Salted Caramel Apple Pie

This recipe for Salted Caramel Apple Pie from scratch is out of this world! Super flaky pie crust bubbling with homemade caramel sauce and sweet and tart apples. A holiday dessert favorite…or for any special occasion!

I know I am often talking about my mother-in-law Teresa (from Italy). Well, she had been visiting us from Italy for weeks and we both just love to bake.  Teresa is the crostata baking QUEEN. A favorite crostata is her Crostata agli Amaretti. And also this Apple Orangle Marmalade Crostata…delightful! I have converted her into an American food show addict. When the kids go to sleep we flip through shows and I translate what they are making. I’m a good daughter-in-law.

Is there any thing better than good ol’ American Apple Pie? I am a caramel addict. So when you throw on layers of sea salted caramel into my apple pie…that…THAT is an ultimate American Pie.

Salted Caramel Apple Pie

I can declare this is the BEST Salted Caramel Apple Pie recipe I’ve ever made! You will make it this week for Thanksgiving and for any special occasion! I recently made it for my niece’s 18th birthday (she’s an apple dessert fan like me!)and everyone LOVED it!

Let me tell you how your whole house will smell like a bakery! The spices in the apples and the caramel sauce is the most amazing combination! Instant relaxation waiting for this pie to bake! I find it totally relaxing even making the dough! A baking meditation rolling it out!

My mother-in-law and I caught an episode on the Cooking Channel (now this was back in 2011 when I originally posted this pie!) and it featured this particular pie from Four and Twenty Blackbirds. She kept saying, “Cos’e’ un abblebie?” What is an apple pie? So I said, “Let’s make one!”She wanted to make it. I wanted to EAT it immediately. Well, we both wanted to.

How to make the perfect pie crust recipe?

Pie crust could seem intimidating to make. It only takes a few things to make a really great pie dough recipe– flour, salt, some sort of fat (butter, shortening, or a combination of both), very cold water.

• You can make pie crust with shortening or with butter. Shortening assists in achieving a flaky and tender crust. Butter adds incredible flavor.
• For this particular recipe I used dairy free butter sticks (from Earth Balance brand)and vegetable shortening.
• Other times when I don’t have my dairy free pie eaters around, I use real butter and the vegetable shortening.

Very important: It all begins with cold ingredients. Cannot stress enough how important to make sure you have  COLD ingredients.

• Some bakers even use cold flour. The cold makes sure you get that nice and flaky crust.
• Cold ingredients stop the gluten from forming when the fat melts, which could make it chewy and not flaky.
• When it all stays very cold you are ensured the most flaky and melt in your mouth crust!

I used this Perfect Pie Crust Recipe. I found it in an old book I have of hers from the 90’s. It was perfection. The crust…ohhh…the CRUST! It may have been the best part of the pie with all that caramel and turbinado sugar/sea salt on top! My daughter says it was.

With my Italian mother-in-law helping me bake and the heat of my kitchen, the strips didn’t quite make it into perfect lattice criss-cross. But the pie still turned out so pretty! So if you’re not a lattice expert, you could do as we did and layer one part and then the other strips right on top.

How to make caramel sauce recipe from scratch?

The caramel part…ohhh…the caramel! I can’t tell you how difficult it was to not eat all of the caramel right from the pan. Big spoonful by big spoonful. It was amazing. If you don’t like the whole sweet/salty combo idea, you can leave out the sea salt. This is the caramel sauce recipe I use and it is always no-fail!

This particular time I used vegan butter sticks and oat milk. It did not turn exactly how it turned out with butter and heavy cream, but it was amazing! A really great diary-free option for when you need a homemade caramel sauce.

How to make Salted Caramel Apple Pie from Scratch?

SMALL Warning:  Heads up this is a long post with many photos and text!

The first step is to place the dough ingredients of the food processor. Cut butter and margarine (I used vegan butter sticks and and vegetable shortening) into flour. Process a few seconds until mixture resembles coarse meal.

Drop by drop add the water, processing very briefly. The whole process takes 20 to 30 seconds. Divide the pastry into two even pieces (I weigh mine on the baking scale to make sure they’re even). Wrap and chill the pastry for at least 1 hour.

While the dough is resting, prep the apples. Slice the apples in even pieces. Add on the freshly squeezed lemon juice (do not use bottled lemon juice…not the same flavor).

Drain any extra lemon juice from the apples. Then add on the sugar, spices and flour. You could use your hands or a spoon to gently combine it all together. Set it aside to move on to prep the caramel sauce.

