Bake an apple pie

An apple pie is mostly waiting. The peeling and mixing take about half an hour, the oven takes most of an hour, and the cooling is its own step. Plan the evening around it, put something good on while you peel, and it is hard to get wrong.

Pick your apples

Use a mix of tart and sweet. Granny Smith is the dependable tart one, and it keeps its shape. Honeycrisp, Braeburn or Golden Delicious bring sweetness and juice. You want firm apples with no soft spots. Six or seven medium apples gives you about six cups of slices, which fills a 9-inch pie.

What you need

• 2 pie crusts for a 9-inch pie (store-bought is fine, rolled or in a pan)
• 6 cups peeled, cored apple slices, about 1/4 inch thick
• 3/4 cup sugar (a little less if your apples are sweet)
• 3 tablespoons flour or 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, and a pinch of nutmeg if you like it
• A pinch of salt
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 egg, beaten, and a spoonful of sugar for the top (optional)

Make it

1. Heat the oven to 425°F and put a rack on the lowest shelf. Set a baking sheet on it to catch drips.
2. Fit one crust into a 9-inch pie dish and keep the second one chilled until you need it.
3. Toss the apple slices with the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and lemon juice until coated.
4. Pile the apples into the crust. They will look like too many, and that is right, because they shrink. Dot the butter over the top.
5. Cover with the second crust and press the edges together. Trim the extra, then crimp. Cut four or five slits in the top so steam can escape. For a lattice, cut the second crust into strips and weave them over the filling instead.
6. Brush the top with beaten egg and sprinkle with sugar, if you want a shiny, golden crust.
7. Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F, then lower the oven to 375°F and bake for another 35 to 45 minutes. It is done when the crust is deep golden and the filling is bubbling thickly through the slits.
8. If the edge browns too fast, cover it with a ring of foil.

Let it cool

This is the hard part. A pie straight from the oven is runny, because the juice has not thickened yet. Leave it on a rack for at least two to three hours. It will slice cleanly, and it is still lovely warm with vanilla ice cream.

If something goes wrong

• The bottom is pale and soggy. The pie was too high in the oven or the dish was ceramic. Bake on the lowest rack, on a hot baking sheet, and use metal or glass next time.
• There is a gap under the top crust. The apples shrank. Pack them in tightly and pile them high at the start.
• The filling is runny. It was cut too soon, or it needed a little more flour or cornstarch. Chill it and reheat the slices.
• The crust edge is burnt. Cover just the edge with foil for the rest of the bake.
• Juice bubbled over. That is what the baking sheet is for. Do not worry about it.

Keeping it

A baked fruit pie keeps well at room temperature for a day or two if you cover it loosely. After that, move it to the fridge and eat it within about four days. Warm a slice in the oven for ten minutes or so to bring the crust back. You can also freeze a whole unbaked pie, wrapped well, and bake it from frozen with extra time.

Make it a fall evening

Make the pie after a day of apple picking, when you have a bag of apples to use up. Take it to a friend’s, or keep it for a weekend and share the first slice with whoever is around. If a whole pie feels like a lot, apple crisp uses the same filling with no crust to roll.