Salted Caramel Apple Pie brings two perfect recipes together. Who doesn’t love apple pie, it’s a classic! And salty, sweet caramel just makes it a million times better.
My classic apple pie got a salty, sweet makeover and I’m not mad about it. The combo of salted caramel apple pie melts in your mouth with complex but familiar flavors.
I didn’t just drizzle the top of this pie with luscious salted caramel, but swapped the sugar on the apples with the caramel sauce. It turns out amazing! The darkened and salty sugar sauce brings out the tart and sweet flavors of the apples and makes your tongue to flips.
Salt brings out the flavor of other foods. That’s why we like salted caramel so much! The salt makes the butter and caramelized sugar that much better. That bit of salted caramel makes the apples and flaky crust taste their best. I made this pie just like a classic apple pie but stirred the caramel in before filling the crust. It bakes up like a dream.
Use my Perfect Pie Crust for best results. The secret is I use butter and vegetable shortening in my crust. This gives it the tender texture, flakiness and flavor as well as being sturdy enough for a baked fruit pie.
Use a mix of apples for a variety of taste and texture!
The other thing I like to do in my apple pies is to mix my apple varieties. Macintosh or Empire are genius for baked desserts. They are sweet and break down to soft bites. But I like to add other apples like Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, and even Granny Smith in for texture and tartness. Play around with your own mix. You can’t go wrong with any apples mixed with caramel!
- 1 recipe Perfect Pie Crust
- 3 lbs baking apples such as Gala or Golden Delicious, peeled and cored
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of ground nutmeg
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- ½ cup Salted Caramel Sauce
- Egg wash
- Crystal sugar
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Line a 9-inch pie pan with 1 rolled-out crust; trim edges, leaving a ¼-inch overhang. Place in freezer until ready to fill, or at least 20 min.
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Heat oven to 425ºF with rack in the bottom third. Cut apples into ¼-inch slices and toss in a large bowl with lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and cornstarch. Add ½ cup Salted Caramel Sauce and toss to combine. Pour apples into chilled pie shell and return to freezer.
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Roll remaining crust to a 13-inch circle. Use a paring knife to cut slits or small designs on the top. Brush rim of bottom crust with egg wash and cover with second crust, sealing the edges. Trim edges as necessary to crimp. Brush pie with extra egg wash and sprinkle with crystal sugar; freeze pie again until crust is cold, about 20 min.
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Bake pie on a foil-lined baking sheet until crust begins to brown, about 20 min. Reduce heat to 375ºF and bake until crust is golden and juices bubble, 50 to 60 min more. (If crust browns too quickly, tent pie with foil.) Cool pie and serve slices with Salted Caramel Sauce.
Choose a variety of apples for your pie. Macintosh or Empire are genius for baked desserts. They are sweet and break down to soft bites. But I like to add other apples like Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, and even Granny Smith in for texture and tartness. Play around with your own mix. You can't go wrong with any apples mixed with caramel!
Click the links below to connect to more great Tara Teaspoon recipes.
My Salted Vanilla Bean Caramels are a huge hit. I make them around the holidays but they don’t last long. Check out the video on how I made them as well!
Pumpkin Cream Pie isn’t your typical baked custard filling. I made pumpkin pudding instead and swooped it into a baked crust. Delicious!
Recipe by Tara Bench
Original published in
Ladies’ Home Journal, Oct 2011
Photography Maura McEvoy
Food Styling Sara Neumeier
Prop Styling Cindy DiPrima
bmcarson says
November 15, 2014 at 8:39 amThis looks amazing. I will definitely be trying it.
Dallin Inouye says
November 18, 2014 at 9:46 amTara! Seriously, such a great pie. To date, this is the best crust I’ve managed – I’ve tried doing butter crusts before, but they have always been tough – this one came out nice and flaky and tender – is that because there’s a little shortening in it? We always use my grandmother’s crust recipe – which is pretty foolproof – but it uses only shortening and I miss the flavor of the butter in it. Also, the salted caramel is sooo good – I had a hard time keeping my fingers out of it before pie assemblage.
What do you recommend for keeping the crimped edges from baking faster than the rest of the crust and getting over-browned? Should I line with foil? It got a little too brown for my liking.
Also, you forgot to include instructions on how to avoid dropping your pie on the door of the oven when taking it out. Yep, it happened and now I’m eating a deconstructed pie and there’s salted caramel on the kitchen floor. I may have to lick the floor now. Gross.
Thanks.
tarateaspoon says
November 18, 2014 at 4:59 pmDallin I’m so glad you tried it and liked it! That pie is a keeper, and yes, the crust is pretty outstanding for every type of pie. Yes the mixture of shortening and butter give you the best of both worlds, flavor and flakiness. Shortening certainly helps with the tender texture, but the vinegar actually acts as a tenderizer as well.
The edges will always cook faster (since they aren’t touching the bubbling fruit), so definitely tent or cover them with foil when they get your desired color. I usually have 2 inch wide strips of foil on hand and just quickly and gently press them around the edges mid-baking. You could certainly use one of those pie shields, but I feel like those are too bulky and with foil you can put it exactly where you want it.
And sure, I can include klutz-proof instructions for you! haha! Sorry that happened. But so glad it was saved and eaten!
Mary Bench says
July 17, 2018 at 10:57 pmApple pie is one of our favorites! This one is divine!!!!
Brittany Smart says
July 19, 2018 at 4:00 pmSalted caramel in a pie?? Oh my this is heavenly