Classic Apple Pie

Ingredients

• 1 package (2 crusts) refrigerated pie dough (store-bought or homemade), or a double batch of homemade dough
• 6 cups peeled, sliced tart baking apples (such as Granny Smith)
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg, beaten (for egg wash)
• 1 tbsp coarse sugar, for sprinkling

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C). Fit one crust into a 9-inch pie dish.
2. In a large bowl, gently toss the peeled, sliced tart baking apples (such as Granny Smith) with the sugar, thickener, spice, lemon juice, and salt until evenly coated.
3. Pour the filling into the crust and dot with the butter pieces.
4. Top with the second crust, forming a lattice top, or cut several vents in a full top crust. Crimp the edges to seal, then brush the top with the beaten egg and sprinkle with coarse sugar.
5. Bake for 45–55 minutes, until the crust is deep golden and the filling is bubbling through the vents.
6. Cool on a wire rack at least 2 hours before slicing so the filling has time to set.

The Tale of Classic Apple Pie

Story updated September 15, 2026

Apple pie's story begins not in America but in medieval England: the earliest known written recipe, "For to Make Tartys in Applis," appears in the 1390 manuscript The Forme of Cury, compiled for the court of Richard II, calling for apples, figs, raisins, pears, and saffron-tinted pastry. English, Dutch, and Swedish colonists carried the tradition to North America in the 17th and 18th centuries, though early settlers had to make do with tart crabapples until grafted European varieties matured into fruit-bearing orchards. By 1796, apple pie recipes appeared in Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, the first cookbook published in the United States. Over the following two centuries the dessert was adopted as a symbol of national identity, cemented by phrases like "as American as apple pie" — even though, as food historians like to point out, the pie itself is a European import that America simply made its own.