Mile-High Apple Pie

This Mile High Apple Pie is made with almost 5-½ pounds of apples, just the right amount of cinnamon and surrounded by the most perfect, buttery pie crust. Trying to pack in all that apple proved can be a bit tricky; however, with a few simple tips, this mile-high pie is sure to be a showstopper at your next party or holiday meal.

Deep Dish Apple Pie

This Mile High Apple Pie packs a huge wow factor. This pie contains 5-½ pounds of apples and a boost from fresh apple cider. Classic warm spices like cinnamon and nutmeg cling to the juicy filling, and a flaky buttery crust ties it all together. If you prefer a higher filling-to-crust ratio, you have stumbled upon the right recipe.

I went through about 30 pounds of apples during the testing of this pie. My vision was to have a true Mile High Apple Pie, full of deep apple flavor, without any misleading crust height. I wanted to avoid creating a recipe attached to a photo that makes it appear that there is a boat load of apples inside, when in reality, there is a huge gap in between the crust and the actual apple filling.

Of course, I ran into set backs along the way. For example, the massive weight of the apple filling pushed through the edges of the pastry and halfway fell apart in the oven. I needed to adjust my expectations about how high this pie actually is (and add an oven cleaning to my to-do list). I ended up redistributing the weight of the filling into a deep dish pie plate so it didn't compromise the crust. The final pie had a height of about 5 inches.

The filling does contain a massive amount of apples, so don't expect a very clean slice when you cut the pie; it will certainly be a little messy--yet delightful--with apples tumbling out of the crust.

Mile-High Apple Pie Ingredients

• baking apples (see below for my recommendations)
• flour
• butter
• brown sugar + white sugar
• fresh apple cider (absolutely do not use apple cider vinegar, fresh apple cider is unfiltered apple juice...not vinegar)
• cinnamon + nutmeg
• lemon juice
• salt
• vanilla extract

Tools Needed

Here is a list of some of the primary tools I use in this recipe. You won't necessarily choose to use them all, but they are exactly what I used. Any links may contain affiliate links.

• food processor
• rolling pin
• pastry brush
• pie dish (use a deep dish 9" ceramic pie plate)
• apple peeler
• baking basics: bowl, spatula, sheet tray, measuring cups

Best Apple Peeler

While some may not be bothered by peeling and slicing apples, I certainly am. I do not enjoy the task at all! So, years ago I purchased an inexpensive (affiliate link) apple peeler to make the job go by quickly. It has served me well for many years. Though it does take up space in your kitchen, I find it so worth it come the fall months when I'm often making apple recipes! And because this pie uses 5 and a half pounds of apples, this peeler will come in handy.

The only downside is that you can't control the size that the apples are sliced to. So if you needed your apples to be sliced a different width, you'd just use the peeling function, and slice them by hand.

What type of pan to use for Mile High Apple Pie

It's best to use a 9" deep dish ceramic pie plate for this pie, like this one or this one. While using a deep dish plate won't make for the tallest mile high apple pie, it will certainly make for a more sturdy apple pie. The first two times I tried fitting 5-½ pounds of cooked apples in a pie, strategically piled up nice and tall (like the above photo), the weight of the apples eventually broke the pastry apart and my crust edges fell off. While this isn't guaranteed to happen, you run more of a risk if you use a regular 9" pie plate. It's a better option, if possible, to use a deep dish ceramic plate which holds more of the apple filling inside of the walls of the pie plate, instead of just inside the walls of the pastry. Picture the pie plate as the armor to the pastry. Protect that pie!

If you don't have a deep dish pie plate, and you are planning to make this in a regular pie plate, don't skip the step of freezing the assembled pie for 30 minutes before baking.

Best Pie Apples

For a pie, you want to have an apple that can hold its shape, has a nuanced flavor, and a slight tartness to break up the sweetness of the sugar. Using a combination of apples is helpful because it introduces a few different types of flavors and textures to the pie. Gala and Granny Smith apples are both good choices for this deep dish apple pie for two reasons. Both apples hold their shape well after a cook on the stove top, and once again when baked in the oven.

Here are some additional options for baking apples:

• Cortland
• Yellow Delicious
• Braeburn
• Pink Lady
• Ginger Gold
• Jonagold

Tips for Making the Pie Dough

This pie is a double crust pie and will need two pie pastries. New to making pie crust? The recipe links to the Everyday Pie Basic Butter Crust and it is jam packed with tips. However, here is an overview.

