The Unique Ingredient That Makes McDonald's Apple Pie So Delicious

It's no secret that the apple pie from McDonald's isn't made from scratch. Sure, it's nice and hot when you get it, but as one employee revealed in a TikTok, the apple pies come pre-made. All the workers have to do as soon as someone orders one is lay it on a tray and reheat it in the oven for 11 minutes. Despite not being fresh, many customers still love McDonald's apple pie, and it's been around since the 1960s.

It all started when Litton Cochran, a franchisee who opened a McDonald's in Knoxville, decided to start selling apple pies at his location. His mother's fried apple pie inspired the recipe, and it became so successful that when McDonald's caught wind of it, it became a permanent addition to the McDonald's menu, making it the fast food chain's first dessert. McDonald's current apple pie is no longer made with Cochran's family recipe. However, it does contain an ingredient that still keeps people coming back for more: apple powder.

Apple powder is a versatile and essential component in all kinds of foods, from Apple Jacks-flavored Pop-Tarts to barbecue dry rubs. But what exactly is it?

Apple powder is a byproduct of the apple juicing process. Once the liquid is extracted from the fruit in order to make juice or cider, a mixture of apple pulp and peels is left behind. Instead of being discarded, it's dehydrated, pulverized into a powder, then combined with citric acid. Because apple powder is high in fiber, it's often used as a health supplement and mixed into smoothies. However, its nutritional value isn't the main reason it's added to McDonald's apple pies.

Most apple pie filling calls for a combination of fresh apples, sugar, apple pie spice, and a thickener such as cornstarch. McDonald's recipe does include these traditional ingredients. However, it also uses apple powder to thicken up the filling without mellowing the flavor. What results, therefore, is a pie with such a strong yet natural apple taste that you'll forget it isn't made fresh.

If you compare the fried apple pies from the '60s to the ones McDonald's now sells, there's an obvious difference in appearance. However, aside from giving the pastry a lattice design on top, the recipe has also changed. In 1992, McDonald's stopped frying its apple pies and switched to baking them, but a more significant change came in 2018.

In collaboration with McDonald's, Bama Companies, the company that produces all of the chain's apple pies, rolled out a recipe four years in the making. McDonald's announced that from then on, the new apple pie would be made with fewer but higher quality ingredients. Bama Companies didn't specify what ingredients were changed, but the CEO did disclose to KTUL at the time that the new recipe would no longer contain "Anything that has the word 'artificial' in front of it or has some name that you can't spell or pronounce." It's plausible, therefore, that this is when McDonald's began using apple powder in its apple pies.