I may have borrowed the title of this post from a vintage Ben and Jerry’s ice cream flavor* (*= spelt in the American to honour the All-American theme here!). But this pie delivers big time and deserves the exclamation oh my! 
Now onto the who, what and why.
Firstly – why? I had 7 wee gala apples that were starting to soften that would have (ashamedly) ended up in the bin if not baked, having lost their crispness.
What – the All American Apple Pie from Baking From My Home to Yours
Who – Dorie Greenspan, my pastry idol (and a total cutie pants from what I’ve seen of her in the videos in her excellent Baking App).
I discovered this book via a friend who has had it for some time and baked most of its recipes.
Nicola had been raving about this pie for so long I just knew I had to try it. So I got my book out, set my app up to show me how to crimp pastry just like Dorie does and got a-baking.
The pastry was a total dream to handle – soft and silky as well as amenable to rerolling without toughening up the texture. Plus, I felt justified in keeping my pastry on the thick side as Dorie said in her app that’s how she likes it (Mary Berry went on record on the Great British Bake Off saying such pastry must be thin and crisp to be good – sorry Mary, but on this, I disagree!).
As for the pie filling – so easy! Just a case of chopping apples and tossing with a few other ingredients. Now here’s were my tweaks came – I used cornflour instead of tapioca (as I didn’t have any) and I used the zest of an orange plus some of it’s juice to moisten and coat the apples to prevent them browning. I love apple and orange together.
Then, I used 4 finely crushed amaretti biccies (the packet was open and needed using up) instead of 2tbsp crushed Graham crackers – a rather genius addition on Dorie’s part as you can’t actually taste them in the finished pie but they sop up the wonder juices of the baking fruit thus minimising the Soggy Bottom!
Other than that, I was very well behaved and followed Dorie’s instructions exactly and this is what I ended up with (I’m grinning like an idiot here, I’m soooo pleased with this pie!):
Prompted by Dorie’s suggestion, I rerolled the excess pastry and cut out these leaf designs to use up the pastry and well, to give an extra thick crust as we do love the pastry as much as the filling, and there certainly is plenty of both in this pie.
The aroma of orange and baked pastry wafted out of my oven and filled the flat with a warm cosy feeling – there is nothing quite like a homemade apple pie in this world to wrap you up in a big fluffy blanky and soothe you, comfort you and remind you it may be time-consuming to make your own pie but Oh My! Is it worth it!
Hungry Hubby finds it hard to nail down which is his favourite pudding but still warm apple pie and cold, cold vanilla ice cream are a combination we both love to share if it’s on the menu when we’re out for dinner. Luckily, this time, we could snuggle on our own couch and munch this up uninterrupted.
Hubs devoured the second piece after his serving and looked rather put out that I said no to thirds – that’s how good it is. Next time, I would use more apples as I’m looking for that characteristic All-American humped up, domed pie appearance.
I would use gala apples again – they are so naturally very, very sweet I only needed to add 2tbsp caster sugar to the pie filling rather than the 3/4 cup Dorie instructs (you’d definitely need it if you were using Bramley apples). But apart from that, this is the Perfect Pie with the addition of orange elevating it to ethereally good.
Here’s a cheeky link to the recipe 😉
This post contains affiliate links, meaning I will earn a little commission if you chose to buy items I’ve advertised, helping me to bring you all these recipes for free!
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Oh Jo, that looks fantastic, and I can almost taste how good that would be. I think that apple pie (or apple based deserts in general) are my absolute favourite. I have had more disappointments than superbly successful apple pie for desserts. Which means, that I hinder myself and don’t bake it, cos what if that was a disappointment too?!!! Your post however has changed my mind.
I have Dorie’s app and agree with you, its worth the money and Dorie is a completely sweetheart and its hard not to smile listening to her childlike enthusiasm and to warm up to her!
lovely post chickee!
Oh have to say, I prefer a thicker crust as well, for savoury or sweet pies/quiches/tarts/tortes..you name it!! I love in the app, how she has given the pastry its due importance. Finally!!
Amen, sista!
Plus, did you see watch the video of her making the crust? I loved it where she tips it out, kneads a little to bring it together then reminds us not to work the dough or risk toughening it. She then says how lovely it is to feel, you just want to play with it “but don’t!” she sternly orders, holding her finger up to the camera! Brilliant!!
