Warm and sweet homemade apple pie with chai spices. Chai spices include cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and nutmeg. Each spice gives this apple pie a BIG something extra!
I’m about to show you the best homemade apple pie on the planet. And that says quite a lot considering salted caramel apple pie exists. Say it with me…
Chai.
Spice.
Apple.
Pie.
It’s spiced, sweet, and satisfying. One bite, big or small, is almost always followed up with “this is the best apple pie I’ve ever eaten!”
I love baking with chai spices and warm gooey apple pie seemed like the spices’ finest destiny. We’re talking cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, and a little black pepper (it makes the best pumpkin pie, trust me). So much brilliant spicy flavor hiding under this golden brown crust.
How to Make Homemade Apple Pie with Chai Spices
- Start with homemade pie crust. Choose between my flaky buttery pie crust or my all butter pie crust. What’s the difference, you ask? See my recipe note in the all butter pie crust recipe. I used all butter pie crust in these photos.
- Make the apple pie filling with delicious chai spices, a little flour to thicken, vanilla extract for extra flavor, sugar to sweeten, a small squeeze of lemon to brighten the flavor, and, of course, apples!
- Prepare the lattice pie crust top. You can watch me do this in my video tutorial below. A lattice-topped pie is classic and how I like to decorate blueberry pie, peach pie, and cherry pie, too. You can crimp or flute the pie crust to seal the edges. See my How to Crimp and Flute Pie Crust tutorial for an in-depth explanation of both methods.
- Bake!
Homemade apple pie is one of my favorite desserts not only to enjoy, but to make as well. The finished pie always looks and tastes like there is so much grueling prep involved, when in reality… there really isn’t. The trickiest part, if I can even call it that, is peeling and slicing the apples. But grab a fellow apple pie lover and you’ll be done in no time. The crust will also take you a bit of time, but I urge you to keep homemade pie crust in the freezer. With the holidays rapidly approaching, make a couple batches of pie crust dough NOW to save you some time (and sanity!) later.
What Are the Best Apples to Use for Baking?
It’s best to use a variety of apples in apple pie. Just like when we make apple cake or apple cranberry crumble pie, I recommend using half tart and half sweet. I love tart Granny Smith apples paired with a sweet variety such as Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Jazz, or Fuji. Here is a complete list of the best apples for baking.
If you’re looking for more pie inspiration, here are all of our favorite Thanksgiving pies. If you want an apple pie-like dessert with a fraction of the work, try apple cobbler, apple crisp, or an apple galette instead.
You’re going to love the unique addition of beloved chai flavors to this apple pie filling. It’s unlike any other apple pie I’ve ever had before, which puts it at the top of my list.
If you prefer not to use chai spices, my classic apple pie recipe is for you. Enjoy!
Video Tutorial: Latticing Pie Crust
More Chai Spice Desserts:
- Chai Latte Cupcakes
- White Chocolate Chai Snickerdoodles
- Chai Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake
- Easy Chai Spice Donuts
This recipe is part of Sally’s Pie Week, an annual tradition where I share a handful of new recipes that fit into the pie/crisp/tart category. Join the community below!
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Homemade Apple Pie with Chai Spices
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours
- Yield: one 9-inch pie
- Category: Pie
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
Warm and sweet homemade apple pie with a little something extra: flavored with your favorite chai spices!
Ingredients
- Buttery Flaky Pie Crust or All Butter Pie Crust
- 6–8 medium apples, cored, peeled, and sliced into 1/2-inch slices* (approx. 8–10 cups, or 1–1.25kg slices)
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (31g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- The crust: Prepare my pie crust recipe through step 5.
- Make the filling after the dough has chilled: In a large bowl using a silicone spatula or wooden spoon, stir the apples, lemon juice, flour, all of the spices, sugar, and vanilla extract together until thoroughly combined. Set filling aside as the oven preheats; this time allows the apples to begin letting off their juice.
- Preheat oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Roll out the chilled pie dough: On a floured work surface, roll out one of the discs of chilled dough (keep the other one in the refrigerator). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle 12 inches in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9-inch pie dish. Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Spoon the filling into the crust and discard some of the leftover juices in the bottom of the bowl. Dot the pieces of butter on top of the filling.
- Finish assembling: Remove the other disc of chilled pie dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough into a circle that is 12 inches diameter. Carefully lay the dough over the filling. Use a small paring knife or kitchen shears to trim off excess dough from the sides. Cut slits in the top to form steam vents. Crimp or flute the pie crust edges to seal.
