25 Ingredients That Will Take Your Apple Pie Up A Notch

Apple pie: the quintessential addition for hearty Thanksgiving spreads or Fourth of July picnics at the park. With a rich, flaky crust and cinnamon-y, freshly baked apple filling, there's a reason why many folks consider it a comfort food. The renowned dessert is often coined as an American classic. (Ironically, according to Smithsonian Magazine, it was an English baker who first wrote an apple pie recipe.) In any case, it is downright delicious, and its simple formula gives home bakers elbow room to modify and experiment with the famous dish.

The apple mixture usually has chopped apples, sugar, spices, and other ingredients like lemon juice, butter, or thickening agents. Meanwhile, sometimes the crust covers the entire pie or is woven into a lattice topping; other times, it has a streusel crumb topping (known as Dutch apple pie). The ingredients listed here do a fantastic job of complementing the conventional ingredients or enhancing the dessert's overall display to make it more striking — or, better yet, both.

Brown butter offers a deeper flavor profile than regular butter; it has toasty notes that create layers of flavor in any dish you place it in, whether savory dishes or desserts. If you want to enrich your pie easily, melt some butter in a pan over medium heat; let it bubble and cook until it darkens and smells nutty.

Then, mix it into the filling with the spices, sugar, and fruit. You can also flavor the brown butter while you cook it. For instance, with star anise brown butter apple pie, you allow whole vanilla beans and star anise to reside in the butter while you brown it to impart a warmer essence.

Make your pie reminiscent of caramel apples by including caramel in the fruit base or as a last-minute finishing touch. You can make homemade caramel or go the easy route and buy caramel in a jar or squeeze bottle. Stir it into the apples before you add the thickening agent, and run a taste test to see if the caramel flavor shines enough or if you should adjust it and add more.

As an alternative, drizzle the finished pie with smooth caramel sauce to give it a show-stopping look. If your caramel is too stiff to pour, warm it for a few seconds to loosen the consistency.

Bacon and apples are an ideal pair because the meat's saltiness contrasts with the sweetness of the fruit. Texture-wise, they're dramatically different, too, since the bacon is crispy while the apples are juicy. You can incorporate this ingredient in a couple of ways, the first being in the fruit mixture and the second as a replacement for the lattice crust.

It is relatively straightforward to use bacon in the filling; simply cook and chop it before you fold it into the apple and spice blend. On the other hand, if you want to go the extra mile, make a bacon-weave apple pie with bacon pieces intertwined on top to replace the crust. Use par-cooked or raw bacon to create the design; cover the pie with foil for most of the baking time to prevent the bacon from burning.

Add pine nuts to the apple mixture to give the dessert texture variation. They are incredibly delicious when you toast them because it amplifies their taste and makes them crunchy. Their nutty and buttery qualities shine alongside brown sugar, apples, and the other components of the sweet treat.

Also, if you make apple pie with a streusel topping, you can include them in the streusel instead, and they will toast while they bake. It is optional, but if you don't want a super coarse crumb topping, run the pine nuts through a food processor or rough chop them before mixing them in.

Add blueberries to the baked dessert to make it extra fruity. Blueberries are convenient because you don't need much time to prepare them; they are already the perfect size to throw into the filling. To be safe, give them a rinse before you work with them.

Additionally, if you cook the filling on the stovetop rather than baking it in a raw state, add the blueberries at the last moment. This step prevents the berries from becoming too soft and bursting. To avoid that issue, you are welcome to use dried blueberries, which slightly hydrate after mixing them with the filling and baking them.

Don't limit thyme by only using it in savory recipes; it works wonderfully in apple pie because its earthy qualities aren't too overwhelming. Instead, the herb complements the fruit and other ingredients in the filling, such as cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice.

According to Healthline, thyme is useful for cooking and baking, and people use it medicinally too. It can do all sorts of impressive things for the body, from curing acne to improving people's moods. People use thyme oil for natural cough and bacterial infection remedies too. You can use food-grade oil in your pie to provide flavor, but fresh or dried thyme is best because you can see the specks in the dessert and even sprinkle them on for garnish after you bake the pie.

Hot honey is the ultimate apple pie topping because all it takes is a drizzle to boost the display and flavor of the sweet treat instantly. Of course, you can use regular honey, but spicy honey adds extra pizzazz because of its flavor depth.

First, the honey's sugary attributes shine through with the cinnamon and apples, then a dash of peppery heat sweeps in to make your tastebuds tingle; it is just enough spice, not too staggering. Purchase hot honey at the store or create your own to customize the level of fieriness. Moreover, don't pour the spicy component on the pie until just before serving, so it looks as fresh as possible.

This spice amplifies the pie's autumnal essence; it works in sweet and savory applications because of its minty undertones. You can buy ground cardamom to make it easy on yourself. However, if you want to buy whole pods, you can remove the seeds and grind them for a fresh and potent taste.

Mix this spice into the apple pie filling, crumb topping, or dough. It suits the streusel topping because it is an excellent match for brown sugar. Healthline reports that cardamom also has several potential health benefits. For instance, it can improve blood pressure, aid in digestion, and prevent cavities.

Have you ever heard of the dark-colored, citrusy, yet sweet drupe better known as the Italian plum? These plums are optimal when you make baked goods because they don't become as soggy, and they hold shape well through the cooking process. Also, although they're tarter when raw, they sweeten when you cook them.

Furthermore, the pits in Italian plums are painless to remove. The only downside is that finding Italian plums might be challenging; you likely have to go to a specialty produce market to get ahold of them. Once you snatch them up, omit the pit and slice them into small wedges when you make apple Italian plum pie.

If you make your apple pies similar to tarts with open-faced fruit filling, using apricot glaze is a wise way to improve their presentation. Sometimes, once the pie bakes, the apples look dry and less glamorous than you hoped. Luckily, you can buy or make apricot glaze and brush it on the pie, which seals the apples and makes them shiny.

Another bonus is that you can add it to the pie before you bake it to prevent the apples from drying out. Martha Stewart uses this trick for her homemade pies, which is advantageous because it adds a tangy yet sweet flavor to the dessert.

Give your dessert floral hints by including rose water in the fruit base of the pie. Rose water is aromatic and has a distinct, enjoyable taste that works with the baking spices in the sweet treat. You just need 1 or 2 tablespoons of the liquid to supply the pie with sweet botanic traces, not to mention you don't want to add so much that it makes the filling runny.

You can find rose water in many supermarkets and online; it often comes in bottles. Alternatively, if you are up for a side project, you can make your own if you soak food-safe rose petals in water.

Although sweet potatoes are technically vegetables, they mesh well with spices such as nutmeg and cinnamon. Once you cook them, they have a fork-tender consistency, and their taste is subtly sweet and creamy. You can mix sweet potatoes into the filling with the apples, but you must par-cook them first.

Otherwise, there isn't a guarantee they will have the mouthfeel you desire. Instead, chop the root vegetables into small cubes and roast or simmer until they are less firm. Undoubtedly, apple pie is already satisfying enough, but it becomes heartier when you throw this ingredient into the mix.