Easy Pie Recipes! 20 Of The Best Easy Homemade Pie Recipes

Here are some more homemade pie baking tips for experienced bakers and beginning bakers:

• For something different, try serving your apple pie with butter pecan ice cream instead of the usual vanilla and/or top it with a little caramel ice cream topping.
• Replace 1/4 of the white sugar in your apple pie recipe with brown sugar and/or replace your regular spices with pumpkin pie spice *(recipe below).
• You can give canned apple pie filling more of a homemade flavor by adding apple pie or pumpkin pie spice* to it.
• Lime juice works much better than lemon juice to prevent fruits like apples from turning brown.
• When making fruit pies, microwave the filling for 5-7 minutes before pouring it into the crust. This prevents the crust from becoming overly brown before the filling is completely cooked. In the case of an apple pie, you won’t have to worry about partially cooked apples.
• When making pumpkin pie: Before you pour in the filling, bake the crust for 2-3 minutes just until it starts puffing a little on the bottom. Watch it carefully because it only takes a minute and you don’t want to totally cook it. This really helps prevent those sometimes very soggy pie crusts.
• If you like cheese with your apple pie, mix 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese into your pie crust and then layer the apple filling with another cup of grated cheese.
• If your homemade pies are too runny, add 1 Tbsp. of tapioca to your filling.
• When making pecan pie, melt the butter in a saucepan until it turns golden brown. Watch it so it doesn’t burn. This adds the most wonderful caramel like flavor to your pie. For my favorite pecan pie recipe, check out the one in volume 1 of our Dining On A Dime Cookbook. I received this recipe many years ago from my sister-in-law Mary and have yet to taste one that comes close to it for flavor.
• When making a graham cracker crust, add a little cinnamon to the mix.
• When you need to make a graham cracker crust, crush enough crumbs to fill a large container or coffee can. The next time you make a graham cracker crust, you can just scoop out the amount you need.

The Best Homemade Apple Pie Recipe

This homemade apple pie recipe has been in our family for 75 years or more and still takes the #1 spot at any meal when served. It is our family’s favorite of these easy pie recipes and we make it for Thanksgiving, Christmas and all of our biggest family gatherings!

My mom bakes unbelievably good pies. Even her crust is delicious and this is her apple pie recipe. I have made it for years and now Tawra makes it, too. I used to tease my daughter about her cooking at times, but she has certainly learned how to make a mean apple pie with this easy apple pie recipe!

Here are a couple of apple pie tips before you start:

• No pie recipe is set in stone. You can make some modifications to the ingredients in this apple pie recipe to adjust to your tastes. For example, you might add more or less cinnamon or you might use all white sugar or less sugar. For your first try, though, I suggest that you make this apple pie recipe exactly as it is written and then adjust to your tastes the next time you make one. When people adjust things before making the apple pie recipe the way it is, I often hear, “My pie didn’t turn out well but I made it just like you said. I only changed this and this and this…” and by the time she has finished explaining, I discover that she has only used one of the original ingredients from my recipe. : )
• What kind of apples do I use? Some people are dogmatic about what kind of apples they use and will only use baking apples for pies. I’m not so fussy and I use whatever apples are on sale or that I happen to have on hand. I personally don’t like the super tart taste from baking apples and I always needed to add more sugar when I used them. It also seems to take longer to bake using baking apples. My favorite thing to do with this homemade apple pie recipe is to use a couple of different kinds of apples. Don’t have a heart attack but, yes, I have used Delicious apples before.
• One of the best things I have discovered after years of baking pies is to cook my fruit pie filling in the microwave for 2-3 minutes and then pour it into the crust. Two of my pet peeves about pies are soggy crusts and partially cooked apples in a pie. If you don’t partially cook the pie filling ahead of time, the crust will sometimes start turning too brown before the apples are done cooking. Pre-cooking the pie filling prevents overbrowning the crust.
• Here is another post that can help you with your pie baking, along with a recipe for a delicious homemade pie crust: Homemade Pie Crust

Here is my best apple pie recipe and as a bonus, you’ll also find a recipe for an easy French apple pie topping. You use the French apple pie when you have only 1 crust for the bottom and need something to top it with. It is a cross between a pie and apple crisp.

How to make homemade apple pie filling

My mom makes the best apple pie. We have always loved it. I was talking to her and asked her how she makes it taste so good. She said “I used canned apples.” HA! All this time we thought it was some great secret and it was just canned apples!

If you are like me and have fresh apples piling up everywhere, here is a recipe I love that tastes amazing and freezes really well. I keep bags of it in the freezer to pop into a pie crust when I need it. Make this now and have it ready for those more hectic days during the holidays when you need a quick dessert or apple pie.

Part of the reason canned apples sometimes taste better is because the apples are fully cooked and nice and tender so make sure your apples are well cooked.

This apple pie filling recipe can be slow cooked in a crockpot on low until apples are tender or cooked as the recipe says in a Dutch oven.

If you are afraid of pie crusts, here is a way to get your homemade pecan pie without the regular pie crust. These pecan pie tarts are also nice because you don’t have the mess of cutting and serving, which makes them great for a large get-together. This means you get to spend time with your guests and not in the kitchen trying to cut and dig out a pecan pie from its pan.

Place these pecan tarts in a muffin paper to serve and save on a napkin or dirty dish.