- Lightly brush the top of the pie crust with the egg/milk mixture. Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar. Place the pie onto a large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Keeping the pie in the oven, turn the temperature down to 375°F (190°C) and bake for an additional 30–35 minutes. After the first 20 minutes of bake time, I place a pie crust shield on top of the pie to prevent the edges from browning too quickly.
- Allow the pie to cool for 3 full hours at room temperature before serving. This time allows the filling to thicken up. Cover pie leftovers tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes
- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: This is a great dessert to make ahead of time! To make 1 day in advance: After it cools, cover tightly and keep at room temperature. The pie crust dough can also be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Baked pie freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow to come to room temperature before serving. Prepared filling can be frozen up to 3 months; thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): Apple Peeler | Glass Mixing Bowl | Silicone Spatula or Wooden Spoon | Rolling Pin | 9-inch Pie Dish | Kitchen Shears | Pastry Brush | Coarse Sugar | Large Baking Sheet | Pie Crust Shield | Cooling Rack
- Apples: Slice your apples a uniform thickness, so you don’t end up with some solid apples and some thin, mushy apples. It’s best to use a variety of apples in apple pie. Just like when we make apple cake, I recommend using half tart and half sweet. I love tart Granny Smith apples paired with a sweet variety such as Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Jazz, Piñata, or Fuji.
- Adapted from Apple Crumble Pie.
Reader Comments and Reviews
Could you completely assemble the pie, then freeze it? If so, would you bake it straight from the freezer? or thaw it, then bake?
Hi Sue! We don’t recommend freezing the whole unbaked pie as the bottom will end up soggy. See Notes after the recipe for our recommended make-ahead instructions!
This came out great and everybody loved it. I made some changes though. I reduced the amount of sugar to 1/3 cups and as for the spices I eyeballed them because I didn’t have the ground version only the whole ones then heated the whole spices onto the stove before grinding them with my mortar and pestle. I was considering reducing also the amount of butter to 1:2 the quantity of flour. This ratio works perfect for my “pâte brisée”
3 stars for the taste, ish. It’s pretty peppery. I baked per instructions and the top of my pie was golden brown and perfect. The bottom of my pie was raw pie dough. Super expensive disappointment. I bought enough apples to do two pies, and froze one unbaked. Hopefully by the time I get to baking the frozen one, I’ll have figured out what happened.
Hi Page, was the filling bubbling? Did the filling seem cooked? It likely just needed longer to bake through. We like to use a glass pie dish we can see if the bottom crust is cooked through before pulling it from the oven. You can tent the pie with foil if the top is browning faster than the rest of the pie is baking. You can also try a different position in your oven – we usually recommend baking in the bottom third of your oven. Hope these tips help for next time!
Can I assemble pie and then freeze it?
My dad is a big apple pie fan, but is diabetic. I’m assuming I can’t cut the added sugar, but is there a sugar substitute that would work well for this?
Hi Erin, You could try slightly reducing the sugar in this pie. If you are looking to substitute it completely, we’d love to help but we are not trained in baking with sugar substitutes. For best taste and texture (and so you don’t waste your time trying to adapt this recipe since it may not work properly), it may be more useful to find a recipe that is specifically formulated for sugar substitutes.
Love your recipes! Any substitution for lemon juice in this one?
Hi Daryl, thank you! You can use orange juice instead.
I’ve just made this in advance for Thanksgiving and it looks gorgeous. (I know it’s a great recipe as I’ve done it once and it was fantastic.) I will need to freeze it – seriously, will putting it in the fridge Wednesday evening thaw it in time for Thursday?
Hi Ann, yes, if you are worried about it, I would give it a full 24 hours in the fridge to thaw. Enjoy the pie!
Question about filling! You mention in another apple pie recipe that the filling can be cooked for a few minutes on the stovetop. Could the same be done with this recipe and if so, would you use or drain the juices/liquid from the cooked filling before adding to the crust?
Hi Jennifer, yes, you could certainly pre-cook the filling like we do with our apple pie. Discard any juices before adding to the crust. Enjoy!
Full disclosure: I made this pie in stages, due to time constraints. First I made the crust and froze it, unbaked. I made the filling the evening before I baked the pie, and refrigerated it. I used the max amount of apples: 1250g. I thawed the crust in the fridge overnight. In the morning I preheated the oven, assembled the pie and baked it for 20 minutes plus 35 minutes as per the instructions. I let it cool completely (for several hours) wrapped it tightly and served it to guests the next morning. Unfortunately it was severely underbaked and basically soup inside, with liquid up to at least half the depth of the pie, when I cut it. I’m not sure if that because I prepped the filling the night before? There was only about 2 tbs of liquid in the filling when I assembled the pie so I thought it would be fine, since I used a very generous 1/4 cup of flour to compensate. Maybe 15- 20 more minutes of bake time would have taken care of all the liquid? Anyway it tasted great, but I was very disappointed in the results. Moral of my story is don’t rely on the recipe bake times! It might need a lot longer in the oven!
