You can end your search for the best apple pie right here. I stumbled across this recipe by Audrey over at Audrey’s Apron a few years ago and have never made it any other way since. The apples, a mix of pink lady and granny smith, are drenched in an ultra-smooth caramel sauce with just the right amount of cinnamon. Plus the crust is no-chill, buttery, flakey and holds up well when braiding or doing a lattice.

PIE FILLING TIPS:

• My ingredients call for pink lady and granny smith apples, but you can use a combination of any of your favorite varieties. (I chose two tart apples, because the sauce is so decadently sweet.)
• Make sure your apples are cut thin so they lay nicely in the pie pan. I usually cut my apples into about 16 slices each.
• The original recipe calls for 1.5x the caramel sauce in order to have enough to coat the crust with as well. (I get why she does it, it’s delicious). But I decided to cut the caramel sauce down a little bit and leave it off the crust so I can braid and decorate my crusts with festive little cut outs and still have them shine through after baking
  • If you would like to cover the crust with the caramel sauce, multiply the ingredients by 1.5. Or you can find the original recipe HERE.

CRUST TIPS:

I always make home-made crust because I really believe it’s worth the extra time. Better yet, this crust has proven to be basically fool proof for me. You just have to make sure that the ingredients are very thoroughly combined.

• If you don’t have a pastry blender, use your hands to mush the fats and flour together; you want the mixture to be pretty much homogenous (bean or pea sized butter chunks are preferred).
• You only want to add enough water to make the dough hold together in a ball, too much water will lend to “chewy” crust.
• I use a mix of butter and shortening because butter makes the crust more flavorful and shortening makes the crust more flakey. You can use all butter or all shortening and your crust will still turn out fine, I just prefer to combine the two.

• The crust is flakiest if the fats are chilled before combining them. (I don’t always chill my shortening though, and it turns out fine.)
• If you want to do more decorations than your standard closed, or lattice top, multiply the crust ingredients by 1.5. (I usually do this so I can add braids and other festive decorations without having to worry about running out of material to work with.)
• Roll the crust out on a generously floured surface and decorate your heart out, no chilling required.

The beautiful thing about an apple pie is that it’s never really “out of season”. It’s perfect for a warm Fourth of July picnic or completing your Thanksgiving spread. So whatever season you’re in, pick up your favorite apples and tuck into the best apple pie you’ve ever eaten.

Print Recipe

Caramel Apple Pie with No Chill Crust

Prep Time

60 minutes

Cook Time

62 minutes

Servings

people

Ingredients

Pie Filling

• 2 pink lady apples, peeled and sliced thin $1.48
• 2 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced thin $1.89
• 1/3 cup butter, unsalted $0.50
• 2 tbsp all purpose flour $0.01
• 1/2 tsp salt $0.01
• 1 tsp cinnamon $0.08
• 3 tbsp water Free(ish)
• 1/3 cup sugar $0.06
• 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed $0.14
• 1 tsp vanilla extract $0.03

No-Chill Pie Crust

• 1/2 cup butter, unsalted, cold $0.75
• 1/2 cup vegetable shortening $0.42
• 1/2 tsp salt $0.01
• 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour $0.22
• 5-7 tbsp Ice-cold water Free(ish)

Prep Time 60 minutes Cook Time 62 minutes Servings people Ingredients Pie Filling 2 pink lady apples, peeled and sliced thin $1.48 2 granny smith apples, peeled and sliced thin $1.89 1/3 cup butter, unsalted $0.50 2 tbsp all purpose flour $0.01 1/2 tsp salt $0.01 1 tsp cinnamon $0.08 3 tbsp water Free(ish) 1/3 cup sugar $0.06 1/3 cup brown sugar, packed $0.14 1 tsp vanilla extract $0.03 No-Chill Pie Crust 1/2 cup butter, unsalted, cold $0.75 1/2 cup vegetable shortening $0.42 1/2 tsp salt $0.01 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour $0.22 5-7 tbsp Ice-cold water Free(ish)

Instructions

Pie Filling

1. Peel, core, and slice all of your apples and put them in a medium sized mixing bowl and set aside.
2. In a medium sized sauce pan, melt the butter and whisk in the flour, salt, and cinnamon until the mixture is completely combined and smooth. Next add in sugars and water and bring to a boil for one minute.
3. After the mixture has boiled for a minute, remove it from the heat and whisk in the vanilla. Pour the mixture directly over your sliced apples. (If you're multiplying the recipe by 1.5, reserve about 1/3 of the mixture and set it aside.) Fold the sauce over the apples until they're coated well.

