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.

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.

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.