Caramel Apple Pie
Caramel apple pie transforms fall's tastiest confection, the caramel apple, into a delightful pie. You won't want to miss this one!
Servings: 8 servings (makes one 9" pie)
Calories: 549kcal
Ingredients
For the Caramel Sauce (or use purchased caramel sauce)
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 6 tablespoons unsalted butter softened
- ½ cup heavy cream
- ¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
For the Pie
- 7 cups peeled and sliced tart apples (like Granny Smith) about 3 ½ pounds or 7-8 whole apples
- Juice of 1 lemon
- ½ cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ¼ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2 tablespoons cornstarch or ¼ cup tapioca starch
- 2 pie crusts gluten-free pie crust works, too, kept chilled until right before use
- ½ cup caramel sauce from above plus more for serving
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup water
- Raw sugar for dusting
Instructions
- To prepare the caramel sauce, in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the sugar over low heat until melted. Swirl the pan every 30 seconds to prevent burning, but do not stir.
- Once the sugar is melted, remove the pan from the heat and stir in the butter—the mixture will bubble aggressively.
- Pour in the heavy cream and salt, and stir until everything is combined. Pour into a bowl or measuring cup to cool while you prepare the rest of the pie.
- To prepare the pie: toss the peeled and sliced apples with the lemon juice in a large bowl. Then sprinkle in the brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt. Toss to combine. Let sit for at least a half hour or up to 2 hours so the apples can release their juices.
- Preheat oven to 400°F. Grease a 9” pie plate. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.
- Roll out one of the pie crusts and fit to the pie plate, allowing the extra crust to overlap the edges by at least an inch. Set aside.
- Toss the apple slices with the cornstarch or tapioca starch. Pile the apples into the bottom crust of the pie plate. It will seem like there are too many apples, but really pack them in and pile them up to the very top of the pie plate. Pour ½ cup of the caramel sauce over the apples. Place the unfinished pie in the fridge while you work on your lattice pieces.
- Roll out the other crust. Cut into ½-inch strips. Bring the pie out of the fridge, and weave the lattice strips on top. Trim the ends of the lattice strips, then fold over the overhang crust from the bottom crust over top. Crimp closed.
- Whisk together the egg and water, brush the top of the crust with egg wash, and then sprinkle with raw sugar. Place pie on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 70 minutes, tenting with aluminum foil about halfway through baking time to avoid burning the crust.
- Let pie cool for at least an hour before slicing, but preferably cool until room temperature. Drizzle with more caramel sauce before serving.
Notes
- Our food processor pie crust will give you the easiest flaky crust—but our gluten-free pie crust is just as delicious if you need a gluten-free pie (it's the pie crust in these photos!).
- You'll want the apple slices to be around the same thickness for even cooking. Roughly ¼-inch thick is ideal.
- Do not skip the "let the apples sit in the sugar and lemon juice" step, and definitely don't skip the starch. Both of these are key for thickening the pie filling so that it doesn't come out soupy.
- You really do need to wait an hour for the pie to cool before slicing into it. If you cut it too early, you'll end up with runny pie filling.
Nutrition
Serving: 1slice | Calories: 549kcal | Carbohydrates: 78g | Protein: 4g | Fat: 26g | Saturated Fat: 13g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 11g | Cholesterol: 63mg | Sodium: 532mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 52g
