanks, Connie, for circling back around to leave this comment – it’s very appreciated and I am very grateful 🙂 Jenny