I Tried Our 5 Most Popular Apple Pie Recipes and This Is the One I’ll Make Again and Again

One of the first pies I ever made was an apple pie. I was living in Massachusetts at the time and had gone apple picking with friends. We didn’t intend to make pie that day, especially since none of us were exactly bakers, but that’s what we did. We used a blend of apples and made a buttery crust and ate it warm, with vanilla ice cream. It was one of the most memorable pies I’ve ever had. 

That memory sticks firmly in my memory, but I’m always open to trying new recipes—even when it comes to apple pie. That’s why I set out to try some of the top recipes on the site, reviewing your favorites to find my top five. Here’s how it worked.

Which Apple Pie Recipes Did I Test?

I chose the best of the best from the website, selecting only recipes with a 4.7-star rating or higher. The high star ratings along with glowing reader reviews secured the recipes on this list as contestants. All of them use apples and similar sweeteners and spices, as well as store-bought crusts, but each is unique in regards to how it’s constructed. 

One pie is made in a cast-iron skillet, one uses a pre-made deep-dish crust and one involves making a sugary caramel sauce. Two of the recipes are alike, but one is built by layering apple slices with a cinnamon-sugar mixture and another tosses the apples with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Here are the ones I tested:

• Apple Pie by Grandma Ople by MOSHASMAMA
• Apple Crumble Pie by LEHOUX
• Grandma's Iron Skillet Apple Pie by T.L. Dixon
• Easy Apple Pie by Carol
• Sunday’s Apple Pie by Donna

How I Judged the Apple Pie Recipes

To keep things fair I used only Granny Smith apples and sliced them the same way. The store-bought crusts were all Pillsbury refrigerated crusts and I used the same brand for sugar, cinnamon, flour, and butter. Otherwise, I followed the instructions as written. Testers were encouraged to take notes about flavor, including thoughts on spice and sweetness, and also texture of the apples and crust. Here are the results.

The Results

Best Pie To Make if You Don’t Like Making Pie: Easy Apple Pie

• The recipe: Easy Apple Pie, submitted by Carol
• Average rating: 4.7
• Rave review: “I won first prize at a local Farmer's Market apple pie contest so thanks!" —Ellen

With only five ingredients and five steps, it makes sense why this recipe has the word “easy” in the title. It was indeed one of the easiest pies on the list to make. It starts with adding a refrigerated pie crust to the bottom of a pie plate, followed by layers of sliced apples and a sprinkling of cinnamon and sugar. The final layer gets topped with butter and then the second pie crust covers it all. 

Easy doesn’t always translate to “delicious,” unfortunately. After sampling this pie, we agreed it was “fine.” One tester said it tasted like the pie you get at the gas station, which drew some quizzical looks from the rest of us. Bottom line, it was our least favorite on the list. There wasn’t much in the way of flavor or texture and we all agreed it would be better with some ice cream. 

Get the recipe: Easy Apple Pie

Best Flavorful Crust: Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

• The recipe: Apple Pie by Grandma Ople, submitted by MOSHASMAMA
• Average rating: 4.8
• Rave review: “This is the best apple pie recipe I’ve ever found. We always make it for special occasions, like graduations, Thanksgiving, and Christmas." —Alisha M

Out of all of the recipes on this list, this one felt the most involved. Once you’ve assembled the pie, which includes topping with a lattice crust, you make a sauce using butter, flour, and sugar. That warm sugar mixture gets poured on top and in between the lattice crust, which proved to be a bit of a challenge. Unlike others on the list, there was no cinnamon, but did include both granulated and brown sugar.

The pie looked pretty when it came out of the oven. The lattice crust is some extra work, but it does result in a good looking pie. In fact, the crust was the best part about this pie. The sauce had cooked and caramelized, making for a delicious, sweet bite. The rest of the pie didn’t excite me or my testers. The apples were overly soft and lacked any texture and it tasted like overly sweetened applesauce. It was a great pie, it just wasn’t our favorite.

Get the recipe: Apple Pie by Grandma Ople

Best For People Who Love Plenty of Crust: Grandma’s Iron Skillet Apple Pie

• The recipe: Grandma's Iron Skillet Apple Pie, submitted by T.L. Dixon
• Average rating: 4.9
• Rave review: “Over the past 45 years I have probably made hundreds of apple pies but this one is just a treat!" —Grandma Lizzy

One of my favorite parts of the pie is the crust. When I read this recipe and saw that it called for 3 rolls of refrigerated pie dough, I knew I was in for a treat. Out of all of the pies, I liked making this one the best, and not just because of the pie dough. It’s made in a cast-iron skillet and begins with a buttery-brown sugar base. After that layers of pie dough and seasoned apple slices are added. It finishes with that last layer of crust that gets topped with sugar and butter. 

This pie felt more like a cobbler, but we didn’t care. It was phenomenal! Everyone couldn’t get over the caramelized bottom layer which was perfectly sweet and crunchy. We also liked the flaky layers of crust that were as substantial as the apple layers. If I were voting, this would get a 5-star rating. 

Get the recipe: Grandma’s Iron Skillet Apple Pie

Best Basic Apple Pie: Sunday’s Apple Pie

• The recipe: Sunday’s Apple Pie, submitted by Donna
• Average rating: 4.7
• Rave review: “I make this every year for Thanksgiving. This year I made two because last year my husband didn't get a piece and I heard about it all year!" —Becky Rorabaugh

This pie is almost identical to the Easy Apple Pie above, but instead of layering the apples with the cinnamon-sugar mixture, everything is tossed together before adding to the pie pan. The recipe also enlists a bit of flour, which is tossed with the apples to help thicken up any liquid released from the apples while they cook.

Like the “Easy” pie, this one felt incredibly basic. You could taste the apples, but the pie felt sweet and “one note.” One tester even called it “boring.” We agreed it was a good pie, but nothing about it felt special or unique. Another one that would be better with a big scoop of ice cream. 

Get the recipe: Sunday’s Apple Pie

Best Overall: Apple Crumble Pie

• The recipe: Apple Crumble Pie, submitted by LEHOUX
• Average rating: 4.8
• Rave review: "So easy to make and delicious. I had 0 leftovers. My husband was impressed and ate two pieces that night!" —Laura Hessler

This was the only crumble-topped pie on the list and it was unanimously the winner. It starts similarly to other pies, with a layer of refrigerated pie dough added to a pie plate then topped with apples, cinnamon and sugar. In lieu of top crust, you make a crumble, combining sugar, flour, and butter in a bowl. That mixture gets sprinkled over the top just before baking.

The pie was our favorite because it had the best and biggest apple flavor of all of the pies. The crumble topping was flavorful too, and provided the appropriate amount of sweetness to balance the perfectly soft, but identifiable, tart apples underneath it. It was simple to make and absolutely a recipe I’ll make again—no changes necessary.

Get the recipe: Apple Crumble Pie