The Perfect Fall Apple Pie Recipe

One of my favorite fall activities is to go apple picking. I’ve always been a big fan of the apple, but picking them fresh from a farm only to come home and find creative ways to put them to delicious use. My dear friend, Andrea, and I headed off to New Jersey to take her twins apple picking. We came home with one too many apples (is there even such a thing?!) and immediately knew we had to get to work in the kitchen. Of course, the first that’ll always come to mind is a traditional apple pie. When it comes to entertaining for Thanksgiving and the holidays, you’ll want to make sure to stick to some classics. But even if I’m going traditional, I always like to leave room for a tiny touch of surprise – “Whoa! What’s in this?!” In this case, with this apple pie, it’s all about using a four spice blend: cinnamon, clove, nutmeg, and a bit of ginger – yes, ginger! Not your classic blend for an apple pie, but it just makes it that much tastier. I also added a touch of sour cream in the mix to make the filling extra creamy, almost like a dulce de leche.

The saying “sugar and spice and everything nice” pretty much sums up this recipe. It’s everything that’s nice about fall and Friendsgiving packed in one baked treat you’ll want to make again and agian.

This recipe uses store-bought pie dough, but if you have a favorite you make from scratch, go ahead and bust it out! This is the time to shine with all of your culinary gems. Using store bought dough will also give you extra time to plan a cute dough topping for the pie: lattice, braided dough, circles, you name it. You can find a million how-tos on Pinterest – so cute!

Make sure to serve this pie warm or almost straight out of the oven to maximize the cozy factor.

Recipe: Creamy Four-Spice Apple Pie

Serves 6-8

You’ll need:
– 3 lbs pink lady or granny smith apples, cored, peeled (or don’t peel if you don’t feel like it! Don’t sweat it)
– ½ cup brown sugar, lightly packed
– 3 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 pinches sea salt
– ½ tsp ground cinnamon
– ½ tsp ground ginger
– ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
– ¼ tsp ground cloves
– ½ tsp vanilla extract
– ¼ cup sour cream
– 2 tsp cornstarch, dissolved in a splash of cold water
– 2 packs of pie dough (one for top and one for bottom of the pie), thawed
– 1 egg, beaten
– ¼ cup demerara sugar or coarse sugar
– whipped cream, for serving

Instructions:
1. Place the cut apples in a bowl with the sugar, lemon juice, salt, spices, vanilla, sour cream and cornstarch. Toss to combine and let them sit for about an hour in the bowl to get the flavors infused.
2. Preheat the oven to 375F and prepare a pie baking dish.
3. Roll out the thawed dough to get the bottom of the pie ready. Place rolled out dough onto the pie dish and trim the edges. Poke the bottom of it with a fork.
4. Add the spiced apples to the pie. Roll out the other piece of dough and start your topping: lattice, braided, whatever your heart desires. Use some of the beaten egg as an egg wash to glue pieces together.
5. Give the whole pie one egg wash brush, then sprinkle with demerara sugar or coarse sugar on top and bake for 45 to 60 min, or until crust is golden brown and the filling is bubbly and oozing.

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream and enjoy!