This recipe for McDonald’s apple pie was inspired by one I spotted on TikTok.
You’ve seen the McDonald’s apple pie, right? You know that cute, flat-ish, rectangular thing that comes in a little cardboard sleeve?
Now I didn’t grow up eating McDonald’s apple pies, but I do know that they were legendary mostly due to the fact that they were deep-fried which gave them a really great crispy texture. These days they are baked, so while they’re still pretty tasty, they no longer have that delicious crunchy texture or that fried flavor of old.
Well, unless you go to Hawaii! There they still make them the old-fashioned way. You can watch me taste-testing them here.
So when I saw thesweetnsalty’s viral video on TikTok showing how to make a simple version at home, I knew I had to make it.
The genius of this recipe is in its simplicity. After making your apple pie filling (I used Granny Smith apples for that) on the stove top, you cut sections of store-bought puff pastry to wrap the filling in.
Then, all you have to do is pop them into a preheated 400 degree oven and bake them for 15 minutes. Et voila! you should have perfect McDonald’s-style apple pies!
Homemade McDonald’s Apple Pie
Equipment
- oven
- skillet
- stove top
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. salted butter
- 2 Granny Smith apples or another tart variety large
- 3/4 tsp. cinnamon
- 4 tbsp. sugar
- 1/4 tsp. corn starch dissolve in 1 tsp. of water
- 1 sheet puff pastry thawed
- 1 egg beaten
- t tbsp. unrefined sugar or any other chunky sugar
Instructions
Filling
- Peel and core the apples. Chop into 1/2" cubes.
- In a sauté pan on medium heat, melt the butter. Add the apples, cinnamon, and sugar. Mix well. Cook covered on medium heat until the apples are tender ~3-5 minutes.
- Allow the filling to cool to room temperature before assembling the pies.
- Gently unroll the thawed dough. Use a knife to divide the dough in half lengthwise and then into 6 sections horizontal sections for a total of 12 pieces.
- Preheat oven to 400˚F/
- Add ~2 teaspoons of filling to one of the rectangles leaving a 1/2" border of dough. Use a pastry brush to brush the beaten egg around the filling. Place another rectangle of pastry on top and seal the edges together using the tines of a fork.
- Place the pies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Use a sharp knife and cut 3-4 diagonal slashes.
- Brush the pies with egg wash and sprinkle on a couple of pinches of unrefined sugar.
- Bake for 15 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.
- Serve warm.
Notes
- I recommend using Trader Joe’s puff pastry, it has the perfect dimensions to make 6, rectangular pies.
- If the tines of the fork stick to the dough, dip the fork into some flour before pressing.
- This recipe was inspired by thesaltynsweet.
I watched the video last night and just had to make these. They are so delicious, better than McDonald’s. They do taste a lot like McDonald’s apple pies though. Thanks for sharing the recipe.
Hey Emmy! Thank you for this recipe, I’m looking forward to trying it. I saw that in the recipe, the change from “US customary” to “Metric” does not affect the recipe text, so inches and degrees Fahrenheit won’t get converted – I am a German recipe editor and familiar with conversions between the systems; if you are interested, I can take a look at your recipe texts and help you rewrite them in the metric system.
Oh, good! I’m glad you approve, too.
I have to admit this, I cheated and used up the last can of apple pie filling I pulled from the depths of my pantry during a kitchen remodel. I just wanted something all warm, apply-tasting and easy as, well-pie.
Next time I will do the genuine job, but for just now, I had some serious success with my sneak attack on the integrity of McD’s cheating pie. Not bad, actually. Not the real thing, but that’s an indulgence I am willing to indulge. I refer to your site quite often and love your approach to unique food. Just this once, please forgive me.
I actually made my own (rough) puff pastry instead of using prebought pastry, and I used some gala apples, since those are what I had, and I wanted to use them before they went bad. I halved the sugar since gala apples are sweeter, and they came out great!
I have to admit this, I cheated and used up the last can of apple pie filling I pulled from the depths of my pantry during a kitchen remodel. I just wanted something all warm, apply-tasting and easy as, well-pie.
Next time I will do the genuine job, but for just now, I had some serious success with my sneak attack on the integrity of McD’s cheating pie. Not bad, actually. Not the real thing, but that’s an indulgence I am willing to enjoy. Not without guilt but I am ‘fessing up so-but under normal circumstances I refer to your site quite often and love your approach to unique food. Just this once, please forgive me.
Trying these now and have a few suggestions:
Make sure apples aren’t diced too big (made my pies hard to fill).
Be sure filling is fridge cold. Mine was room temp and that was still too ‘warm’ causing the pastry to stick to my cutting board.
I also suggest laying the cut pastry dough bottoms on parchment that’s *already* on your baking sheet, then filling/sealing. Transferring already filled pies is messy and mine ended up misshapen and came partially unsealed during transfer. I’m baking them now, so we’ll see how they turn out.
Trying these now and have a few thoughts for next time:
I’m going to make sure my apples aren’t diced too big (1/2″ dice was too big which made my pies hard to fill).
Going to try filling when apples filling is fridge cold. Mine was room temp and that was still too ‘warm’ causing the pastry to stick to my cutting board.
I also suggest laying the cut pastry dough bottoms on parchment that’s *already* on your baking sheet, then filling/sealing. Transferring already filled pies is messy and mine ended up misshapen and came partially unsealed during transfer. I’m baking them now, so we’ll see how they turn out.
Made these, and the whole fam damily loved them! Next time, I’ll cut the apples a little smaller than called for to make assembly even easier. For a family of 4, you could probably get away with 1 large GS apple, and save the pastry pieces for pies 5 & 6 from the first and second batches (if 2 sheets of pastry in box, cut while still frozen) to eventually make a third batch, instead of 2 sets of 6. This would stretch your food dollars even further since the pastry sheets are the priciest ingredient. A keeper recipe for sure. Wish I would have known about this years ago! Might try a scoop of vanilla ice cream with these still warm from the oven next time. Thanks!
Made these today and my friend and family absolutely loved it! My sister and her husband said it tastes just like McDonald’s apple pie and my friend said it tastes even better than McDonald’s apple pie. Thank you for sharing! I did use a little less sugar though and it turned out just fine!