If this is the first time that you are making a recipe from our series We Cook Books, you couldn't have chosen a better start. This McDonald's Apple Pie Recipe from Bravetart is our favorite sweets for this series. Stella Parks you rock!
These hand pies start with Stella Parks's No-Stress All-Butter Pastry Crust, and a sweet-tart filling puts apples front and center. In this recipe, we used Fuji and Granny Smith apples to diversify the taste and texture of the filling, but you can only use Granny Smith if you want to match the tang of the McDonald's original. Another difference between this recipe and the original is that these pies are baked, but we can tell you that you'll never want to eat another McDonald's Pie after you taste these ones.
225 g (1 3/4 cups) all-purpose flour
15 g (1 tablespoon) white granulated sugar
12 g (1 1/2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
225 g (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1 cm (1/2-inch) cubes
125 g (1/2 cup) cold water
45 g (1 1/2 cups) freeze-dried apples
115 g (1/2 cup) white granulated sugar
14 g (2 teaspoon) ground cinnamon
2 g (1/8 teaspoon) fine sea salt
3 medium apples, about 560 g (20 ounces), such as Braeburn, Granny Smith, and/or Honey Crisp
56 g (4 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
45 g (2 tablespoons) unsulfured molasses (not blackstrap) or sorghum
15 g (1 tablespoon) freshly squeezed lemon juice
56 g (1/4 cup) white granulated sugar
3.5 g (1 teaspoon) ground cinnamon