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This is the archived version of the Milk Street website and is no longer up to date.

Please visit 177milkstreet.com to see the current website with all of the latest recipes!

Christopher Kimball’s Double-Crust Apple Pie

Makes one 9-inch Double Crust Pie

2 hours 1 hour active, plus cooling

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This pie is “doubled” both inside and out. The tender, flaky double crust envelops a filling made with a duo of apples. Granny Smiths add tartness and acidity, plus they retain a good amount of texture when cooked. McIntosh apples, on the other hand, are sweet and flavorful and they break down to an applesauce-like texture with cooking. Though this sounds like a fault, the Macs helps thicken the filling, obviating the need to use a lot of starch, which deadens the fruitiness of the apples. If Macs aren’t available, Cortland or Empire apples are good stand-ins. We like our apple pie to taste of the fruit, not of a mélange of spices, so we add only lemon zest and juice as flavor brighteners, and sometimes just a pinch of cinnamon and nutmeg. Feel free to up the amount of spices to suit your taste. If your apples begin to release moisture the moment they’re combined with the sugar, it’s a good idea to toss in a tablespoon of flour so the baked filling isn’t awash in watery juices. The pie is best served at room temperature, when the filling is set, which makes slicing easier and neater. As with all apple pies, this is delicious served a la mode. And it’s great even on the following day.

Makes one 9-inch

Double Crust Pie

Tip

Don’t assemble the filling until both portions of dough have been rolled out and the pie plate has been lined. If the sugar-tossed apples are allowed to stand for more than just a few minutes, the juices will flow out of the fruit and the mixture will become soupy. This will affect the consistency of the filling as well as the how the bottom crust bakes and browns.

2 hours

1 hour active, plus cooling

For the crust

  • 113

    grams (8 tablespoons) cold salted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes

Directions

Reviews
Mavrick G.
December 25, 2025
Good but…
Deliciously simple pie BUT you don’t have to preheat the oven until Step 8, not Step 5 unless your oven takes an hour to come to temp.
Jean R.
November 25, 2025
A Superior Apple Pie
I've turned out thousands of apple pies in my lifetime to great acclaim, and with no recipe at all. But in my old age, I seem to have lost my way. I saw the Milk Street riff on this pie and loved the notion of highlighting the Apple flavor of the pie. Of course, a flaky crust is always the goal with any pie, and I know that using butter and shortening is a great way to achieve that goal. This Christopher Kimball gem has moved me to a better rendition of apple pie after about 50 years of turning out pies. It's a Wonderful take on the all-American. Can't thank you enough for this one.
SARAH S.
November 23, 2025
Yum!
I made this in a slightly larger pie pan using the Milkstreet pie crust with sour cream and cornstarch (best pie crust recipe!). I used Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. I covered it loosely with aluminum foil when I dropped the temperature, and I was out of nutmeg, so I added a pinch of allspice. It turned out wonderfully! I couldn’t taste the allspice, but some people said they liked the slight unique flavor.
ROSIE K.
January 2, 2026
Butter/fars
Just wondering. I keep hearing on the radio show that the butter should be much smaller than small pea size. Yet this recipe asks for small pea size! Just checking!
Caitlin S.
December 28, 2024
Went by the Flaky Pie Pastry
I used the Flaky Pie Pastry recipe (https://www.177milkstreet.***/recipes/flaky-pie-pastry), great simple apple pie recipe.
Diana L.

I baked it tonight. My store didn't have Mac apples so I chose kiku apples. The feeling was very good with no cinnamon and nutmeg. Delicious. I worried about all the juice that may come out from apples so I have added 2 tablespoons of tapioca. I'm glad I did. There still a little bit of liquid. The crust - apples cooked and went down but the crust on top didn't. When I cut into the pie it has this dome on top. An empty dome then there is apple filling. The crust tastes good but I wish it didn't have this dome (an empty space between the crust and the filling).


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