Add the sugar and water to a sauce pan. Add in the butter (I used Earth Balance butter stick). Let it come to a low boil. The mixture will turn a copper color.

When the sugar mixture is ready, add in the cream (I used oat milk this time, as we had dairy-free pie eaters).

Gather all your ingredients together: the pie dough from the fridge. The apple mixture. The caramel sauce. If you haven’t rolled out your pie dough, now is the time to do it.

How to roll out the pie dough:

• When ready to use, remove dough from the fridge. If it was in fridge for a while, be sure to let it rest for at least 15 minutes.
• When ready to roll out, sprinkle a bit of flour under the dough and roll it out between two sheets of plastic wrap (or parchment paper).
• Roll the disk out and turn it while rolling.
• Sprinkle on more flour as needed as you keep rolling the crust to the right and the left until you get your dough circle. It should be about 10-inches round.
• Place dough circle in your pie plate.

Place the first layer of apple mixture in the pie dough. Spoon a bit of the caramel sauce.

Repeat with the rest of the apples and some more of the caramel sauce. Be sure to reserve some of the caramel sauce.

Layer on the lattice strips in a criss-cross pattern. If your strips are cold enough you should be able to the lattice pattern. Then brush on the egg wash. If you skip the egg wash, it is a vegan pie! Just brush the strips with your milk or non-dairy milk!

Here is the pie…all ready to bake!

And the pie JUST BAKED! Good luck holding back your people from diving in!

Thank you for stopping by!! What is your favorite American pie? Mine is apple pie. To be totally honest, I like my recipe a whole heck of a lot and one day will post that too.

PIN for later!

Some other apple pie inspirations:

Grape and Apple Pie

Apple Limoncello Pie

Apple Pie with Oat Streusel

updated from 4/2011

Thank you for stopping by!! What is your favorite American pie (leave yours in the comments!)? Mine is apple pie. To be totally honest, I like my recipe a whole heck of a lot and one day will post that too.

Happy Baking! XX

Posted on November 2019 and updated on October 2021.

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5 from 6 votes

Salted Caramel Pie

This recipe for Salted Caramel Apple Pie from scratch is out of this world! Super flaky pie crust bubbling with homemade caramel sauce and sweet and tart apples. A holiday dessert favorite...or for any special occasion!

Prep Time20 mins

Cook Time55 mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Keyword: apple pie, caramel sauce, pie crust

Servings: 1 9-inch pie

Author: Lora

Ingredients

• PIE CRUST
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons margarine or chilled vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup ice water
• SALTED CARAMEL
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1 stick 1/2 cup fresh unsalted butter (I used Earth Balance vegan butter sticks)
• 1/2 cup fresh heavy cream I used unsweetened oat milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt recommended: Maldon sea salt flakes
• APPLE FILLING
• 4 to 6 lemons
• 5 to 6 medium to large apples
• 1/3 cup raw sugar castor, unrefined, large granule sugar
• 2 Tablespoons flour
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• ASSEMBLY
• 1 egg beaten
• Raw sugar for sprinkling on top (I used turbinado)
• 1 teaspoon sea salt flake

