No matter where we are, this will always remind us of home!
Warm apple pie is the classic bake in Holland, to go with coffee or to get for dessert. Almost everybody loves it. Even families that almost never bake anything will probably know how to bake an apple pie or have a family recipe lying around. The classic Dutch apple pie always uses self raising flour in its dough and will usually have tart cooking apples for the filling. There will certainly be cinnamon in it and probably raisins, but the pie is also perfectly lovely without them.
So if you’re an apple pie enthusiast I hope you will try our Dutch version, see how it compares to your own classic. It is hard to compete against those warm and comfortable childhood memories of the pie you grew up with, I know. But I am sure you could get used to this version too…
Ingredients for the Apple Pie
serves 6-8
300 g self raising flour
200 g cold butter in little cubes
150 g soft light brown muscovado sugar
3/4 egg (35 g) for the dough
1/4 beaten egg for brushing
a pinch of salt
1 kg tart apples (goudreignet/rode van boskoop)
fresh lemon juice
2 teaspoons / 6 g ground cinnamon
50 g sugar
50 g raisins, washed and soaked and drained (optional)
Mix self raising flour, salt, soft light brown sugar and butter in cubes. Rub with fingertips until you have a mixture resembling bread crumbs. Add the 3/4 egg and quickly knead the ingredients into a smooth dough. Leave to rest in the fridge for an hour.
Peel the apples and cut each apple into 4 equal parts and cut each part into 5 thick slices, sprinkle with lemon juice to prevent oxidation . Add the cinnamon and 50 grams of sugar to the apples and stir. Add the raisins, leave them out if you do not like them. Cover and set aside.
Preheat the oven to 175ºC / 350ºF. Line a round buttered springform baking tin (22 cm for very generous covering or 24 cm for a ‘good fit’) with 3/5 of the dough. Add the prepared apples. Make sure to distribute the apple slices evenly and to fill the pie so it is firmly packed with apple (the apples will slink from baking). Shaking the tin a bit might help you to achieve this.
Now with the left over 2/5 of the dough make a grid/lattice on top of the apples. Brush the grid lightly with the 1/4 beaten egg (add a bit of water to the egg to make it easier to brush). Place the pie in the middle of the oven and bake it for approximately 60 minutes, depending on your oven. Keep an eye on it while baking.
Leave to cool. You can eat it warm, which is very nice, but I like it even better when cooled completely.
More apple pie: Apple pie a la Normande
A light alternative: Apple Pie Scones
Eva says
This by far, my favorite go to apple pie recipe. Have been using this recipe for the past couple of years now.
Echt, de allerlekkerste appeltaart!
Weekend Bakers says
Lovely to get your positive comment on the apple pie.
This is the perfect season to be baking this pie, the smell of the apples and cinnamon will always be the thing that reminds me of home and lots of good memories.
Happy baking and thank you!
Marieke
Eva says
Hoi Marieke,
Ik kan de taart moeilijk vinden in de recepten omdat hij niet de tags heeft waarop ik zoek: appel of appeltaart of Nederlands recept.
Groet,
Eva
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo Eva,
Wij hebben dit recept niet in een Nederlandse versie besef ik nu. We hebben het alleen in het Engels aangeboden, ervan uitgaande dat alle Nederlandse mensen wel al een dergelijk recept hebben. Dit is al van wat langer geleden. Meer recente recepteren maken we nu allemaal wel tweetalig omdat we merken dat mensen dat toch handig vinden, maar we komen er gewoon niet aan toe de oudere allemaal naar NL te vertalen.
Mocht je nog iets willen weten, vraag het gerust!
Marieke
Michael says
Baked this morning to use for desert at my parents. The pastry wasnt easy to work with but we all loved it so it was well worth the effort.
Very tasty thankyou for sharing the recipe 🙂
Weekend Bakers says
Thank you Michael,
Yes you are right, the pastry often is a bit of ‘patchwork’. I remember all my youth people usually lining the tin by hand, so putting pieces of dough in the tin and then flatten them with the palm of your hand, working your way up the sides, if you understand what I mean. Rolling out this delicate dough and getting it to the tin in one piece is not easy, you need the right dough temp to handle it. But we can tell you it does not matter, even with a patched up version the pie is always delicious!
Thank you for trying and liking our beloved Dutch classic and enjoy your baking!
tracy van eijk says
Is the pastry meant to be so soft ? I found it hard to troll our it kept falling apart when I tried to lift it in the end I had to patch it together in the tin. And yes i followed the recipe to the letter! Ive never had a pastry that soft before when making pies.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Tracy,
Sorry for the late reply. Yes it is soft, but maybe the combination of egg and the flour you use can make that you need to use a little less egg next time. It is a little ‘fumbly’ and you need to work quick, or cool the pastry (again) if you want to roll it out. Lots of people use the patchy method, doing the lining by hand rather than rolling it out. But the structure and taste of the dough are worth it!
