The Best Apple for Baking Isn't Granny Smith

We've all been here. Soggy fillings. Apples turning to mush. Pies collapsing when you cut into them. But you followed the recipe exactly. So what went wrong? Nine times out of ten, it's not you, it's the apple. Hi, I'm Gemma Stafford, a professional chef with over 20 years experience. And today I'm going to show you how to pick the perfect apple to bake with. And to show you, I'm going to make six of the exact same pies so you can see the proof for So it's a common question that I get on BiggerBolderBaking.com. What is the correct apple to use? And it's kind of a loaded question because there's not really a wrong, wrong apple to use. We'll learn about that later. But every apple has a different purpose and different qualities. So we're going to be looking at apples that have higher water content, that are very sweet, that are not sweet, that are bitter, that always should be put in baking rather than eaten by themselves. Every different apple has a purpose. And you know, it always doesn't suit every recipe to interchange them. So what I'm going to do is we're going to run through a list of apples, tell you what does what, why you should use it, why you should not. And let's at the end, we are going to see which one is best for pie making because we are heading into pie season. I have an apple pie recipe that is hugely popular on my website. We are going to take that Irish apple pie, make the same pie with all these different apples and check out the results. We're going to start out with my favorite, which is Granny Smith. When you look at my website, I recommend this a lot because it's a fantastic baking apple. It can do many things. It can hold its shape, also lose its shape and get a little bit mushy. Not every apple cooked loses its shape. So this works great for crumbles where you want that soft texture, almost a bit broken down. Great for applesauce, but also has enough structure in it once baked to hold shape for galettes, for apple pies and for things like that. I have to say it is a little bit on the tart side. And even just looking at a little bit my mouth kind of puckers because I do find them a little bit sour. My son George loves them. They are a great eating apple, but we're going to have a little bit of sugar with them and see how they perform for pie. They do look great. And when you go to a supermarket, you will always see and identify a Granny Smith apple. It is a great, just standard supermarket apple. We've all seen them. We've all eaten them and why I buy them and why I love them. They're inexpensive. So compared to maybe a Pink Lady, these are half the price. And no matter what store you go into, you can nearly always find a standard Granny Smith apple and you can buy them all year round, which is what I love. So let's face it. Apple is not like chocolate or vanilla. It's not a very sexy ingredient, but it's important to know what you're working with, like any other ingredient, like vanilla, like chocolate, because they're all going to give you a different result. So that's why it's good to know what you're working with. This video is also to educate you so you don't buy the wrong apple, spend that money and end up with something that just wasn't the result that you wanted. Some people, old school, especially in Ireland, will peel with a paring knife. I don't trust myself doing that, but also I don't want to lose any apple. Now that I live in the US, I use Granny Smith apples like the way I would a Bramley apple in Ireland. Bramley apples are famously not sweet at all, very bitter. You would not eat them and kind of knobbly looking, but they cook up beautifully. They generally lose all of their shape. They're great for baking and for something like a tart or a crisp or a crumble like we eat in Ireland. The one thing about a Bramley apple, and I find that a Granny Smith is the same and I'll use it for the same purpose, is pectin. A Granny Smith apple is high in pectin. Now, why does that matter or when does it matter? If you're looking to set something naturally, like a jam or a jelly, adding in some grated apple, a little bit of apple that will cook into your mixture, will help your jam set naturally and easily. Also, when you look at my recipes that call for like a berry, like a summer berry, like blueberry crisp or a strawberry pie that are kind of watery fruit, I always grate in some apple and that cooks down and it kind of expands, dissolves and it also helps to thicken the sauce that comes out of the fruit and gives you kind of like a thicker sauce. It works really well. We are going to be making small little pies today. So to fit my apples in, I cubed them. In Ireland, we're not fancy, as you've probably gathered by now. So into our pie filling, we just put in a little bit of sugar. So conduct this experiment. I have my go to no