Best Brown Butter Apple Pie Recipe
Updated May 15, 2025, Published Nov 17, 2020
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The Best Brown Butter Apple Pie Recipe. The brown butter creates a rich nuttiness to the apple filling for this next-level pie. This recipe is perfect for fall but even better on Thanksgiving.
I promise once you try it, you’ll never want to make apple pie any other way! Don’t let the browned butter throw you. It gives the filling a slightly nutty flavor that pairs SO well with the sweet and tart apples.
More pie recipes: Best Bursting Blueberry Pie Flaky Crust, Best Fresh Roasted Pumpkin Pie, Best Brown Butter Apple Pie, Homemade Chocolate Pudding Pie, Classic Rhubarb Pie Recipe (Perfect Crust, and Best Blueberry Mini Pies.
Why you’ll love this recipe
Apples brown butter +spices = THE BEST BROWN BUTTER APPLE PIE!
The brown butter imparts a rich nuttiness to the apple filling for this next-level pie. If I could be any pie, I would hands down be this one!!
The crust is buttery, flaky, tender, and melts in your mouth.
The apple and brown butter filling is sweet, rich, and tangy, and has the perfect texture with just the right amount of spice.
The brown butter adds a depth of flavor that is worth the extra effort.
Everyone will run for more. Trust me! Taste this pie, and you will wish you were as amazing.
Try pairing this with our Ciabatta Stuffing!
Simple Ingredients
1 Recipe: Ultimate All Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Brown Butter Apple Filling
- Butter
- Granny Smith apples (6 to 7)
- Fresh lemon juice
- All-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- Coarse salt
- Granulated sugar
- Packed light-brown sugar
- Vanilla extract
- Cinnamon
- Nutmeg
- Allspice
See full printable recipe card at the bottom of this post.
What apples for the best apple pie?
Let’s talk apples! For this pie, I recommend Granny Smith apples. Why? They are tart and have the perfect crisp crunch texture.
I don’t like desserts too sweet, and these apples are the perfect balance with the sugar.
Granny Smith apples really are the best for baking if you don’t like desserts that are overly sweet!
There are a million apple pie recipes on the internet. I can promise you that after you make this one it will be your one and only beloved apple pie recipe.
It is truly unique and perfectly created for all those who love apples with a little added goodness from the brown butter and best-ever flaky pie crust.
Flaky Ultimate All Butter Pie Crust
More Apple recipes: Italian Focaccia with Apples and Cheese, Simple Italian Apple Cake (one bowl), Arugula, Apple, and Pistachio Salad in Parmigiano Cups, Baked Cinnamon Apples, Caramel Apple Cake, and Best Easy French Apple Tart Recipe.
All Butter Pie Crust
The perfect all-butter pie crust is both flaky and tender. It has light flaky layers.
A tender and golden-brown crust that has a flavor good enough to eat on its own.
The layers of dough are distinct and clearly seen. This simple pie crust relies on high-quality butter for both its flakiness and wonderful flavor.
Once you try this recipe, you will use it for all your pies.
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Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart
This is a classic brown butter pie recipe you will make time and time again!
Best Brown Butter Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Ultimate All Butter Pie Crust Recipe
Brown Butter Apple Filling
- ½ stick butter, 4 tablespoons
- 3 pounds Granny Smith apples, 6 to 7, peeled, cored, and cut into eighths
- 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
- ¼ cup all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- ½ teaspoon coarse salt
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- ½ cup packed light-brown sugar
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon allspice
Instructions
- Make the brown butter: Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat and cook, swirling pan occasionally, until butter is golden brown and fragrant, about 8 minutes; let cool.
- Toss together apples and lemon juice in a large bowl. Combine flour, salt, spices, granulated and brown sugars, and vanilla-bean seeds in another bowl, breaking up clumps and combining with a fork or fingers. Add browned butter to apples. Stir in flour mixture.
- Roll out 1 disk of dough to just under 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured surface and fit into a 9-inch glass pie plate. Roll out remaining disk of dough to a 13-inch round.
- Rolled-out dough can be refrigerated up to 8 hours. (Be sure to let the 13-inch round sit at room temperature until pliable before topping pie, or it will break.) Place apples in pie shell, brush edges with water, and cover pie with top crust.
- Trim excess, leaving a 1-inch overhang. Fold top edge over bottom crust to seal, and crimp as desired. Cut steam vents in top crust. Freeze entire pie for 15 minutes.
- Meanwhile, preheat oven to 415 degrees Fahrenheit with rack in lowest position. Brush pie with egg wash and sprinkle with sanding sugar (if desired). Place a foil-lined rimmed baking sheet on floor of oven to catch any drips.
- Bake pie on lowest rack for 15 minutes at 415 F. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees Fahrenheit and bake until well browned, for an additional 45 minutes.
- After total bake time of one hour: Tent pie with foil and continue to bake until bubbling through vents, about 20 minutes more. Let cool completely on a wire rack, at least 4-6 hours. Pie can be made 1 day ahead and stored at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Should I include or discard the juices when adding the apples?
You can do either, we always include.