Tali says
Hello Marieke and Ed.
Thank you so much for your wonderful apple pie recipe . I have made it a few times now and love it!!!
I make it for my Dutch boyfriend who loves it too. He says it’s real Dutch apple pie.
I have one in the oven now and cant wait to dig in…
Thanks again,
Tali xx
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Tali,
You make us smile 🙂
We love our ‘Hollandse appeltaart’ so very much. Dutch professional bakers make all these deluxe versions with extra ingredients, putting their own stamp on it, but nothing beats a fresh from the oven classic (childhood memories inducing how your mother or granny baked them) apple pie!
Enjoy it together and stay happy and healthy!
Ed & Marieke
Anu says
Hi this is Anu here.. I first ate the Dutch version of a apple pie in Amsterdam and instantly fell in love with it.. then when I got back, I looked up and came across your recipe.. I tried it and wow it was exactly like the one I had in Amsterdam.. I can’t thank you enough for it.. it is super simple and delicious. I have tried it with a different filling like banana and walnut which tasted great too. Thank you once again weekend bakery for this superhit recipe.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Anu,
Thank you, for trying and liking our apple pie recipe, so glad you can enjoy it now by making your own. Very fulfilling 🙂
We would never have thought to use a different filling like banana, thank you for the inspiration.
Wishing you many lovely apple pies and wonderful variations on the theme.
Greetings from a now cold and wet Holland,
Marieke & Ed
weekend Bakers
Margaret says
What is muscovado sugar ? Have never heard of it in the US.
Weekend Bakers says
As we understand it soft brown sugar is white sugar with molasses added back to it. Muscovado sugar is less refined, so it retains much of its molasses component. The amount of molasses determines whether it is “light” or “dark”: the darker the sugar, the more molasses it contains. In Holland we have a variation that is called ‘gele basterdsuiker’, which is more caramel in color and taste that we like to use. This sugar is always ‘wetter’ than normal refined sugar and has a tendency to get lumpy.
It is no problem for this recipe to use any of the sugar varieties mentioned.
Hope you will enjoy our apple pie soon!
Alisa says
This was the best apple pie I ever made! The amounts of everything were perfect! I added the grated rind of a lemon to the apple mixture. It was a great idea to roll out the dough in between twho sheets of cling wrap. In the end the dough became a little soft to handle, but the lattice plumped up beautifully in the oven.
I was going to leave a picture, but I can’t.
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Alisa,
Wonderful, thank you! This apple pie is famous and can be eaten all over Holland, but nothing beats the fresh baked home made version!
Sorry we cannot incorporate pictures with comments because the software does not support this. But we can offer you to showcase them here:
www.weekendbakery.com/send-…your-loaf/
So if you have the time…we would love to see them!
Enjoy your pie baking and sharing,
Ed & Marieke
Weekend Bakers
Alisa Cohen says
Hallo Marieke,
For 300 g of self raising flour, do I mix 12 g baking powder with 288 g flour, or add 12 g of baking powder to 300 g flour??
Thanks.
Alisa
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Alisa,
You can add the 12 g baking powder to the 300 g flour and the dough will be fine. How the dough comes together also depends on the exact amount of egg you use and also the properties of the flour. If you think your flour is a bit too dry you can always add a bit of extra egg.
Enjoy the baking and tasting!
Harley says
Hi,
I love your recipes. At the risk of sounding heretical, what would your recommendations be for veganising your recipe? I love dutch apple cake, but can’t have dairy.
Best wishes,
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Harley,
W do not find this heretical at all, but we are not the experts to ask what vegan substitutes would work best. You probably have way more experience what vegan butter and egg substitute to use.
Hope you will give it a try and if your results are to your liking, maybe we can inform our followers about it so they benefit too!
Greetings from the low countries,
Marieke
Harley says
I shall experiment!
bedankt!
Peter says
This looks good. I am wondering how you would make a Dutch apple pie similar to the one served at Winkel43 in Amsterdam, which has more of a cake/cookie topping. Any thoughts? Thanks
Weekend Bakers says
Hi Peter,
This looks, in the pictures we see, like the same dough as we all use for a classic Dutch apple pie. Because the apple pie in almost any bakery or cafe is served a while after baking the crust goes a bit softer and you could look at it as getting more of a cake-like consistency. Fresh out of the oven and cooled, the crust would be a combination of a little bit more bite on the surface and still the softer interior (because of the baking powder we use in the dough). So when you make this pie you will discover for yourself how it behaves, fresh, after a few hours and after a day or so.
