This recipe for Apple Pie provides step by step instructions and tips for how to make a delicious apple pie from scratch with vegan and gluten-free options. Use your favorite apples to make a homemade apple pie filling and bake it between a homemade pie crust for the perfect dessert.
There’s nothing like a warm apple pie with a scoop of ice cream on top to break you into the Fall season! I’m a big fan of easy pies so it’s only natural that I share this classic apple pie from scratch.
The best time to make this pie is when apples are in season. There are so many to choose from and many are the perfect taste and texture for baking. Once they are peeled and sliced, they get tossed with some seasoning, flour, and lemon juice to make a bubbly warm filling that’s sweet and comforting.
Not only is the apple pie filling homemade, but this recipe also uses a homemade pie crust. I promise it’s easy to make a pie crust from scratch as it only uses a few simple ingredients like flour, sugar, butter, and salt.
Once that gets formed into a dough, you can assemble a beautiful double crust apple pie that makes a great dessert as the weather gets cooler. You can even make this apple pie vegan and gluten-free with some simple ingredient swaps!
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- The pie is a great way to celebrate apple season in the Fall months.
- Make a vegan apple pie or gluten free apple pie with a few quick substitutions.
- The homemade apple pie filling is fresh and comes together quickly and easily.
- This recipe uses a homemade pie crust made with simple ingredients, but you can easily swap with a store-bought pie.
- Expert tips like the best apples for apple pie and shortcuts to save time are included.
Ingredients You’ll Need
You can use a store-bought pie crust to save time or make our easy homemade pie crust.
Apple Pie Filling:
- Fresh Apples – Fresh apples add natural sweetness, texture, and apple flavor to the filling. Details on the best types of apples to use are below.
- Lemon Juice – Helps to add a barrier to the apples to keep them from browning and oxidizing.
- Sugar – A mix of granulated and brown sugar helps to enhance the naturally sweet flavor of apples.
- All-Purpose Flour – Use flour in the homemade apple pie filling to create a thick sauce that helps the apples break down when baking. You can substitute with gluten free 1-1 all purpose flour.
- Seasonings – The apple pie filling is seasoning with salt, cinnamon, nutmeg to balance out all the flavors.
Apple Pie Crust:
- Unsalted Butter – Helps to add a rich buttery flavor and slightly flaky texture to the crust. Use regular or vegan butter.
- Ice Water – Helps to form the crust without melting the butter.
- All-Purpose Flour – The main dry ingredient in the crust gives it structure and texture. You can substitute with gluten free 1-1 all purpose flour.
- Granulated Sugar – Adds a bit of sweet flavor to the pie crust.
- Kosher Salt – Balances the butter, flour, and sugar.
- Sugar & Coconut Oil – (OPTIONAL) Brushing the crust with some melted coconut oil and sprinkling with a dusting of turbinado sugar adds a light and sweet crunch. You can also use regular butter if you do not have coconut oil.
Homemade Apple Pie Filling
Making apple pie filling is easy with a few simple steps. You’ll prepare the apples, then toss them with seasonings and flour so it thickens as it bakes!
- Prepare the apples: Give your apples a good wash. Then peel off the skin with a vegetable peeler. Slice them into ¼ inch slices. You need about 6 cups of sliced apples.
- Toss with seasonings: Add the peeled and sliced apples into a bowl. Add in the flour, lemon juice, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Toss everything together until everything is fully combined and apples are well coated. Set aside.
How To Make Homemade Apple Pie
Prepare the pie crust:
- Prepare the butter: Cut the butter into small cubes, then place them in the refrigerator while combining the remaining ingredients.
- Assemble the dry ingredients: The flour, sugar, and salt will go into a food processor. Pulse until the mixture is combined.
- Cut the butter into the dry ingredients: Add the cold butter cubes to the food processor with the dry ingredients. Pulse until the mixture becomes coarse crumbs. Then add 1 tablespoon of ice water at a time until the dough turns into a ball.
- Let the pie crust rest: Remove the dough from the food processor and form it into a ball on a lightly floured surface. Cut the ball in half and shape 2 discs for pie crusts, wrap in plastic, then let it rest in the fridge until ready for use, at least one hour.
Assemble and bake:
- Add filling to pie crust: When ready to assemble, on a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the pie crusts into a 12-inch circle and place it on the bottom of a 9-inch pie dish. Transfer seasoned homemade apple pie filling into the pie crust and spread to distribute.
- Make a crosshatch pie crust for the top: Roll out the second pie crust to 12 inches then cut it into ½ inch strips using a pizza cutter. The longest strip will go down the center of the pie and every other strip will go in the opposite direction with a bit of space in between. Weave the strips over and under each other until they are braided together.
- Bake the apple pie: If desired, brush the top of the pie with coconut oil and sprinkle with sugar. Let the pie set in the fridge for 30 minutes while the oven preheats to 425F. When ready to bake, add the pie to a baking sheet and place it in the lower third of the oven. After baking for 15 minutes, reduce the oven to 350F and bake for 40-45 minutes or until top is golden and the filling is bubbling.
- Cool and serve: Allow the pie to cool for at least 1-2 hours before serving with a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped coconut cream.
NOTE ON THE FILLING: When adding the filling to the pie, it may look like there is too much. Don’t worry, the filling will shrink as the apples break down and release moisture.