Hi Shelley, we’re happy to help troubleshoot. Was the filling still cold when you added it to the pie? If so, that can cause more liquid to be released during bake time. When transferring the filling to the crust, you’ll want to leave behind any juices. It sounds like your pie simply needed a bit more time in the oven to compensate, which can be completely normal—all ovens are a bit different! If you want to be precise, the internal temperature of the filling taken with an instant read thermometer should be around 200°F (93°C) when done. Tip: If needed towards the end of bake time, remove the pie crust shield and tent an entire piece of foil on top of the pie if the top looks like it’s getting too brown. Hope this helps for next time!
I was just about to chime in here the “freezing” component makes all the difference. Should thaw it completely until it’s warm and starting to puff a little
Hi there,
Do you recommend pre-cooking the apples on the stove as instructed in the Favorite Apple Pie & Apple Cobbler recipes? Thanks so much!
Hi Shannon, we don’t here but you absolutely could!
I made this recipe for Thanksgiving this year and it was a hit! The spices are amazing. However, I noticed that the filling was a bit dry for my taste. Any tips on how to boost the juiciness factor? (I used a lattice top, so it could have been related to that.)
Hi Katie, if you want a juicier filling, we recommend cooking the filling on the stove for a few minutes, which is detailed in the recipe card instructions for this apple pie recipe. Hope it turns out great!
Great flavor and Nice base recipe. Easy to adjust spices. Filling is wonderful but I would not drain off the juices. I prefer a juicier filling and the baking time and crust could handle the moisture. Changes that worked: Gluten free flour, larger ceramic pie dish worked out well. Just be sure to keep the dough cold, rolling between non stick plastic/parchemnt was key. Guests loved it and appreciated the gf option with out noticing any difference in texture or flavor. Thanks for the recipe.
I’m making this recipe for Thanksgiving, and I cannot wait! Looks absolutely delicious, and are my favorite spices. I was wondering if I could add brown sugar, or do half regular sugar and half brown? I always do brown sugar in apple pie and recipe involving apples. Thoughts please? Thank you!
Hi Ashley! Using brown sugar in the pie filling should be just fine here.
I love this recipe and make this all the time! I was wondering how well you think the filling would hold up in a gluten free pie crust and if I should make any adjustments to the filling or bake time?
Hi Cecilia, we haven’t tested this recipe with a gluten free pie crust, but imagine that should work just fine if you have a trusted pie crust recipe. Let us know if you give it a go!
I’m sure this would have been perfect if not for a particular issue I had. I love the spices and crust.
My problem was that I opted for the 1250 grams of apple slices and that was not fitting in my regular pie dish so I used my deep dish one. I should have checked what temp it needed to be when done, because this bake time for me (max time listed) wasn’t quite enough to get the apples quite as soft as they should be. Perhaps some of my slices were a tad too thick..but I tried making them thin enough.
I’m wondering now, could I cook it again (next day) to soften them enough without ruining the crust? It is still edible anyway, at least.
Why do you not need to blind bake the pie crust?! Most recipes I see for Apple pie require it so I’m hesitant to not do it so I don’t end up with a soggy pie crust! Thanks so much 🙂
Hi Jess, we don’t find it necessary to blind bake the crust in this recipe and it can be difficult to adhere the lattice to the par-baked crust. But it can be done if you prefer to par-bake!
This pie is delicious — so much better than regular apple pie, which I find rather bland. Sally’s recipes are always excellent, well tested and I can count on them coming out great. Thanks!
I wanted to ask a question about the Deep Dish Apple Pie recipe, but I didn’t see the comment box on that page… wondering if I can use 1/2 tsp. apple pie spice instead of the 1/4 tsp. each allspice/nutmeg. If so, would I do this in addition to the cinnamon, or would it be better to replace all 3 spices with the apple pie spice? If so, how much apple pie spice? Thanks so much!
Hi Shannon, we’d recommend keeping the cinnamon and then replacing the allspice and nutmeg with 1/2 teaspoon of apple pie spice. (You might find the flavor lacking a bit if you used all apple pie spice, but you certainly can go that route if you wish.) Hope you enjoy the pie!