Pie Crust

1. Preheat your oven to 425 degrees.
2. Cut your cold butter into tablespoon sized pats and put them into a medium/large mixing bowl along with the shortening, salt, and flour. Using a pastry blender (or your hands) thoroughly blend the fats and flour until it forms a tender, crumbly, yet sort of sticky crumb. You want this mixture to be almost completely homogenous. You'll know you've reached the right consistency when most of the butter is worked into a crumb, but there are some pea sized clumps that remain. It may take 5-8 minutes of blending.
3. Add 5 tablespoons of water into your crumbly mixture and work it around with your hands try to form a ball. If all the crumbs hold into a ball you're ready to roll the dough out, if not, keep adding a tablespoon of water at a time to the crumbs that won't hold and work them into your ball of dough.
4. Generously flour your work surface and cut your dough in half. Roll the first half out into a circle that's about 11-12 inches in diameter. (If you multiplied the dough recipe by 1.5, only roll out 1/3 of your dough.)
5. Once you've rolled out your dough, sprinkle the top of the dough with four, rub it around, and gently roll the dough up like you would a carpet. Then pick up your dough roll, transfer it to your pie pan (no need to pre-spray the pan) and roll the dough back out. Ta-da! You transferred your dough without it tearing!
6. Pour your pie mixture into the crust you just lined your pie pan with.
7. Roll out the remainder of your pie crust on a generously floured surface and decorate to your heart's content.
8. If you reserved some caramel sauce for the crust, you can reheat it, and use a pastry brush to paint it over the top. If you didn't want to cover the top with caramel sauce, you can either leave the crust plain, or use a pastry brush to paint milk over the crust and sprinkle it with cinnamon and sugar.
9. Cover the top of your pie loosely with tin foil and put it in the oven. Bake the pie at 425 for 12 minutes, then lower the temperature to 350 and bake for 50 more minutes. Remove the foil when there's 20 minutes left to go so the crust can brown.
10. I find it helpful to let the pie sit and cool down for a couple of hours before digging in to let the filling set up. The warm pie will be delicious, but the filling will tend to run and spread. Enjoy with a scoop of your favorite vanilla ice cream!

Freezer Instructions

1. Make the pie as directed above in a disposable pie pan. If you want to have caramel covering the crust, keep the extra caramel sauce in a small plastic baggy to freeze with the pie, don't apply it to the crust before freezing.
2. Wrap the top of your pie with tin foil, loosely crimping the edges of the foil around and under the edges of your crust/pie pan. Then wrap the entire pie with plastic wrap, not leaving any part of the pie or pie pan exposed. You want to seal out all the air possible.
3. Now label a gallon bag with these instructions: (If you saved caramel sauce to put on top of the pie, thaw the sauce under running water and then cut a hole in the corner of the plastic bag and squeeze it into a small microwave safe bowl, heat it up for 15-20 seconds at a time until it's spreadable with a pastry brush. Brush the caramel sauce onto your frozen pie and loosely cover the top again with foil.) 1. Put pie on a baking sheet and bake, covered with foil at 450 for 30 minutes 2. lower the temp. to 375 and bake for 50 more minutes 3. uncover pie for the last 15-20 minutes of baking to let the crust brown
4. Slip the pie (and caramel sauce for the crust if you're using it) into the gallon bag and set the pie in the freezer. The pie should avoid freezer burn for about two months.

Recipe Notes

Serving size: 1/8 of the pie

Servings: 8

Price for dish: $5.69

Price per serving: $0.71

Nutrition per serving:

Calories: 509

Carbs: 56.4 g

Protein: 4.1 g

Fats: 29.2 g

Sodium: 297.9 mg

Fiber: 3.5 g

Sugar: 24.8 g

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