Go Back
+ servings
Print Recipe
4.93 from 28 votes

Deep Dish Apple Pie

This Deep Dish Apple Pie is the ideal fall dessert! It's a buttery, flaky homemade pie crust piled high with tender, cinnamon-spiced apples, then baked to golden brown perfection.
*Adapted from America's Test Kitchen
Prep Time45 minutes
Cook Time1 hour 5 minutes
Total Time1 hour 50 minutes
Course: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Servings: 8
Calories: 648kcal

Ingredients

  • 1 recipe for double-crust pie dough
  • pounds Granny Smith apples peeled, cored, and sliced ¼-inch thick
  • pounds honeycrisp apples peeled, cored, and sliced ¼-inch thick
  • ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar plus more for sprinkling on top
  • ¼ cup (54 g) packed light brown sugar
  • ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • teaspoon ground all-spice
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Instructions

  • Roll out 1 portion of dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured counter. Transfer pie dough to a 9-inch pie plate. I like to do this by rolling the pie crust over my rolling pin and then rolling out over the pie plate. Gently press crust into bottom and up the sides, letting excess dough hang over edge of the pie plate.  I Loosely cover pie crust with plastic wrap and refrigerate while you make the apple pie filling.
  • In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, stir together sliced apples, granulated sugar, brown sugar, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice. Cover and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until apples are tender, about 15 to 20 minutes.
  • Allow apple mixture to cool completely, about 30 minutes. You can speed up this process by spreading the apple mixture onto a rimmed baking sheet. set a colander over a mixing bowl. Drain the apple mixture into the colander. Save ¼ cup of the drained juice. Stir lemon juice into reserved juice.
  • Adjust oven rack to lowest position and preheat oven to 425°F (220°C). Place a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet onto the lowest rack, to heat while you finish preparing the pie.
  • Spread apples into pie plate, mounding them slightly in the middle, and drizzle with reserve apple juice mixture.  Roll out second portion of dough into a 12-inch circle and place over the apple filling.
  • Trim excess pie crust to 1/2-inch excess overhang. Fold the top crust edges underneath the bottom crust edges. Crimp edges with fingers, or with a fork to seal. Cut 3-4 slits into top of dough.  Brush surface with egg wash and sprinkle with additional sugar.
  • Place pie onto the heated baking sheet and bake at the 425°F for 25 minutes.  Reduce oven temperature to 375°F, and continue to bake until filling is bubbling, and crust is golden brown, about 30 to 40 minutes longer.  If pie crust edges are getting too brown, cover with foil or a pie shield. Let pie cool on wire rack until filling has set, about 4 hours, before serving.

Notes

  • Do Not Overwork Your Dough. You can make your dough by hand (in fact, you’re less likely to overwork it if you do). You can also use a food processor.  Just be sure when using the food processor to pulse the dough together. If you just let it run for too long it can result in overworking the dough, which gives you a tough crust. 
  • Use shortening and butter. This pie uses my double pie crust recipe. By using a mixture of shortening and butter, it makes the crust both tender and flaky, yet also sturdy enough to hold lots of apple filling. A just butter crust will not be sturdy enough to hold its shape in such a deep pie. 
  • Use very, very cold shortening and butter. When butter and shortening melt, they interact with the flour in a particular way that results in a more bread-like dough. To prevent that, keep these ingredients as cold as possible.
  • Use ICE cold water. Sensing a theme here? Pie crust is all about the COLD. If the water is too warm it will melt the butter and shortening. So ice cold water! I like to put a few ice cubes in my water and chill it down. Just don’t add the ice 😉
  • Cut the apples into uniform size pieces. Too thin and they will turn to mush, too thick and they won’t get tender. I cut my apples into ¼ inch thick pieces to get the perfect tender-crisp texture. 
  • Layer the apples in tightly. Sometimes it's best to dump a little filling at a time, then use a spatula to arrange it so that there are as few air pockets as possible. Then repeat with the rest of the filling. 
  • Pile the apples high! If you’ve never made a deep dish pie, you may think this is too much filling. I promise it isn’t! Pile it all in there and be amazed at the final result. 
  • Use a pie plate that is at least 2 inches deep. If it is a very shallow plate, it will not hold all of the filling.

Nutrition

Calories: 648kcal | Carbohydrates: 93g | Protein: 5g | Fat: 31g | Saturated Fat: 14g | Cholesterol: 46mg | Sodium: 668mg | Potassium: 360mg | Fiber: 8g | Sugar: 53g | Vitamin A: 685IU | Vitamin C: 13mg | Calcium: 37mg | Iron: 2mg