Fast food-style apple pie

For fear of a take-down notice, we can’t state in this blog which US-based fast food chain is the inspiration for this apple pie recipe; but, we can say that, contrary to popular fantasy, its CEO is not a terrifying, 6-foot clown. So we are going to pussy-foot around this and try to describe some of the history of this famous dessert.

The year was 1968. The Big Mac was invented by McDonalds, and in the same year, ClownFood added the apple pie to its menu. The first restaurant to carry the pie on its menu was in Knoxville, Tennessee.

The recipe has changed a lot over the years, and so has the method of cooking. These days, the pie contains six varieties of apple, and in some regions (not the UK), has a lattice crust. The pie used to be deep fried, but it it was given a health-based makeover in the 1990s, and the cooking method was switched to oven baked.

The recipe given here is based on that of SideChef, but we drop the fryer in favour of the oven. We have tried both methods of cooking the pie, and the fryer results in a heavier, more savoury taste than the oven. We are oven all the way here.

Print Recipe

Fast food-style apple pie

(No Ratings Yet)

Loading...

Serves: 5–6

Cooking Time: 1 hour 15 mins

Ingredients

• 3 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored and diced
• 4 tbsp brown sugar
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground nutmeg
• 375g puff pastry, ready rolled
• 1 egg, beaten with a little salt
• Milk to brush over
• A dash of caster sugar

Instructions

1

Set an oven to 200˚C.

2

Mix the apples, sugar and spices in a sauté pan, and cook on low until the apples are soft. Cool.

3

Roll out the puff pastry a little more on a floured surface. Arrange the apples in a a series of lines (5–6T depending on how many pies you want) over one half of the pastry. Brush over the exposed pastry with the egg. Fold the pastry over exclude the air and cut the pies out in rectangles. Crimp the edges with the tines of a fork. Chill for 15 mins on a baking tray lined with baking paper.

4

Brush the chilled pies with the milk, dust over with the caster sugar and bake in the oven for about 25–30 mins until crisp and golden.