You guys, I did it.
I tackled one of my biggest cooking and baking foes: homemade pie dough.
I have a complicated relationship with pie. First, I enjoy it, but it’s not my FAVORITE dessert option out there. Second, I don’t enjoy making it. It’s intimidating and so easy to screw up! Thus, we don’t eat a lot of pie in this house. At least with made-from-scratch pie dough.
But apple pie has a special place in my heart. It was the one pie that we did often have at Thanksgiving growing up. I DO love apple pie, and I’ll take the classic flavors in any form. They taste like nostalgia and comfort in every bite.
So, after all we’ve been through this year (#2020), I thought I needed to put on my big girl pants and tackle apple pie once and for all. It was the least I could do. Just in case there are any other pie-making scaredy cats out there like me.
Me being me, I couldn’t leave well enough alone. I had to make some subtle tweaks along the way. The result? One of my proudest baking accomplishments!
This pie starts out with a spiced pie dough. My friend and former co-worker, Beth, gave me the base for this pie dough recipe a few years ago, and it is the only one I’ve had success with! (Hi, Beth! Thank you for saving my pie baking dream.)
The dough is basic and doesn’t have anything special added to it to create the magic, and I think that’s why I love it so much. It’s just flour, salt, a little sugar, and lots of butter. No vinegar. No shortening. No lemon juice. Nada. Just good ol’ fashioned pie dough without any frills or fuss.
To make things more festive for the upcoming Thanksgiving meal we’re all going to have next week, whatever that may look like this year, I added some cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ginger to the pie dough base. These are the spices I love in my apple pie, so I figured adding it to the dough wouldn’t hurt things. And guess what? It didn’t! It really didn’t! I’m still in disbelief, in case you couldn’t tell.
Pie dough is my foe, remember?
The dough itself is rich and sturdy, like pie dough should be, but has that warming spiced essence we all know and love this time of year. I love the way the spices show up as little flecks throughout the crust! I made mine in the food processor, and I’m happy to report, it worked like a charm. Mix up the dough, form it into two discs, wrap in plastic, and pop in the fridge to rest for a bit. Move onto the filling!
The filling is very straightforward. Apples, sugar, flour, lemon juice, and spices. Because we’re making a salted caramel apple pie, I like using half white sugar and half brown sugar. The brown sugar imparts that deeply sweet, caramel flavor we all know and love, and it’s perfect here.
Once the dough has had a chance to rest and develop the gluten a bit, we roll it out and carefully place it in a pie dish. This is where things usually go south for me, but I managed just fine this time. I let the excess dough overhang the edges – I don’t worry about shaping and sealing the edges until absolutely necessary.
In goes the filling and the magical ingredient: SALTED CARAMEL SAUCE. Now, you can certainly go through the trouble of making your own. It will undoubtedly be better than any store-bought version. Me? I’m taking one short cut in this stressful baking journey and that is store-bought caramel sauce. There’s no shame in my game, either!
I like to fill the pie with the apple mixture and then generously drizzle the caramel sauce all over. It will take a lot of willpower to not reach into that pie and snatch a caramel-covered apple slice, by the way. I’m speaking from experience.
Next comes the hardest part – topping the pie and crimping the edges. So, to make my life infinitely more stressful, I went all out and made a lattice crust for mine. I am not going to walk you through the process because I am not an expert, but I highly recommend watching a YouTube video on how to lattice a pie crust – it’s what I did! It’s actually not nearly as complicated as it looks, and I definitely would do it again.
You could also keep things VERY simple (which is usually my inclination) and just top this pie with a rolled out, solid piece of dough. It will look just as beautiful when everything is said and done. However you decide to top the pie, just make sure you seal your edges really well so that the filling stays inside. I tried to do that fancy crimping thing to mine and was only somewhat successful. It’s OK, though, because in the end, the pie tasted AMAZING.
Now, my friend Beth, along with this awesome pie dough recipe, gave me one of my favorite homemade pastry tips! SKIP THE EGG WASH! Yes, really.
It often makes the pie brown too quickly in spots. Instead, brush your assembled pie with milk or cream! It will still give a golden brown look and shine but without the stress of having to create a tin foil tent in your scalding hot oven mid bake. I’ve used this trick a few times, and the dough is always beautifully golden and evenly so.
Highly recommend!
