Is it better to slice or chop apples for apple pie? (2023)

Can you slice apples ahead of time for apple pie?

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you're going to cook apples, it's fine to prep them a day or two in advance.

Ingredients in apple pie:

thinly sliced apples, it'll take about 8-10 medium apples and you can use whatever you like or have on hand! Granny Smith apples are always a popular choice and I have wonderful Golden Delicious apples in my orchard I always use. just a bit of butter and cinnamon. Double pie crust.

Here's the biggest secret for great apple pie: Toss your apples with the rest of the filling (including spices, flour, butter, and both light and brown sugars), and let it sit overnight. The sugar will draw out the liquid from the apples, which is key for a moist, not soggy, filling.

But the one surefire way to make absolutely certain your pie's crust will be golden brown, crisp, and delicious — just as appealing as its filling — is to prebake it. That's right: bake the bottom crust first, before adding the filling.

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven. This will prevent the filling from turning the crust soggy.

Many recipes for apple pie and apple cobbler will call for tossing your sliced apples in a little bit of lemon juice before putting them into your dish. Lemon juice prevents oxidation of the apples, which means that it stops the slices from turning brown by providing a barrier between the apple's flesh and the air.

Tip#4: The Best Way to Avoid a Soggy Bottom Pie

Adding a little cornstarch to the bottom of your crust, before filling the pie with apples, will create a barrier to moisture and will ensure a crisp bottom crust! It's the simplest trick that I learned from my Aunt Nancy, the "original" pie boss of my family!

Cooking the apples a bit before baking the pie is what allows the apples to stay crisp and not get mushy like other apple pies.

If made ahead without baking, the pastry crust can become too wet and end up soggy after baking. The best way to make your apple pie in advance? Bake the pie completely, then chill it overnight, allowing the pie to sit at room temperature for at least an hour before serving.

Pre-cooking the apple pie filling before baking ensures that the filling is never undercooked or watery. It's also a great way to avoid that dreaded gap between the baked top crust and the filling.

How many pecks of apples do you need for a pie?

1 peck of apples (10 lb.) makes 7-9 pints of applesauce. 5-7 medium apples makes 1 9-inch pie. 1/2 peck apples yields about 8 cups (8 1/2-pint jars) jelly.

The size of the pizza you order will determine how many slices you can expect each pie to serve: Small pizzas average between 8 and 10 inches in diameter and will yield about six slices.

Granny Smith Apples

This ubiquitous green variety is one of the most tart apples and a favorite apple among professional bakers. It boasts a bright, citrus-like aroma, with substantial acidity that complements the added sugar in pie recipes. The flesh is firm and crunchy and holds up well under long bake times.

Vinegar helps tenderize pie dough because it slightly inhibits gluten development, leading to a crust that is flakier and easier to work with. The great thing about vinegar is that you really only need a little bit of it to help your dough, so you won't know what that “secret ingredient” after baking!

After you've rolled out the dough, you can prick holes into it so that the steam escapes while it's baking. Otherwise, you will have lots of bubbles and pockets in your crust which will create an unbalanced surface for your choice of filling.

Brush Your Pie in Egg Wash. Once you've pre-baked your pie, brush the bottom and sides of the crust with egg wash, then reheat at 400° for 4 minutes to set the glaze. This creates a seal between the crust and the filling so that your crust stays crispy and golden once the filling is added.

The simple answer is, typically, no. My homemade recipe noted above has more than enough fat in it to keep it from sticking. If you are using a storebought pie crust, I would recommend giving your pan a light spritz of cooking spray or brush with a little softened butter- don't do it on either.

If you see any white spots in your crust, it needs more time. Just because the top starts to brown, that doesn't mean it's finished. Leave it in there until it's truly brown.

Why is there so much liquid at the bottom of my apple pie?

One of the chief reasons bakers end up with apple soup under the crust is failure to bake their pie long enough. There's almost no such thing as over-baking an apple pie; I've baked apple pies for 2 hours and longer, and they turn out just fine.

Heating Fully Baked Pies:

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees. Put the pie, turnovers, or pastry on a cookie sheet on foil or parchment, and lightly cover with foil. For a 9-inch pie, heat for 15-20 minutes. A 5-inch pie will take about 12-15 minutes and turnovers will take about 10-12 minutes.

Unpeeled apples will add a bit of color and texture to your pie, but they may prevent the apples from melding together when baked. Peeled apples will give you a delicately soft pie with no tough surprises, but some people argue that you lose the apple's nutritional value once the peel is removed.

Vinegar is an excellent substitute for lemon juice in cooking or baking when only a small amount is needed. Much like lemon juice, it's tart and acidic.

One of my very favorite kitchen tricks is to brush a bottom pie crust with an egg white wash before filling. This keeps the filling from seeping into the crust and creating a soggy bottom. I like to avoid soggy bottoms at all costs. Egg white and water is also perfect for sealing edges, like when making a pie.

Getting a brown, flaky/crispy bottom crust on your pie is all about quick and effective heat transfer. That's why aluminum or aluminum/steel pans — rather than glass or stoneware — are your best choice for baking pie. Metal, especially aluminum, transfers heat quickly and efficiently from oven to pie crust.

Baking: Start baking the apple crisp covered with foil. This allows the apples to soften without any risk of the topping over-browning. After about 20 minutes, remove the foil and let the crisp finish cooking uncovered. Once the juices are bubbling, the topping is golden brown, and the apples are tender, it is done!

