I’m sure we have all had the legendary McDonalds apple pie, I think it is one of the best things on their menu. A flakey, soft crust filled with a sweet and glossy apples are one of their staples. While it is easy for me to go and buy a couple pies for under $2, sometimes I have to urge to make fast food at home.
You might have seen me make a copycat version of filet-o-fish and now we’re going to be making McDonalds apple pie. These two items were my favorite two growing up which is why I really wanted to make them myself. In Canada, McDonalds apple pies are baked and cost under $2 for two pies which is extremely cheap and convenient.
To me, there are a few things that make McDonald’s apple pies so special. The first is their crust, it’s extremely soft and flakey at the same time. The second thing is their apple sauce which is what gives their pies most of the flavor. In my opinion, there is too much sauce in theirs and not enough apples, so I’ll be including more apples.
Key steps for the perfect McDonalds apple pie
Cold butter/water: It is extremely important to work with cold butter and water because this is what creates that flakey crust. When the butter is cold, it doesn’t fully incorporate with the flour which is what we want. When the individual pieces of cold butter gets baked, they melt in layers which is what forms the flakey crust.
Don’t overwork dough: Make sure you knead just enough so that the dough holds together. The dough should not be anywhere close to smooth like bread dough. If you overwork it, the dough will become tough and not flakey.
Sealing dough: To make the sealing process easier, I will make the bottom sheet of pastry smaller. This makes it so that the top sheet can comfortably wrap around the filling. I only take about 2mm off on side, if should lot be a big difference.

McDonalds Apple Pie
Ingredients
Pie dough
- 1 cup AP flour (166g)
- ½ tsp salt
- 1½ tsp sugar
- 80 g cold butter (can substitute for ⅓ cup oil)
- 2½ tbsp ice water
Corn starch slurry
- 2 tsp corn starch
- 1 tbsp water
Apple filling
- 1 fuji apple
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp butter
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ½ tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp salt
- ⅓ cup water
- corn starch slurry
Egg wash
- 1 egg (beaten)
Cinnamon sugar
- 1 tbsp brown sugar
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
Instructions
Apple filling
- Cut your apple into even 1 cm cubes.
- Melt butter in a sauce pan then add your apples, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, and salt. Cook over medium heat for 3 minutes.
- Make corn starch slurry by combining the water with corn starch
- Add water and corn starch slurry into the sauce pan then continue to cook until the apples are softened (about 10 minutes).
- Remove from heat and allow it to fully cool in the fridge.
Pie dough
- Place butter in freezer for 30 minutes before using.
- Mix together flour, salt, sugar, and cinnamon then grate in all of your butter.
- Mix with your hands until chunky then add ice water.
- Mix and knead lightly just until the dough comes together as one. Make sure not to overwork the dough, otherwise it will not be flakey.
- Cover dough with plastic wrap then place in fridge for 30 minutes.
- Roll out the dough in between two pieces of parchment paper until thin about ½ a cm thick.
- Cut into 2.5 by 5 inch sheets or you can use a mcdonalds apple pie box as reference. This portion should be able to cut 6 sheets = 3 pies
- Place 1½ – 2 tbsp of the chilled filling in the middle of the dough sheet.
- Lightly brush eggwash around all for sides then place the top dough sheet on top and pinch all 4 sides to seal.
- Brush the top of the pies completely with egg wash then cut 4 slits at the top.
- Top with cinnamon sugar and bake at 415F for 20 minutes.
If you enjoyed this, check out some more sweet recipes here:
This recipe looks awesome! Do you think you could fry these instead of baking, like they used to do in US and Canada and still do in other countries? Thanks!
Yup! think they could be fried as well!
I made these today and they are very tasty!!! Recipe was so easy to follow. The crust is really good.
Ayeee so glad it turned out well!
What a really nice blog you have here. It is so enlightening and i sometimes wish my blog can be as beautiful and responsive as yours. Please check out my blog and see if you have any tips for me… It would be highly appreciated. BTW I bookmarked your website.
https://www.cinegists.com/mcdonalds-benefits
https://www.tecreals.com/frestone-oil-change-cost
Appreciate that! will do