J Rich says
Delicious! I tried rolling the dough out twice before patting it into the pan. Much easier. There weren’t any instructions on rolling out or how to get it into the pan.Maybe you coukd add that in the recipe?
I didn’t use the special sugar. I added 2TBSP cold water, as in tart dough. The dough came together better. Had a tough time getting the lattice not to fall apart while moving it to the pan
Weekend Bakers says
Hi J Rich,
Thank you for your feedback. This recipe was added to our website quite some years ago and we see that it needs some updating. Over the years we have made new recipes (mostly bread and pastry) with much clearer instructions and pictures.
You did very well rolling the dough and patting it in the pan. Sorry about the lattice. We are so used to making strings of dough and placing it on the pie, like most our mothers showed us, that we did not think this through. And the light muscovado sugar we use in Holland, is much ‘wetter’ than caster sugar which also makes a difference.
So we need to add some more instructions and pictures to this posting.
Much appreciated and hope you enjoyed the pie nonetheless.
Greetings from Holland,
Marieke & Ed
Eva says
Hoi,
Er staat: mix in flour, salt, baking powder, maar in de ingredientenlijst staat geen baking powder genoemd. Ik was altijd in de veronderstelling dat je dat niet hoeft toe te voegen als je zelfrijzend bakmeel gebruikt. Dus wel of geen bakpoeder toevoegen?
Groeten,
Eva
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo, je hebt helemaal gelijk. Er hoort geen extra bakpoeder in het recept, zelfrijzend bakmeel is genoeg. Veel bak plezier!
Ilona says
Zelf rijzend bakmeel is hier in de USA niet te vinden, daarom
Is baking powder zo belangrijk. Hoeveel moet Ik toevoegen?
Weekend Bakers says
Hallo Ilona,
Er gaat gemiddels 1 gram baking powder per 25 gram bloem in een recept. Ik zou dat hier ook aanhouden, dus dan wordt het voor 300 gram bloem 12 gram baking powder. Ik weet niet precies wat de samenstelling en het ‘enthousiasme’ van de USA bakpoeder is, maar je kunt dit als uitgangspunt nemen en wellicht nog iets minder gebruiken.
Veel bakplezier!
Groetjes uit Holland,
Marieke
Lesley Broadbent says
Hi, I tried your Dutch Apple Pie recipe at the weekend after harvesting lots of our own apples and I have to admit it was amazing. In the UK we generally use short-crust pastry for apple pies, but your pastry was so soft. The only problem I had was rolling it out as it kept on breaking up and I had to patch it. I thought it was a little dry after I added the egg. Do you have any tips for stopping this happening? I have to admit that it was in the fridge for longer than an hour but I got it out at least an hour before I used it.
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Lesley,
So great you made our apple pie! You are right about the dough being a bit delicate. I usually roll my dough between two sheets of clingfilm. I know a lot of Dutch people who press the dough for the bottom in with their hands, then make the rim by rolling a sausage shape and pressing that in. It is all a bit ‘rustic’ but the result we all find delicious and it is indeed very different from the shortcrust. The dough is not supposed to be dry. I do not know if you used the muscovado sugar because that can make a difference, but I would suggest to add a bit more egg if you find it too dry. Because apart from it being a little delicate to work with it should feel nice and supple and smooth.
Hope you will make it again but I can also recommend the Normandy apple pie (see link above). It is my personal favorite!
Happy baking,
Marieke
Lesley Broadbent says
Thanks for the comments, Marieke. I didn’t use Muscovado sugar. All I had was Soft light brown sugar so maybe you’re right as that would have added a bit more moisture. I will try again with the correct sugar and roll out with clingfilm as you suggest. I am happy with rustic though, it didn’t detract from the final product.
Thanks for all your support.
Weekend Bakers says
Thanks Leslie,
Happy apple pie baking!
Marieke
miusha says
Hi, thank you for this receipe! I’m gonna try it definetly.Only one question: how can i conserve the apple pie?
Weekend Bakers says
Hello Miusha,
Apple pie is always best when eaten freshly baked. Some people like it warm, I also like it very much after it has cooled completely because the taste is more intense. I would suggest keeping it at room temperature for no more than one day, especially when the weather is warm, because the apple, even after baking, can still go moldy. After that I would keep it in the fridge for a maximum of 3 to 4 days. If you want to conserve it longer I suggest the freezer.
Hope this answers your question.
Happy apple pie baking!
Marieke
Rene says
Replace one apple for a pear ! Awesome