Making a Fruit Pie a Few Days in Advance

If you'd rather avoid the freezer all together and simply bake a fruit-based pie a few days in advance, it can keep, loosely covered, for up to two days at room temperature, or up to four days in the fridge.

A pie's place in the oven is on the bottom rack. The worst mistake you can make with your pie is under-baking the bottom crust—it makes for a soggy, doughy mess. Baking your pie on the bottom rack will ensure that bottom crust gets nice and golden brown.

Well, it depends — a regular apple pie that just contains sugar will last up to two days at room temperature, but an apple pie that is made with custard or cream, or has egg in the filling, needs to be refrigerated in order to prevent foodborne illness.

Do you put apple pie in the fridge or leave it out?

Ideally, apple pie (or any fruit pie) should be stored in the refrigerator, either with a lid or covered tightly with plastic wrap. It will last up to 4 days in the refrigerator, but always be sure to check in on your leftovers to make sure they still look and smell good before diving in.

When you are making your favorite pie fillings, it's important to not be hasty and place this hot mixture into your chilled pie crust, per Southern Living. Instead, the publication recommends allowing the filling, whether it be savory or sweet, to adequately cool or you risk melting the butter in your crust.

Make sure you use as little flour as possible when rolling out your dough. The more dry flour you incorporate, the tougher your dough will become as soaks up moisture. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes before working with it, and then chill after rolling, prior to blind baking and before adding the filling.

Let your apple pie cool for at least 2 hours before cutting into it. The filling will thicken as it cools, making it easier to slice. To make Caramel-Pecan Apple Pie: right after removing the pie from the oven, drizzle with 1/3 cup caramel ice cream topping.

What's So Great About Costco's Apple Pie? Costco's apple pie is one of the best grocery store apple pies I've tasted. The filling is packed with hearty bites of fresh apple in a not-too-sweet syrup flecked with warm cinnamon.

The best apples for baking keep their structure under heat, which prevents the chunks of fruit from turning into mush after baking. The firm and crisp Granny Smith and Honeycrisp varieties are popular apples to use in apple pies and apple crisps. Golden Delicious is another great choice for a crisp.

Some of the best tasting apple varieties are Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Fuji, Ambrosia, and Cox's Orange Pippin. These varieties are most flavorful when picked at peak ripeness and eaten within a few months of harvest. Apple flavor is also affected by autumn temperatures and the overall terroir of the growing region.

THE BOTTOM LINE: If you're going to cook apples, it's fine to prep them a day or two in advance.

How Many Slices in a Pie? If you're slicing a pie in a conventional 9-inch pie pan, you should aim to cut between 6-8 slices. When you make your first cut with the serrated knife, slice the entire pie in half.

Serving and Storing

Always let pies and tarts cool for at least 20 minutes so that the ingredients have time to set. Even if your pie or tart is to be served warm, if you cut into it too soon, it's likely to crumble or fall apart.

How full should you fill a pie?

Aim for filling the pie pan to about ½-an-inch from the top. The filling will reduce as it cooks but shouldn't boil over. To be safe (and to avoid a huge mess), always place your pie on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.

Pricking holes in the rolled-out pie dough allows the steam to escape while it's baking. Without this, the steam would puff up in bubbles and pockets throughout the crust, which would make some parts of the crust cook too quickly and also result in an uneven surface for your filling. Docking is simple.

Softer apples like Red Delicious, Golden Delicious, or Macintosh break down too much in the heat of the oven, basically turning into applesauce. So avoid those, and opt for a variety that's firm and crisp like Granny Smith, Fuji, Gala, or Honeycrisp. They'll turn velvety soft while still retaining their shape.

For whatever reason, Granny Smith apples have long been considered the favorite for apple pies. This is likely because they are extremely firm, and do not mush under almost any amount of cooking.

Add a Layer

Sprinkle dried breadcrumbs or crushed cornflakes, or other types of cereal, on the bottom crust before filling and baking in the oven. This will prevent the filling from turning the crust soggy.

The simple answer is, typically, no. My homemade recipe noted above has more than enough fat in it to keep it from sticking. If you are using a storebought pie crust, I would recommend giving your pan a light spritz of cooking spray or brush with a little softened butter- don't do it on either.

This is a good question because I know more than one person who has rushed around looking for a lemon, fearful of browning the apples that will go into their pie because it might make them “look funny.” The short answer is no, you do not need to add any lemon juice to an apple pie or many other baked apple desserts.

For a glossy golden appearance, brush with an egg yolk that was beaten with 1 teaspoon of water. For slight shine, brush with half-and-half cream of heavy whipping cream. For a crisp brown crust, brush with water. For a little sparkle, sprinkle with sugar or decorator sugar after brushing with one of the washes.

How do you tell if an apple pie is done?

Visual cue: Apple pie is done when the juices are bubbling through the vents of the top crust or lattice. If you do not see bubbles, the pie needs more time. Internal temperature: The pie is done when an internal thermometer inserted into the middle of the pie reads 195 degrees Fahrenheit (90C).

But which apples are the best tasting apples? Some of the best tasting apple varieties are Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Fuji, Ambrosia, and Cox's Orange Pippin. These varieties are most flavorful when picked at peak ripeness and eaten within a few months of harvest.

If the bottom crust doesn't set before the filling soaks in, it's going to be gummy. A metal pie pan placed on a preheated surface will set the bottom crust quickest; once cooked, the liquids from the filling above won't soak in, and as a result: no soggy bottom.