fuss pie crust. I use this for everything. In Ireland, we would call this kind of like a short crust pie crust. Nice and buttery. Easy to work with. Works for multiple pies. I have a little six inch pie pan here and I'm going to roll out just a little lump of pastry to line my pie pan. This recipe can be found on BiggerBolderBaking.com if you want to get a little bit more adventurous with your pie crust. I have so many, including a buttermilk pie sour cream pie crust would work really well for this. It has a bit of a tang and it's really tender. Lots of different ones. I also have an Irish pie crust that you cream the butter together with at the start, which makes it just so much easier to make. In goes our apple mixture. Because most apples cook down, some break down more than others. And we're going to see that in this video that you do want to pile the apples up nice and high. I have a little bit of egg wash here. It helps to egg wash the bottom layer of pastry. Roll over my second piece and lay it over. And kind of almost like in a classic American pie style, more so than Irish. Give that pastry a little bit of a press down and then join the two layers together so all your juices stay stuck in. I'm going to give it a little trim. Once you've sealed and trimmed the edges of the pie crust, do any kind of crimp that you would like or that you're comfortable with. I have a post on BiggerBolderBaking.com different ways of how to crimp and finish pie crust and even actually do pie design, which is definitely a good one to check out heading into November and the holiday season. With any pastry, always do a very generous egg washing so it comes out of the oven a lovely golden brown and all bubbly rather than looking kind of dry and scorched. Do a few little slits to let out any steam to help the apple cook and then a little bit of sugar on top just to create kind of like a nice crispy caramelized bite on top of the pastry. Now we're not going to find out the results until the end of the video. So I'm going to pop this aside and we're going to get started on our next apple. Next up on our list is actually America's favorite eating apple, a honey crisp. Just look at how beautiful that is, like red but also kind of almost pinky and yellowy. It's absolutely gorgeous. They even smell really good. It's very similar to a pink lady. Pink ladies are a little more pink but when it comes to profile, they're very very similar. This is a fantastic eating apple like I mentioned. These apples are also naturally sweet. They are not bitter and they're really delicious to grab and go. I give them to George a lot and he loves them. The one thing about them is that they do hold their shape when cooking which makes them good for pies, makes them good for a galette. So you can generally buy honey crisp all year round. During the fall season, farmer's markets is where you can pick them up and they are almost next level. I will tell you that these were twice as expensive as the Granny Smith apples so you make that choice. The way that these guys bake down is number one they're already naturally sweet so maybe we're not going to have to add as much sugar to it when you add it to your recipes. They don't break down so when you want to see slices of apple in your pie, this is the apple. For a crumble when you want chunks of apple, this is your apple. If you want something to hold its shape in a galette, in an apple muffin when you want chunks, in an apple scone, this is your guy. So you want to chop it up just like you did the other apple. You can do chunks or slices, that's totally up to you. A little bit of sugar because we're doing all the pies the same, same amount of sugar, mixy mixy and then into our pie pan. Pile those apples up nice and high, give them a bit of a push down, seal the edges, keep in all those lovely juices. I'm going to do a little scalloping, generously egg wash and I'm going to do a little slit, sugar. Number two done and dusted. I'm excited for this one just because the apple has such a lovely natural flavor and also a lovely kind of pink color but we'll move on to our next one. Fuji apples looks deceptively similar to a Honeycrisp and Pink Lady but it's not, it's a Fuji. The thing about these is that they are great for eating, they're very crisp and fresh and you kind of bite into them and they snap and they're yummy. And they're developed in Japan which I actually only learned about recently, by recently I mean yesterday. And they are also lovely to bake with because they have your own natural sweetness. These are available all year round, I'm sure you recognize the name from your supermarket. Always readily available and look really nice and enticing. These work great for recipes that you don't want them to break down too much. So you're talking about like my mom's Irish apple cake, this is a great one