Give this apple pie a chance Carrie, it truly is magnificent – I agree, there are a lot of flops out there with apple pie recipes, being such a simple pud it can be fraught with pitfalls and disasters! I found watching Dorie’s videos on how to roll the pastry, cut it, suggestions on decorations extra extremely informative. As I’ve only ever picked up skills from reading books rather than being formally shown, even by a mum or a nan, I feel I’ve loads to learn on the technique front. Always willing to learn me! Dorie is such a sweetheart I love watching her – shame she doesn’t have a show on TV to accompany this book, it would quickly over take all my current “favourites” if she did. And oh! She commented on my FB picture of this pie and said it was beautiful! Hungry Hubby had to scrape me off the floor lol! 😀
Nice posting and gorgeous looking pie before and after baking. Great use of the autumny leaf cutters. There’s no such thing as too much pastry, what does MB know!! The filling looks sticky and unctuous, yummeeee.
Thank you Julia, it certainly was a yummy pie. And it reheated at the MILs the next day beautifully, still sans soggy derriere lol!
Oh my lord! That’s by far the best and prettiest apple pie I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen many. Awesome stuff, Jo!
Why thank you Frugal! I totally went with the flow when I was putting the pastry together. I guess it’s a happy accident really – some of my free spirited stuff never sees a pixel but this one, I’m certainly proud of! 🙂
That is one gorgeous lookin apple pie Jodie!! I just knew that you’d love this recipe…I agree, Dorie is a genius! I’m also with you on the thicker pastry, thin pastry is all very well but not much use for an apple pie 🙂 Can’t wait to see what you make next p.s Thanks for linking my blog 🙂 xx
Good, good – we’re all in agreeance that thicker pie crust is the way forward, at least on a pie! Next post shall be a savoury Jo Cooks which is a tad over due but am hoping to have time to post again very soon, yay 🙂 And no problemo for the link chica, us bloggers have to stick together! xx
Now that Fall is in the air, there is nothing that makes it feel more like Fall then a nice apple pie. I have found a neat little way to make yummy pie without all the cutting:) Make the pie the normal way but instead of putting it in a shell…it gets put into a cupcake pan. You can only do 6 at a time but it saves so much on the cutting. Plus it is useful for so much more! I just used the idea for brownies:)
Hello Tiffany! Lovely to see a new face, I hope you enjoy my blog 🙂 And great tip for making the pie in a muffin pan. I like to do that too and may well have to make another one of these very soon or risk Hungry Hubby going into a state of apple pie withdrawal! Actually, I have a small quantity of the dough leftover – I might have to whip up two individual pies for us yum yum yum!
Jo you have done it such justice…..soooo pretty, the autumn leaves are such a wonderful touch! Yes it’s pure and yummy isn’t it! loved it too…..and so right about the sugar, I used the 3/4 cups indicated and all around the family did hint it was a bit sweet, so thanks for the tip and will cut down….:) think I’m gonna go and make it again, you temptress you! 😉
Well it was because I used very sweet eating apples NY so caution! I don’t want you to have a sour pie on my recommendation lol! These were Royal Gala – do you have them in Italy? They are red and have a taste reminescent of the old fashioned sweet pear drops to me. 😀
What a beautiful looking pie!! I’m also a big fan of apples in desserts and apple pies are high on my list 🙂 The filling looks like it is full of lovely spices. And am loving the Cath Kidston plate too 😉 Hope you saved a slice for me!
There’s two in the freezer Thanh, you should have called in when you were in Manchester! You could have had first pick of the CK plates 😉 (which were a gift off a friend for baking her daughter a birthday cake, I’m so lucky!). There is a hint of nutmeg and half a teaspoon of cinnamon plus the zest and juice of an orange in the pie filling. And it is heady with all of them. I can’t recommend it highly enough, I really can’t 🙂 x
Oh I will definitely give you a call the next time I am in Manchester 🙂 I didn’t realise you lived close to there! I let myself loose at Cath Kidston and lugged home lots of goodies which constantly bring a smile to my face. I could really do with a slice of your apple pie right now 🙂
must of missed this earlier! i have a bag of bramleys i need to use and now i’m inspired! thinking Sunday tea could be about to get better!
It is perfect for Sunday dinner Lorna, do post a photo if you make it tomorrow and let me know what you think, it certainly is the ne plus ultra apple pie for me now. In fact, hubby has seriously asked for another so I might have to make one myself!