After the pie is done baking, you have to let it rest for a long time before attempting to cut into it. It needs to cool for hours. So, what I recommend for Thanksgiving is to make any pies you want to serve the day before. They can sit at room temperature for that long, and it’s much easier to slice into them when they are at room temperature or only slightly warmed in the oven after your big meal is done.
Just promise me this: you’ll serve this pie topped with vanilla bean ice cream and more salted caramel sauce.
It takes it over the top in all the best ways. Promise me!
Despite all my fear and self doubt, this pie came out beautifully. Spiced, sweet, a touch salty, and filled with warm spices, tender sweet-tart apples, and caramel flavors. It’s pretty much my ideal pie.
IF I had to eat pie, that is. This would definitely be the one.
Salted Caramel Apple Pie with Spiced Crust
- Total Time: 1 hour 40 minutes
- Yield: 8-10 servings 1x
Ingredients
For the Crust:
- 3 sticks (24 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
- 4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼–½ cup ice water
For the Filling:
- 6–8 large apples, peeled and thinly sliced (see NOTE)
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice (freshly squeezed!)
- ½ cup store-bought salted caramel sauce (you can certainly use homemade)
For Assembly:
- Additional flour, for rolling out the dough
- Heavy cream or milk, for brushing on the pie
- Raw or coarse sugar, for the top of the pie
For Serving:
- Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, for serving
- Additional salted caramel sauce, for serving
Instructions
For the Crust:
- Cube the butter and place it in the fridge or freezer while you gather your ingredients. You want it to be super cold!
- Place the flour, salt, and spices in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a couple times to combine.
- Add in the cold cubed butter and pulse the machine a few times until the butter is broken down some but not completely incorporated. Bigger chunks of butter are OK!
- Turn on the machine and slowly stream in the ice water, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough comes together and forms a ball.
- Divide the dough into two even balls and wrap them in plastic wrap, shaping and pressing them into discs as you wrap them.
- Place the dough in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill and so the gluten can develop.
For the Filling:
- While the dough is chilling, mix together the apple filling.
- In a large mixing bowl, toss the sliced and peeled apples with the sugars, spices, flour, and lemon juice. Mix until everything is well combined.
To Assemble:
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Roll the one of the chilled dough discs out on a well-floured surface until it is a ¼-inch thick round. Carefully press it into a 9-inch pie pan.
- Pour the apple filling into the pie crust and then drizzle over the salted caramel sauce.
- Roll out the other dough round and top the apple mixture with it. Using a sharp knife, cut all the way around the pie, removing the excess dough overhanging the sides of the pie dish. Alternatively, you can make a lattice crust by cutting the dough round into 10 equal strips and weaving them on top of the pie to overlap (I highly recommend watching a YouTube video on how to make a lattice crust – this is what I did. I am no expert!).
- Crimp the bottom and top pie crusts together all around the edge.
- Brush the top all over with the milk or cream and then sprinkle with the raw sugar.
- If doing a non-lattice crust (aka, a solid top pie crust), cut a couple slits in the top of the crust.
- Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and transfer the pie to the hot oven and bake for 15 minutes.
- Reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for another 35-45 minutes, keeping an eye on the pie to make sure it isn’t browning too fast.
- If it is browning too fast, tent it loosely with aluminum foil. The pie is done when the pie crust is crisp and deep golden brown and the caramel is bubbling up through the slits. A knife inserted into the center of the pie should go in easily.
- Remove the pie from the oven and allow it to sit at room temperature for a few hours before attempting to cut into it.
- Serve the pie warm and sliced and topped with ice cream, whipped cream, and a drizzle of salted caramel sauce.
Notes
- To start, you want roughly 10 cups of sliced apples for this pie. They cook down A LOT in the oven. I like a mix of apples for this pie. Honeycrisp, Granny Smith, and Pink Lady apples are what I used here, and the combination of sweet and tart was perfect!
- You can make the pie crust a day or two ahead and keep it in the fridge.
- Prep Time: 40 minutes
- Cook Time: 1 hour
- Category: dessert
Hi There. I'm Molly. I'm a food-obsessed, self-taught cook and I can't wait to share my passion for all things culinary with you. My love for egg yolks is just the tip of the iceberg!
I only used the crust recipe for traditional apple pie, (I am not a salted caramel person by unpopular opinion). The crust was fantastic. Also used as crust for a pumpkin pie, which we devoured.
This is definitely my favorite pie crust recipe, and I’m so happy it worked well for you as well!