I’m not a huge fan of the mushy, mealy apple pies. Everyone has their own preferences, but for me, I prefer my pies to have a little crispness to them. I decided to do some research on apples and different methods for pie baking. Without getting too scientific on you, I decided to go with something a little different than the normal Granny Smith apples. I also decided to try out a different method than the normal ‘throw the apples in the pie plate and bake’ method. What transpired was this recipe for Not Another Mushy Apple Pie.
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I found this Deep Dish Apple Pie recipe from Emeril Lagasse. I ended up changing it quite a bit. For one, I don’t really like the idea of adding cheese to an apple pie and two, I found that sauteing the apples a bit longer made a big difference. My first thought was that pre-cooking the apples a bit, might actually make the apples MORE mushy (or is it mushier?), but in fact, it has the opposite effect. It’s something super scientific that I probably wouldn’t do a good job of explaining.
Also, after doing a little research on apples (yeah I’m a nerd), I decided to go with Braeburn apples for their crispness and Golden Delicious for their sweet flavor.
I used two pounds of Braeburn apples and two pounds of Golden Delicious. I just weighed them before I sliced them. You don’t have to get too specific. I also did not add any lemon juice. You don’t need it because the Braeburn apples will have some tartness to them.
After slicing the apples, melt a half a stick (1/4 of a cup) of butter in a large skillet.
Add your apples to the melted butter and saute them for about three minutes.
Next add flour, sugar and spices.
Saute the apple mixture for five more minutes.
After you’ve sauteed your apples, they need to cool down. You can either set them in the fridge for a couple hours, or you can leave them there overnight and finish the pie the next day. That’s what’s so awesome about this recipe…you don’t have to spend hours out of your day baking this thing.
Once the apples have cooled, fill a deep dish pie plate with your crust. Ok, moment of truth here…I don’t make my own crust. Oh the horror! The way I see it, there are things I enjoy doing and that I like taking the time to do, but making pie crust is not one of those things. I just go with Pillsbury, but if you make your own pie crust, I say go for it.
Next, fill your pie plate with the cooled sauteed apples.
Here’s where I got a little fancy. If you’re using pre-made refrigerated pie crust, you’re going to need an extra package if you want to do this next step.
I had some apple and small leaf cookie cutters. I used them to cut out shapes I could add to my top crust. You know me, I can’t leave well enough alone, right?
Before adding these cut-outs, you’ll want to add your top crust. Don’t forget to add a couple slits on the top of it and crimp the edges.
Brush a little egg wash (beaten egg with a little water) over the top and attach your cut-out pieces. Brush those with egg wash as well.
Now you’ll bake it at 350 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes. When it’s done, set aside to cool completely before cutting it. Don’t cheat on that part…I know you want to though. 😉
What you get is a sweet, yet slightly tart apple pie with no mushy bits of apple in it. The apples still have a crispness to them that I find refreshing and a little out of the norm for your average apple pie. It’s SO good. You can top it with whipped cream, or my personal favorite, vanilla ice cream. I didn’t get a picture of it topped with ice cream, because well let’s face it, once I stick ice cream on something, I can’t stop myself from digging in.
Catch the slide show for the Not Another Mushy Apple Pie below:
Find the full recipe below:
Not Another Mushy Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 2 lbs peeled and sliced Braeburn apples
- 2 lbs peeled and sliced Golden Delicious apples
- 4 tbsp butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 4 tbsp flour
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- Refrigerated or homemade pie crust
- egg wash
Instructions
- Peel and slice your apples.
- Melt butter in a large skillet.
- Add apples and saute them for about three minutes.
- Add the sugars, flour, spices and salt and saute with apples another five minutes. If the juices are still quite runny, you can saute for another minute or so.
- Let the mixture cool completely. You can leave in the refrigerator over night.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prepare your pie crust. Set the bottom crust into your pie plate.
- Add the apples into the crust.
- Cover with a top crust. Cut slits in the top and crimp the edges. Bonus points if you add some cute little pie crust cut-outs to the top.
- Brush on an egg wash and bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and 15 minutes.
- Let the pie cool completely before cutting it.
Notes
Nutrition
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I like the idea of sautéing the apples rather than setting aside in bowl with sugar mixture blended into the apples.
I am a crust person. I love tanned, crispy or crunchy and flaky crust. I don’t like gummy bottom crust. I edge the bottom crust a bit over the edge, prick with fork and stick in a 425 dog oven until its begins to shrink and/or shows slight browning.
How do you keep your bottom crust crisp and crunchy?
Pre-browning the bottom crust is a great tip! In full disclosure here…I’m not an expert at pie baking. I’m much more of a cake person, but my husband’s favorite thing is apple pie, so since I kinda like him, I figured I’d try to come up with the best apple pie recipe I could make. 😉 I didn’t find the crust on this one to be too soggy. I have to admit though, I don’t actually mind a soggy crust, as long as it’s not to the point of falling apart. My biggest pet peeve is mushy or mealy apples, which just grosses me out. What I love most about this pie is the apples are cooked just enough, but are still crisp plus each kind of apple has a different level of crispness to them. Sauteing them first is the secret. Sounds kind of counter-intuitive, but it works 😉 Thanks for the pie crust tip!
Combining our tips should produce the ULTIMATE apple pie!
Do you have access to the recipe on the side of the Hersheys Cocoa Tin, long ago was tin, for the recipe of Buttermilk Chocolate layer cake? My mother used to make it with dark buttercream frosting. It was to die for— I need this recipe so that I can make and pass to my daughter.
Oh yes, I agree, it WOULD be the ultimate apple pie! 😉
I don’t have that recipe, but I just did a quick search and this may be it. Here’s a link to what I found. Hope it helps: https://www.hersheys.com/kitchens/en_us/recipes/heritage-chocolate-cake.html
Hi! Thanks so much for posting these tips! How thick do you slice your apples? I’m contemplating getting one of those kitchen gadgets that peels, cores and slices apples all at once, but I keep taking myself out of it cause it only makes the super thin slices, and I feel like the thinner the apple slice the mushier the pie, but maybe if they are that thin and then I try your sautéing tip, that will take care of the mushiness. Your thoughts, please.
Hi there, I did actually use a peeler/slicer for my apple slices. The one I have was fairly inexpensive and it still did a good job. I set it to slice as well as core and peel, but you still have to do a little bit of cutting afterwards…only because it sort of slices them in a spiral. My slices were pretty thin but they stayed really crisp even after an hour and 15 minutes of baking. The apple slicer sure makes life easier though. ?