• Let the dough rest. I never advise making dough the same day you plan to bake it. It gives the dough less time to hydrate, and makes it harder to roll out. However, in a pinch, if you aren't a pie crust novice, you can make it work.
• Weigh your ingredients! Always weigh your dry ingredients, especially when it comes to baking. Check out this post on using a kitchen scale if you are new to weighing ingredients. If you absolutely refuse to weigh them, I recommend for my recipes (which use a standard 120 grams of flour per cup) that you spoon in the flour into your measuring cup, and sweep away once it's filled. If you scoop and sweep, your cup of flour will have much more than mine does. This can mess with the recipe.
• Work quickly. Especially if your kitchen is hotter than 70 degrees. Melted butter is the enemy here. If the kitchen is hot, utilize the freezer or refrigerator through the dough-making process to ensure the butter doesn't turn soft.
• The bigger the butter chunks, the flakier your pie will be. If you love the look of super flaky dough, that almost looks like puff pastry, leave at least some of your butter chunks the size of a marble. Though there is a limit for how big to leave your butter pieces, so take care to only leave a few pieces the size of a marble.

What causes pie filling to separate from pie crust?

Apples have a ton of moisture. When the apples are cooked, they release their moisture and then shrink. When you bake an apple pie, the pastry will bake and set before the apples have cooked through, causing a large gap in between where the pastry baked at and where the apples end up reducing. Once you cut into the pie, you'll see a large gap in between the cooked filling and the set crust.

To avoid this, there are a few different things you can do. First, you can macerate the fruit before you begin to bake. Macerating the fruit in sugar helps draw out the moisture from the fruit, causing the fruit to soften and shrink. This step alone will drastically reduce any gap between the crust and the filling with the fruit. For this pie, you'll take it one step further and completely cook the apple pie filling before placing it in the pie dough.

Why Precooking Apple Pie Filling is Smart

Precooking the filling ensures that the apples are properly cooked, with the correct added thickener amount. This not only helps prevent any large gap between the crust and the filling, but it also reduces the actual baking time of the pie.

Without precooking the filling, it might take close to 1-½ to 2 hours to fully bake this apple pie to the correct temperature. By precooking the filling, you are making it so that the actual bake in the oven is only to cook the pie crust. Because the apples are already cooked, the only thing you need to be concerned with during the bake in the oven is that the top and the bottom crust are fully browned and baked.

Make Ahead Tips

As with most pies, there are a few steps you need to complete to get to the finished product. A lot of these components can be broken down into steps and done ahead of time. You can (and should) make the pie dough ahead of time. Gluten free? I suggest using this pie crust, here.

You can prepare the dough up to 2 days ahead, and it can be stored up to 3 months in the freezer. You can roll out the pastry up to 1 day ahead of time. Roll out the bottom crust and place it in a pie pan. Keep in the refrigerator, covered completely, until you are ready to make the pie. Keep the top pie crust flat, if possible, and completely covered if rolled out ahead of time.

You can make the apple filling up to 1 day ahead of time.

How to Freeze this Pie Unbaked

Fruit pies are perfect to prepare ahead of time in totality, up until the point of baking. To freeze this pie, place the pie on a baking sheet pan and slide the sheet pan into the freezer. Once frozen (at least 12 hours), wrap the whole pie in plastic wrap very tightly (twice for good measure), and then cover with aluminum foil. Don’t forget to label it and date it!

It's best to cook any frozen pie within 3 months. The longer the pie is stored in the freezer, the less pronounced the flavor is. However, you can wait as long as about 1 year, if preserved properly (as mentioned above). You can absolutely bake a fruit pie directly from the freezer. In my opinion, doing this is EVEN BETTER than a fruit pie baked from fresh. The logic behind this notion is the crust has a chance to cook first, before the filling does. This method will ensure you have a beautifully crisp crust and perfectly cooked filling.

Storing Deep Dish Apple Pie

An apple pie can be baked up to 1 day ahead of time and kept covered, at room temperature. If storing longer than 1 day, store in the refrigerator. You can warm up this pie at 350ºF, until the pastry is crispy and a thin knife inserted in the middle comes out slightly warm, or until the pie registers about 125ºF with an instant read thermometer.

Serve as is, a la mode with ice cream, or with whipped cream.

More Apple Pie Recipes:

• Apple Crumble Pie
• Apple Hand Pies
• Cinnamon Roll Apple Pie
• Apple Butter Pie

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