Sourdough Apple Pie

With a flaky sourdough cheddar pie crust, this Sourdough Apple Pie recipe makes the best sourdough apple pie ever, with perfect slices of pie.

Apple orchards surround my home, so every fall, I hand-pick lots of fresh and crisp apples for baking. After making dozens of apple pies over the years, I’ve finally landed on the perfect sourdough apple pie that uses 5 pounds of apples and features a cheesy sourdough cheddar pie crust.

The pre-cooked apple pie filling is lightly spiced with cinnamon and cardamom, ensuring your filling always sets and remains fork-tender. The sourdough discard cheddar pie crust adds a slight savory flavor that balances the sweet and warmly spiced apple filling.

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👍 Why You’ll Love This Recipe

• Uses 5 pounds of apples, so you have lots of apples in every pie slice!
• Pre-cooking the apple filling ensures the filling always sets, reduces the baking time, and is not too juicy.
• The sourdough cheddar pie crust is flaky, buttery, and savory like Sourdough Discard Cheese Crackers (Cheez-Its).
• Make the apple pie filling and pie crust ahead of time, so it’s easy and fast to assemble and bake.
• You could use my standard Sourdough Pie Crust recipe instead of the cheddar crust.

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🛠 Tools Needed

• Baking scale
  • Flour and sourdough starter can weigh differently from person to person, so weighing your ingredients will make your baking more consistent and accurate.
• Mixing Bowl
  • I mix the sourdough pie crust by hand with a fork in a large bowl, but you can also use a food processor.
• Box Grater, for grating the cheddar cheese.
• Large Pot or Dutch Oven for pre-cooking the apple filling.
• Spatula, for mixing and stirring the apple pie filling.
• Bench Scraper, helps bring the pie dough together.
• Rolling Pin, for rolling out the pie crust
• Pastry Wheel, or pizza wheel, or knife for cutting the lattice strips
• Pastry Brush, for egg wash
• Pie Pan
  • For best results, use a 9″ aluminum or ceramic pie pan. I prefer a deep pan for this apple pie recipe, as there are 5 pounds of apples in the pie.

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🛒 Ingredients Needed

See below for my ingredient recommendations and possible substitutions for the flaky sourdough cheddar pie crust and apple pie filling below.

Sourdough Cheddar Pie Crust

• All-purpose flour
  • You can substitute some or all of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour.
  • Make the sourdough pie crust gluten-free by using cup-for-cup or measure-for-measure gluten-free flours.
• Salt
• Unsalted butter, cold
  • Keep your butter cold when making flaky pastry. The cold butter creates steam in the hot oven, ensuring you get a flaky crust.
  • For a richer flavor, use a European-style butter such as Kerrygold or Cabot Extra Creamy.
• Cheddar Cheese
  • Grate the cheese for optimal flavor and consistency, rather than using pre-shredded cheese.
  • I like sharp cheddar cheese, such as when making Sourdough Biscuits with Cheddar and Chives or Cheesy Sourdough Popovers, but you could use Gruyère, Manchego, or Parmesan.
• Sourdough Discard
  • Similar to adding vinegar to pie dough, sourdough discard adds acidity to the pie crust, which reduces gluten development and results in a more tender crust. It also adds a slight tangy flavor.
  • If you don’t have an active sourdough starter, learn how to make one in a week by following my how-to make sourdough starter guide. See my top sourdough starter tips and other sourdough discard recipes.
• Ice Water
  • Helps bind the crust together.
• Egg, for egg wash
  • The egg wash gives the crust a perfect golden brown sheen and helps create a protective barrier to prevent fruit juices from leaking.
• Raw sugar, for a sparkly and crunchy crust

Apple Pie Filling

• Apples
  • I recommend using a mix of various fresh apple varieties for this recipe to achieve the best flavor and texture, such as making Sourdough Apple Crisp or Apple Butter for Canning.
  • Favorite apple pie baking apples include Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, or heirloom apples such as Northern Spy, Braeburn, Cortland, and Gravenstein.
• Cinnamon & Cardamom
  • Apples and cinnamon always go together, like in Sourdough Apple Fritters, but a hint of cardamom also adds a fresh lemony flavor that makes this sourdough apple pie very elegant.
  • Substitute or add other warming spices, such as nutmeg, cloves, ginger, or allspice.
• Granulated Sugar
  • Sugar balances out the tart apples and helps the filling set.
• Brown Sugar
  • Use light or dark brown sugar to add a little warmth and molasses sweetness to the filling.
• Cornstarch
  • The cornstarch serves as a thickening agent for the juicy apple filling. You could also use tapioca starch or ¼ cup of flour.
  • For gelatinization, the filling needs to reach 203ºF (95ºC) or be bubbling, so precooking it will always ensure it reaches your desired consistency.
• Apple Cider Vinegar
  • I like to use apple cider vinegar to add more acid and reduce browning in the apples, but you can also use lemon juice.
  • Note that apple cider vinegar is not the same as sweet apple cider used in recipes like Sourdough Apple Cider Donuts or Sourdough Apple Cider Upside-Down Cake.
• Vanilla Extract, for flavoring, warmth, and aromatic depth.