Instructions

• PIE CRUST
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 3 tablespoons margarine or chilled vegetable shortening
• 1/4 cup ice water
• Read all of the directions that I wrote in this post before beginning the following recipe. It will help you
• BY HAND
• In a large bowl, sift the flour and salt. Cut the chilled butter and margarine into 1-tablespoon bits and add to the flour. With a pastry cutter, work flour and shortening together until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the ice water little by little pressing the pastry together into a ball. Wrap and chill for at least 1 hour.
• It is very important to work the pastry as little as possible. Don’t over handle. A secret to light, flaky pastry is to keep the mixture cool, add as little water as possible, and mix only as much as necessary.
• FOOD PROCESSOR
• Put flour and salt in bowl of machine and pulse a couple of times. Cut butter and margarine (I used vegan butter sticks and and vegetable shortening) into flour. Process a few seconds until mixture resembles coarse meal. Drop by drop add the water, processing very briefly. The whole process takes 20 to 30 seconds. Divide the pastry into two even pieces (I weigh mine on the baking scale to make sure they’re even). Wrap and chill the pastry for at least 1 hour.
• Let the pastry sit out for about 15 minutes if you chilled in the fridge for a long time. But make sure it does not get too soft. You want it to still be cold when you roll it out.
• Lightly flour a pastry board, marble counter, or kitchen counter (make sure the counter is clean). Divide the pastry in half. Pat each piece of pastry into a flat round. Lightly flour the rolling pin (I like to roll my dough in between plastic wrap and I lightly flour both sides of the dough). Roll the first portion of pastry in one direction only, turning pastry continually to prevent it from sticking to the surface.
• Using pie plate as a guide, measure rolled-out pastry — it should be slightly larger than the 9-inch pie plate and 1/8-inch thick. Fold rolled pastry circle in half so you can lift it more easily. Unfold, gently fitting the pastry into the pie plate, allowing pastry to hang evenly over the edge. Trim the dough that is hanging.
• Roll out the second piece of pastry in same way. Cut the top crust as a lattice, approximately 1-inch in width or as desired. Chill the rolled crust in the pie plate and the lattice strips while you prepare the salted caramel and apple filling.
• SALTED CARAMEL
• In a large sauce pan over low heat, add the sugar and water and stir together until it dissolved. Add in the butter pieces (I used Earth Balance butter sticks as I was making it dairy-free). Bring the sugar mixture to a slow boil. Continue cooking at a low boil until the mixture turns a deep, golden brown color, almost copper. It could take 10 minutes or even more because you are cooking it at a very low and slow boil. Take care to not leave the kitchen as you are doing this part of the recipe. It could turn from the desired copper color to a burned sugar mixture, and you would have to toss it and start all over again.
• As soon as the sugar mixture turns a light copper color, take the pan off the heat and immediately add the heavy cream (I used oat milk). This mixture will rapidly bubble so take care as it’s a very hot and sticky sugar mixture that can burn you as it bubbles and steams.
• Place the pan back on the stove on low heat. Whisk it all together and sprinkle in a bit of the sea salt (omit if you do not want a salted caramel). Set the caramel sauce aside while you prepare the apple filling.
• APPLE FILLING
• Juice the lemons into a large mixing bowl. Core, peel, and thinly slice the whole apples. Mix the apples in the lemon juice to prevent them from browning and to add some lemon flavor. Let the apple mixture sit for about 5 minutes.
• Drain the apples if there seems to be a lot of lemon juice in the bowl. In a small bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Spoon on the mixture over the drained apples in the mixing bowl. With a spoon (or your hands) gently combine and coat the apple slices.
• PIE ASSEMBLY
• Preheat the oven to 375 F.
• Gather your rolled pie crust in the pie plate, salted caramel, and apple mixture.
• Begin by layering 1/2 of the apples in the bottom of the crust. Place them as close together as possible trying not to have any gaps.
• Spoon 1/3 of the caramel all over the apples.
• Start the second layer by placing the other half of the apples in the pie plate and spoon on some more caramel. Be sure to reserve some of the caramel sauce.
• Assemble the lattice crust and flute the edges of the crust.
• Pour the last bit of caramel on top.
• Brush the crust with the beaten egg.
• Lightly sprinkle with sea salt.
• Sprinkle with raw sugar.
• Place the pie plate on a large baking tray (the caramel does bubble over so be sure to place the pie plate on a baking sheet).
• Bake at 375F for 30 minutes.
• After 30 minutes reduce the oven temperature to 350 and bake for 25 to 35 minutes. If you notice after 10 minutes that the crust is getting too brown, you could lower the heat to 325F and you could also tent the pie with a piece of foil paper. You can test the apples for doneness with a long toothpick or small knife. The apples should be just soft.
• Let the pie cool, then slice and enjoy. Serve with your favorite ice-cream or whipped cream.

Notes

Pie crust: Use our recipe or your own favorite recipe. The crust is great even with Earth Balance vegan butter sticks and vegetable shortening or you could use unsalted butter and margarine. Either way it turns out flaky.
Apples: A mixture of Crispin, Granny Smith, and Cortland is nice if you can. Be sure to slice the apples all the same thickness. If some are too thin, you'll have some mushy and some perfect consistency.
Caramel: This process can take awhile depending on the heat source. Keep an eye on it, if the caramel begins to smoke, you’ve burned it and you’ll have to start over. Save a small portion of the caramel to pour on top once the lattice is assembled.

Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: Prep pie crust dough ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Pie dough keeps in freezer for up to 3 months (wrapped in plastic wrap and in a zipped lock freezer bag). Thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using. The baked pie freezes well for up to 3 months. Simply thaw overnight in the refrigerator. Heat in the oven on 325F for about 10 minutes or eat at room temperature before serving.

All images and text  ©Savoring Italy.  Please do not use my images without prior permission. If using my posts in collections and features, please link back to this post for the recipe.

 

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