for because it's mixed in with cake and you have crumble on top. Another one would be my caramel upside down cake. So it's mixed with caramel, cake base, yummy, it holds its shape, you can see the beautiful apples. This works great in a lot of baking, let's see how it does in an apple pie. Apples, a little bit of sugar. We're doing the same recipe over and over again like I mentioned and that's why we're testing so we're going to leave the sugar levels the same. But when you recognize and identify what apple you're looking for, what sweetness you need it to have, you can alter the sugar or the sugar might already be altered in the recipe. On BiggerBolderBaking.com I actually produced a chart to go along with this video to show you the best use of every apple, the sweetness, its texture, the good, the bad and the ugly, like the perfect apple guide for fall baking. Pile the apples into your pie crust on with your second layer, give it a push down. The reason I also like to push it down is so you don't end up with a gap between the apples and your pastry. Sometimes cooking the apples prior, especially for an apple that will withstand some cooking, that will also help you not get that gap. Crimp your pie however you wish, don't make life hard on yourself, you can even get the back of a spoon and press it down and shape it. I'm trusting Joey is hiding the side that doesn't look as good. Egg wash, steam hole little bit of sugar, or as we say in Ireland, another pie ready to be tested. Nice, I think I'm getting better with my pie design as we go along, maybe by number 7 I'll be great. Here we come, next apple, golden delicious. This is an oldie but a goodie, very common apple, inexpensive, it's kind of an all rounder. If you picked it up and used it for pie, it would be okay for pie. If you picked it up and used it for caramel apples, it would be okay for caramel apples. It kind of can do a lot of things. It has a little bit of like a honey flavor, it's a little bit buttery, it does cook down well, I'm excited to see what it does in the pie. It works really well for apple butter, it works really well for apple sauce, it also can go in and break down but have still maybe a tiny bit of shape. I find it kind of mealy, if you've ever bitten into one, they're kind of a little bit softer, they're not as crisp as other apples, so it's not my favorite to go to. It's a very common eating apple and in a lot of fruit bowls around the world, just not my absolute favorite. But we're testing all of them, so here we go. Now is it going to make the most sensational pie? Is it going to give us the best flavor? We'll find out. Egg wash your pastry, on with your lid. Pie making is definitely an art. When it comes around to this time of year, I'm reminded that I could definitely perfect the art of it. On BiggerBolderBaking.com we have so many pie recipes. If fruit is not your thing, you can also watch a video to make pecan pie, my pumpkin pie, a whiskey pie, cream pies, chocolate pudding pie, so many great ones. I know we're all in the apple world right now, but we're also making a lot of pies. And one thing about pie making is make sure you have a really good pastry recipe. Use cold dough. You might find it harder initially to work with a cold dough, but it actually is easier. And make sure you have enough pastry to work with and be careful you don't roll it too thin. I hope I haven't set this one up for failure. We'll see. I was more optimistic about the other ones. I'm just not so sure about this one. But anyway, we're going to find out soon enough. I'm going to pop this over there and we're going to get started with the next pie. Next apple is Gala. Another popular one. This is actually America's best selling one. I can see the appeal. It's nice. It's great kid friendly. And I think that's because you know sometimes not that they know this, but they don't eat all the fruit you give them. They eat half of it and they leave the half. This is actually a great little apple because it's like kid size. It is sweet. It's mildish in flavor. It's not overly floral or anything. And it does cook down and it can tend to get mushy. But mushy is good depending on your recipe. Some people think it gets a little bit grainy. I don't find it too grainy. Actually, I find it kind of crisp and more soft than grainy. Another good example of an apple to eat, but also to bake with, you can put it in an apple loaf, apple turnovers. I've got a great recipe for also apple cake and then an apple crisp. I've got a lovely like whiskey boozy apple crisp. And that would that would work really well. And this is getting the same treatment as everybody else. A little bit of sugar. I remember coming to America many years ago, I probably was like nine or something. So back in the olden days, as George would say, I remember getting apple pie with cloves in it