I’m excited to try this recipe, but like chunks of apple instead of slices in pie (similar to your peach pie recipe). If I cut the apples in chunks, does that change the recipe at all? Thanks!
Hi Paul, it’s best to slice the apples so that you can layer and fit more in the pie vs. adding them as chunks. The filling texture will change as chunks, and you may even wish to try cooking down the apples a bit before adding, so that the filling will bake through properly. We haven’t tested this ourselves, though. Let us know if you decide to give it a try!
I made this as written and we loved it! Now I would like to try making it without a top crust. Do I need to change anything to make an open-faced apple pie?
Glad you enjoyed it! The bake time may be a little shorter without the top crust. Or you may enjoy the crumble topping from this apple crumble pie.
Hey Sally,
Could I cook the filling a bit if I choose. I weakly like cooked filling I feel like it gives of a deepen flavour?
Hi Kelisha, I hope you love this recipe. It’s a favorite. You can certainly try briefly cooking the filling on the stove first. (Only a couple minutes should be a enough, you don’t want to over-cook.)
I’ve made this recipe more times than I can count! It turns out great every time. I usually use the premade refrigerated crusts to make it faster. We love that it has a little something special with the chai spices. You are always my go-to for pie recipes!
Hi!! This pie is super yummy!! I do have a question. Can I par bake the pie and freeze it and finish baking it at a later date?
Hi Ashley! See recipe notes for our recommend make ahead and freezing instructions. Glad you love it!
Made this exactly as written. AMAZING! The spices are perfect!
My family absolutely loved this recipe, and the warm spices really add so much wonderful depth of flavor & flare to the traditional apple pie. One question though, my apples still had a little crunch to them which I was not expecting. Is it intended to maintain that firmer texture? I used Granny Smith bc that’s what we had on hand. Would that make a difference?
Hi Dora, they should maintain their shape and still be a bit firm but also tender, not still crispy like a raw apple. Granny Smiths usually bake well, so my best guess is that you could try slicing them a little thinner next time. Glad you loved the flavor of the pie!
Thank you Sally for this amazing recipe. You have cured my fear of pies -yours is tender, buttery and flaky as promised !! However i had a slight problem – Although the pastry came together, after i rolled it out, it tore when i tried to lift it over to the dish. Had to do a lot of patching! Was it because : not enough water or not enough kneading ? My lattices also kept breaking…. Any advice for me please ? Blessed Easter to you.
Happy to help! Try to roll the dough out a little thicker. It may be tearing at the edges because it’s rolled out too thin. If it’s tearing because the butter in the dough is melting, pat more flour on top of it and be sure to flour your work surface to prevent sticking. If it’s tearing because it seems too dry, moisten your fingertips with water to dab onto the dough. (It might be thirsty!)
Thank you Trina ! I’ll definitely try with your advice !
Great recipe! My husband said this was the best testing apple pie I’ve made and I’ve made many pies. I left out the cardamom since I didn’t have any and used all of the juice. It was delicious.
I wanted to love this pie, the crust is amazing, but the chai spices were TOO MUCH. way way way too much. I recommend using the crust to make a regular apple pie or seriously halving the spices. I might make it again using a fourth of the spices. and i love spicy chai, so that’s not issue.
Hi, not sure if I missed this after carefully reading notes and entire recipe, but what part of the oven is best for baking apple pie? Bottom I would assume… And also is it better to grease the pie dish before placing dough inside? I cannot wait to make this. Apples and chai spices…Yum it’s everything autumn in a pie! Thank you.
Hi Melanie! Lower part of the oven, such as the rack just below the center rack, is ideal however the center rack works just fine for pies too. No need to grease the pie dish before placing the dough in it– enough fat in the dough to prevent sticking.
We grow amazing pie apples, so I used those this fall to try this version with the chai spices. My first one we found, for our tastes, just a little too much lemon flavour, which possibly overshadowed the spices we were eager to taste. It was delicious, however for (Canadian) thanksgiving, I halved the lemon juice, and just slightly increased the spices. Bingo! Truly an amazing apple pie our family were wowing over! I love the addition of vanilla, a subtle but wonderful addition for such great flavor! I do use an even hotter oven for the first 15 minutes, then turn it down so it is all done in right around an hour. And I prefer not to discard any precious juices, but I can see why you recommend that since you like your apples less soft. A person can play with that depending if they like a bit of crunch / firmness, or notsomuch (and depending on the type of apples used). I loved this pie so much I’m using up the rest of my apples this weekend to make and freeze two more! Thank you Sally!