Tag: apple pie

Fakeaway Recipe: McDonald’s Style Apple Pies

At this time of the year friends and neighbours are very generously sharing their grow your own results with us. My sister-in-law has a beautiful apple tree and she gave us a big basket of cooking apples. They’re huge and juicy and almost sweet enough to eat raw, but I had plans for my basket of apples. Apple pie plans.

A trip to McDonald’s is a rare treat for us, and one thing we always order is their apple pies. There’s something a bit special about a McDonald’s Apple Pie; they’re crispy and sweet, filled with cinnamon spiced apple and almost always lava hot. Over the years I’ve come to prefer them to most normal apple pies. I’ve always wanted to try to make my own, I’ve tried on and off to recreate them at home but never really got near. But this week I managed it.

Fakeaway Recipe: McDonald's Style Apple Pies

I always cook up a huge pan of apples with sugar and cinnamon, then I divide it into portions and freeze them for when I need them. I started off this recipe with over a kilogram of apples and only used a fairly small amount in the apple pies, so if you have any stewed apple left over then do freeze it, or just serve it on another day with yoghurt, ice cream or custard.

McDonald’s style apple pies

Ingredients:
200g Cooking apple, sliced
30g caster sugar
1/2 teaspoon of apple pie seasoning, or cinnamon if prefer
1 packet of ready rolled shortcrust pastry
2 tablespoons of caster sugar
1 tablespoon of water
Cinnamon sugar

How to make McDonald’s Style Apple Pies:
Put your apple, caster sugar and apple pie seasoning in a saucepan and cook gently until most of the apple is soft. In a separate saucepan mix 2 tablespoons of caster sugar and 1 tablespoon of water and cook gently until it makes a sugar syrup, you will need this towards the end of the process.

Pre-heat your oven to 200°. Unroll your pastry sheet and using a ruler and a sharp knife divide it up into 8 equal sized rectangles.

Take one pastry rectangle and dollop two teaspoons of stewed apple in the middle. Take another rectangle and place it on top. With the back of a fork press around the edges of the apple pie then put on a baking sheet. Repeat until you have four sealed pies.

Fakeaway Recipe: McDonald's Style Apple Pies

Slit a small hole in the top of each pie to allow the steam to come out and then brush each one liberally with your sugar syrup. The thicker the syrup is the better. Sprinkle each one over with cinnamon sugar and put in the oven and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown.

You may be tempted to gobble them down straight away, but like the McDonald’s originals, they will be lava hot. If you can, do let them sit for ten minutes or so before tucking in.

The boys went a bit bananas for these apple pies. I’ve made them a couple of times since and the difference between a good pie and a really good pie is the thickness of the sugar syrup. The thicker it is, the more is gives that crunchy sweet glaze a McDonald’s pie has.

All you need now is a super-thick vanilla milkshake to go with it!

If you enjoyed this recipe, you might also like these Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies.

Fakeaway Recipe: McDonald's Style Apple Pies

Recipe: Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies

Every so often I like to go to Aldi and have a look at their special deals that week. Sometimes they have themed weeks where you can buy food they don’t normally stock. In July I was browsing the shelves when I found a jar of apple pie seasoning. A germ of an idea had planted itself, which eventually turned into several batches of my homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies.

Recipe: Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies

This recipe uses Aldi Taste of America American Style Apple Pie Seasoning. You’ll probably be able to find something similar in most supermarkets. If you do struggle to find any, it can be substituted with cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. This recipe uses two teaspoons of the spice, so I would suggest you use one teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half a teaspoon of ground nutmeg and half a teaspoon of ground allspice. Or if you don’t have those I’m sure two teaspoons of ground cinnamon would be just as delicious.

Recipe: Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies

These Spiced Apple Pie Cookies are really quite simple to make. I have used thin slices of apple on the top of mine, but they’d be really good with some finely diced apple chunks sprinkled on the top before baking instead.

Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies

Ingredients (makes 15 cookies)
125g butter, softened
100g soft brown sugar
125g caster sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of apple pie seasoning (or equivalent)
225g self-raising flour
1 apple, finely sliced or diced

Method
Preheat your oven to 180°C.

In a large bowl cream your butter and the two sugars. Once they are well combined, add the egg, vanilla and apple pie seasoning. Tip in the flour and keep mixing until it forms your cookie dough.

Take a baking sheet and either grease well or use a piece of baking parchment (I used baking parchment). Using a set of scales, take the dough and weigh into 40g balls, this helps ensure all your cookies are the same size.

Place the dough balls on the baking sheet making sure there is lots (and lots) of room for them to spread out. You might need to use two or more baking sheets. Squash each dough ball down a little with the back of a fork and place your apple slice (or apple chunks) on top of the dough. You could sprinkle a little more of the seasoning or a pinch of sugar over your apple slice if you want at this stage.

Recipe: Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies

Bake the cookies in your pre-heated oven for 10 minutes until they’re just turning golden round the edges. Remove from the oven and leave them on the baking sheet to firm up for a few minutes before putting them on a wire cooling rack.

My batch of 15 cookies was gobbled up incredibly quickly. They can be stored in an airtight container if you can manage not to scoff them all in one go!

Recipe: Homemade Spiced Apple Pie Cookies