and always sticking in my head that in America, they put cloves in apple pie. Did you go up? I don't think so. Yeah. Did you? You can't eat a clove. Did you, Matt? You can't eat a clove. You could. There were whole cloves. There was a ground clove. It was whole cloves. And I never forget. I remember the size of apple pie being that big. I don't think the establishment was the most classiest. It was around that thick, loads of apple, but big studded cloves in there. And I remember thinking, what are they doing in America to their pies? But it always stuck in my head that like in America, that's the kind of apple pie that you have. It's not necessarily true. I don't think I've ever experienced it again. Cinnamon is something also that you will find in American pie that we don't often put in our apple pies or apple tarts because ours are so thin and just a bit different. Egg wash. People often ask me about egg wash. This is egg yolk and you can do a little bit of milk, a little bit of cream. Cream helps it brown a little bit better. You don't always have cream, so a little bit of milk works well. I do prefer just to do yolk and no white. White doesn't really help with the browning and also kind of makes it hard. There we go. Ready to go. My crimping isn't getting any better, but let's hope the pies taste good. OK, another one to add to the experiment. Let's move on to the last apple. Usually at the end of a very long video where I've shown multiple things, I always say I saved the best for last. But unfortunately, I cannot say that here. Now, I don't want to already poo poo this apple. I'm not the biggest fan of a red delicious. We all know the look of this apple. I think it was put in my lunchbox for many years and it did not get eaten. I'm not a fan. They are very common in all grocery stores. The thing about it is, is that even the smell of them, they're kind of a little bit bitter. They're not that sweet at all for cooking. They get very mushy. They're mealy and kind of grainy. It's a similar texture to the golden delicious, but this has less sweetness, less flavor. And in my opinion, I find it kind of bitter. Now, that's my personal opinion. Sometimes it's the only apple you have in your house and you might grab it to bake with. It's not the best. But the thing about this video is that we're showing all of the different apples, the most common, the most easy to get. It's inexpensive. And let's see what it does in a pie. I mean, at the end of the day, if you put whipped cream on it and ice cream, I'm still going to eat it. But it's just not my favorite guy. But we're going to see that result really soon. I have a feeling this one is probably going to break down the most out of all of our apples. That's just my guess. I don't want to tar that apple with a brush saying that it's not going to be good. We're here to see what works. More importantly, what doesn't work. I heard this a few years ago, and I actually had never realized it before until somebody said it to me. In a pie like this with fruit that has liquid in it, you do want to let out that steam to help us cook. The slits are not for the pastry, they're for the fruit. But the rule is when it comes to pastry, unless it is a puff pastry, there is no need to cut slits because the slits and puff pastry are to let out steam and air to help it rise. But in normal pie crust, you actually don't need the slits. And they're more for whatever the fruit is underneath. So there you go. That's our last pie to add to the list. I'm excited about this because at the very end of this, what I'm looking for is the best apple to make apple pie because that's the real secret of this whole video. I'm going to bring them all in now the oven is on, get nice and hot and then pop them in there. Okay, and so it begins. Six pies, six different apples, varying results. We do not know yet until they come out of the oven. But I'm excited to see especially excited to see who the real winner is of this. Okay, I've got them labeled. I've got the marks. I also gave them a little bit of time to chill in the fridge, get that pastry nice and cold. And I'm going to pop them into a nice hot oven. For my Irish apple tart recipe, I bake it at 375 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 190 degrees Celsius for roughly 40 minutes or so 45 minutes you want it to be lovely golden brown and you want to see juices coming out of the pie also. And while they're in the oven, I'm going to do some bowl baking hotline questions because I get so many questions about pies and there's some really good ones here. Number one, do you have to blind bake pie crust? No, you do not. Depending on the pie, if it's something that you need to have fully baked, then blind bake it. But what I do rather than having to deal with baking beans is I roll out my pie crust, I pop it into the freezer, and