Best Apples For Apple Pie
While you can make apple pie with any apple, there are some that are better than others. Choosing an apple that has sturdy flesh with just the right balance of sweet and tart makes the best apple pie. A few you can use are:
- Green Granny Smith Apples
- Gala Apples
- Honeycrisp Apples
- Braeburn Apples
- Golden Delicious Apples
Recipe Tips & Substitutions
- For a VEGAN APPLE PIE: Use a vegan butter substitute in place of the butter in the pie crust. If the vegan butter is already salted, leave out the salt in the pie crust portion of the recipe.
- For a GLUTEN FREE APPLE PIE: You’ll want to use a gluten free all purpose flour blend that is a 1:1 ratio with regular all purpose flour. Also, make sure that the blend already contains xanthan gum so you don’t have to add it yourself.
- Cut apples to the same size. When slicing your apples, make sure they are all roughly the same size and thickness so that the filling cooks evenly inside the pie.
- Use a pie shield to prevent the crust from burning. Check on the pie regularly to make sure it’s not burning. If the edges start to burn, cover them with a pie shield. You can also cover the entire pie with a layer of aluminum foil.
- This apple pie can be baked without the top crust, if desired.
FAQs
While this is an option, it’s not absolutely necessary if you’re using the right apple. In this recipe, they are tossed with seasonings, lemon juice, and flour and don’t need to be cooked. If you want to make sure any excess moisture is released, let them sit overnight in the fridge and drain before adding them to the pie.
The inside of an apple is very delicate and browns easily when exposed to oxygen. The acid in lemon juice helps to prevent that from happening to keep the apples as fresh as possible.
You can leave the peel on the apple if you enjoy the texture, but this may prevent the apple filling from being as smooth as it can be, therefore peeling is recommended. Peels on apples changes the overall texture of the pie filling slightly.
More Easy Pie Recipes
Nothing beats a classic homemade apple pie. It’s a versatile pie that tastes great any time of the year. Serve it warm or cold and add a scoop of vanilla ice cream for more flavor!
Try this recipe and leave a star rating and review below!
Easy Apple Pie (Vegan and Gluten Free Options)
Ingredients
Apple Pie Crust
- 1 cup unsalted butter, very cold (regular or vegan butter)
- 1/2 cup ice water, plus more as needed
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- 1/2 tablespoon granulated sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
Apple Pie Filling
- 6-7 cups apples, peeled and sliced
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
Other
- Melted coconut oil or butter, (optional)
- Turbinado sugar, (optional)
Instructions
To make the pie crust:
- Cut the butter into small cubes and refrigerate until ready to use.
- Place the flour, sugar, and salt in the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.
- Add the cold butter to the flour and pulse until the mixture is coarse crumbs.
- Add in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until mixture forms a ball. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and form into a ball. Cut the ball in half, form each into a disc, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate until ready to use.
To make the apple pie filling:
- Peel and slice apples and place them in a large mixing bowl. Add remaining filling ingredients and toss well. Set aside.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out one round of dough to a 12-inch circle. Transfer it to a 9-inch pie dish, then fill with apple filling.
- Roll out the second pie dough round to a 12-inch round. Using a pizza cutter, cut the second dough round into ½-inch strips. Place the longest strip down the center of the pie. Reserving every other dough strip to go in the other direction on the pie, lay strips across the pie with just a little bit of space between. Then weave in strips going the opposite direction on the pie. This creates a lattice crust.
- (Optional) Brush the pie crust with a bit of melted coconut oil, then sprinkle with turbinado sugar, if desired.
- Refrigerate pie for 30 minutes before baking.
- Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit with a rack in the lower third of the oven. Place a baking sheet on the rack and allow it to heat up while the oven preheats.
- Place the pie on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, then reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Continue baking the pie for 40 to 45 more minutes, until the filling is bubbly. Check on the pie partway through the baking time and tent it with foil as needed to prevent the crust from over-browning.
- Allow the pie to cool at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before serving with your favorite ice cream or whipped coconut cream.
I decided to try making pies as a creative outlet and this was the first one I tried… it turned out BEAUTIFULLY! The hardest part was rolling & handling the sticky dough, it kept breaking or getting holes in it. But eventually I made a lovely delicious pie! Thanks for the easy-to-follow recipe & instructions! I was glad to see some vegan options and that I didn’t need a fancy mixer (I do already have a Ninja with dough blade). I also cut my apples into smaller cubes & it worked just as well.
Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a review! I’m sorry to hear the dough gave you some issues. Adding a little more flour usually helps.
So impressed with this recipe! I made it dairy/gluten free for a friend and it tastes just as good as regular! I thought surely it can’t be that easy of a substitute and it absolutely was! I used Earth Balance vegan baking sticks and King Arthur gluten free blend.
I couldn’t believe how it rolled out. It did seem a bit easier to tear, but I’m also not super great with pies, so it could have been user error. I managed to get it in the pan with only two tears that were easily fixed before filling.
My friend and I loved it and our husbands were impressed as well! Perfect for a mixed crowd (food sensitive and not)!
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave feedback, Judy! I’m so glad you hear you enjoyed this pie and were able to adapt to fit your needs.
This looks amazing! I have friends that have allergens and dietary restrictions and this will be perfect for them.
Apple pie is my all-time favorite and your crust looks amazing! I can’t wait to try this recipe!