The best apples for making apple pie (2024)

FAQs

The best apples for making apple pie? ›

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

There are a few apples that don't make the cut. While great for snacking, Gala, Fuji and Red Delicious are the most common apples that won't hold up in the oven and will give you a watery-mushy pie, tart or cake.

Pink Ladies and Granny Smiths are our go-to baking apples, but you can choose any kind you like as long as it has a firm texture and a good bit of acidity.

Honeycrisp. One of the sweetest apples around, this Midwestern favorite is good for anything—including baking. It boasts a distinctive juicy crispness and is firm enough that it won't cook down much. It complements just about any other apple variety to make a stellar pie.

Gala: If you want extra sweetness without the soft texture, choose Gala apples for your pie. As with Golden Delicious apples, bakers sometimes reduce the sugar in their recipes due to this variety's extra-sweet flavor.

For whatever reason, Granny Smith apples have long been considered the favorite for apple pies. This is likely because they are extremely firm, and do not mush under almost any amount of cooking.

After slicing the apple into quarters and removing the core, slice the apples as desired for your pie. You can dice each quarter crosswise for slightly bigger apple chunks, or you can slice the quarters lengthwise for thin apple slices.

Peeled apples will give you a delicately soft pie with no tough surprises, but some people argue that you lose the apple's nutritional value once the peel is removed. Making sure you are using the correct apples – peeled or unpeeled – is a more important part of crafting the perfect apple pie.

Honeycrisp. If there was ever a perfect apple for snacking, this might be it. It's fragrant, sweet and tart. Plus, its shatteringly crisp texture works well when used as a topping on open-faced sandwiches.

What is the best tasting and cooking apple? ›

But Honeycrisps are far from perfect. The university listssome downsides, such as "bitter pit," "soft scald," the fruit's susceptibility to bruising and puncture, and its sensitive growing cycle.

McIntosh. Not meant for cooking, but definitely great for eating, crisp McIntosh apples are halfway between sweet and tart. They're smaller and softer than other apple types, with red and green skin.

The best varieties for canning apples are crisp, not mealy, types. Some of the best apples for canning include Fuji, Braeburn, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Pink Lady, Jazz, Honeycrisp, and Cortland.

Overall, crunchy (or crisp) apples are best for baking because they will soften but not turn to mush when heated. There are a few common exceptions, namely Red Delicious and Gala, whose flesh aren't dense enough to do well when baked, orchard owner Mark Toigo said.

Pectin is the biological glue that holds together plant cells, giving fruits and vegetables their shape and structure. When apples are cooked, this pectin breaks down, and the apples turn mushy.

The late-season cultivar was bred in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand, in 1985 and was released to commercial markets worldwide in the early 21st century. Envy™ apples were selected for their balanced, sweet, and tangy taste, crunchy nature, and thick skin, allowing the apples to be shipped long distances around the world.

The apple with the tartest flavor on the Apple Sweetness Scale is the Granny Smith apple. You can spot them by looking for their bright green skin! Other tart apples include: Pink Lady^®, Braeburn, McIntosh, Jonathan, Empire, and Cortland apples.