then I fill it with my apples or my fruit or whatever. Use it straight from frozen into the oven from frozen and it's less likely to shrink and will actually hold its shape without having the need for lining it with baking beans and all that jazz so much easier. This one is a great one and very common. Why does my pie have a soggy bottom? We've all been there. And so here's a tip for doing that. Number one, frozen pie crust. That's a great one to get nice and crisp on the bottom. Number two, bake your pie on a preheated tray in the oven. So when your oven is preheating, have a tray in there, slide your pie directly on that tray. It's going to get brown from the bottom round from the top. Perfect. How can you know when a pie is done? And especially a fruit pie? Really great question. You really, really want to look for bubbling juice. And which makes it look beautiful. But you know that the fruit is ready when you see bubbling juice. And some pies are juicier than others. But when you see a little bit of juice or a little bit of liquid, you know that the fruit is fully cooked. And you know, that's a good time to take it out. Those are really great questions. Keep them coming. I love them. And hopefully I'll get to all of them. So these are the kind of videos I love we get to do a delicious taste test. First off, they all look lovely. But it's what's on the inside is what we're looking for. Did the apples cook? Are they mushy? Are they watery? Did they turn brown? Do they have any flavor, we're going to figure all of that out. I chose six apples that you can get in most grocery stores to show you the variety of the results. And because these are everyday apples you probably are buying already. So we're going to start backwards and highlight the apples from poor to excellent. First off, red delicious. I know I called it I'm sorry, but this just didn't work for apple pie. As you can see, it's watery, it has more liquid in it than other apples. Yes, it cooked, the apples are tender, but it has no flavor. It may be inexpensive, but there are better apples to choose. That brings us to our next apple, which is Fuji. Now this looks like a lovely apple. It has texture, it has bite, but it's quite juicy, which makes your pie watery. Unfortunately, this apple doesn't have great flavor and it doesn't have any acidity. My takeaway is it might be better paired with a more flavorful apple. Next up is a gala apple. And after tasting it, it's just not my first choice for apple pie. It is tender, it did hold its shape, it didn't get mushy. The flavor is very mild and I wouldn't say it was an overly juicy apple. It did soften really well, which is what I like for a pie. So it still had a bit of texture when you bit into it. But the lack of flavor left me wanting and it also wasn't overly juicy. So our next apple even surprised me golden delicious. I have to say this worked out great. It has good appley flavor that I just haven't tasted yet. The apples cooked down nice and tender. They might be a little on the mushy side, but I'm okay with that. This is more of a watery apple which makes for a juicier pie. So I would say if using golden delicious put a little bit of cornstarch into your mix. Flavor, texture, juiciness, and inexpensive. Okay, so we've narrowed down our search between the last two apples. The next spot I'm giving to Granny Smith. I love a Granny Smith apple. They have flavor, the texture is nice, and it really is the benchmark for a baking apple. It can hold its shape and recipes like a pie, or you can cook it way down to even make applesauce. It's a good all-rounder. Listen, at the end of the day, no one's going to turn down a pie made with Granny Smith apples. It's still going to taste good. But is it the gold standard? No. Which brings me to our last apple. And the winner is Honey Crisp Apples. I love this. I love this apple because it ticks all the boxes. It's got nice texture. It bakes well. They release some juice without making your pie overly watery. But the difference here is flavor. With a Honey Crisp, even after cooking, you still have that fresh, bright flavor, almost floral. It's not bitter or acidic, which sometimes I can find Granny Smith to be. It's not mushy and mealy like the Red Delicious. As far as flavor goes, compared to Fuji and Gala, this blows them out of the water. I want to call out an underdog on this table, and that is the Golden Delicious. They are inexpensive. They're available all year round, and it really had better flavor. I put all the information from this video in a chart that you can download for free right now. The link is in the description box. Or go to BiggerBolderBaking.com. So there you have it. Now we know the best apples to bake with. I hope you learned a lot, because I sure did. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you back here again really soon.