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🥧 How to Make Sourdough Apple Pie

Follow this detailed recipe guide as you make the best sourdough apple pie.

1. Make the Sourdough Cheddar Pie Dough

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl, followed by the grated cheddar cheese (image 1).

Toss in the cold, cubed butter and use your hands or a pastry cutter to cut it into pea-sized pieces.

Then, pour in the sourdough discard and toss it all with a fork to start forming clumps. Drizzle in the ice water until larger clumps form, but the dough is still shaggy and dry (image 2).

Dump the pie dough out onto a work surface and use a bench scraper to chop the dough, which will distribute the liquid. Then, use your hands and bench scraper to gather the dough together and gently knead it a few times to bring it together. Add any dry bits on top to incorporate, and only add more ice water if it’s not hydrating (image 3).

Divide the dough in half and bring each together into cohesive discs, and wrap them in plastic wrap (image 4). Press the dough to the edges of the plastic wrap to shape it.

Chill the sourdough pie doughs for at least two hours and up to 3 days.

2. Cook the Apple Pie Filling

Pre-cooking the apple pie filling ensures that the filling sets by activating the cornstarch, cooks down some of the juices to make it less runny, and reduces the overall baking time in the oven. It also allows you to pack 5 pounds of apples in this pie!

If you decide to skip the pre-cooking step, use 3 pounds of apples instead.

Peel, core, and slice the apples to ⅛” to ¼” thick. Add the apples to a large pot or Dutch oven and stir in the spices, sugars, cornstarch, and apple cider vinegar until the slices are completely coated.

Cover the pot with a lid and cook the apples over medium-low heat, stirring every few minutes to prevent the bottom from burning, for about 20 minutes or until the apples release their juices and are fork-tender.

Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and let it cool to room temperature.

3. Roll Out the Pie Doughs

Remove one chilled sourdough cheddar pie dough disc from the refrigerator and let it rest at room temperature for 5 minutes to become pliable. Then, use a rolling pin to roll out into a large 12-13″ round. While rolling out, rotate and flip the dough, flouring in between as necessary to prevent sticking.

Transfer the dough to a large plate or baking sheet and chill it in the refrigerator while you roll out the second crust.

Repeat the same rolling out process for the lattice crust into a large round, but use a pastry wheel, pizza cutter, or knife to slice into 1″ strips. This recipe should yield 12-14 lattice strips, but you can adjust the size according to your design and personal preference for larger or smaller lattices.

Chill the lattice strips on a large plate or baking sheet until ready to assemble the pie.

4. Assemble the Sourdough Apple Pie

Preheat the oven to 425ºF (218ºC).

Beat an egg with a splash of water in a small bowl to make the egg wash.

Drape the chilled bottom pie crust on a pie plate and trim the edges so there’s about an inch of overhang around the pie pan. Brush an egg wash around the excess trim, which will help seal your lattice crust on top (save the rest for just before baking).

Pour in the cooled apple pie filling.

Remove the lattice strips from the refrigerator and weave them in a pattern on top of your pie. There are many methods for doing so, but this video from King Arthur is particularly helpful if you’ve never done it before.

Trim the lattice edges to match the 1″ overhang, pinch down to seal with the egg wash, and roll the overhang up and over to create a thick border. Then, crimp or flute the edges with your fingers for a decorative touch, or seal the edges with the tines of a fork.

Finally, freeze the pie crust for at least 15 minutes while your oven preheats. The dough needs to chill and rest to create the flakiest crust.

5. Bake

Just before baking, brush more egg wash on the exterior lattice of the crust and sprinkle with raw or turbinado sugar for a sparkly, crunchy topping.

Transfer the sourdough apple pie to a baking sheet to catch any drippings and bake for 15-20 minutes. The initial high temperature helps create more steam and a flakier crust.

Turn the oven down to 350°F (177 °C), cover the edges of the pie with foil to prevent burning, and bake for an additional 55-65 minutes, or until the filling is bubbly and the crust is a dark golden brown.

Remove from the oven to cool on a wire rack for at least 4 hours before serving. It’s a long time, but fruit pies take a while to cool so the filling can set, and it’ll be much easier to slice.

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How to Store and Serve

The sourdough apple pie is best served at room temperature for the first couple of days or refrigerated for up to five days.

The crust will become more soggy over time, but you can reheat it for a couple of minutes in a toaster oven to re-crisp the top crust.

To freeze the baked pie, wrap it tightly in plastic wrap and foil, and store it for up to 3 months. Thaw in the refrigerator for at least a day. However, I recommend using tapioca starch if you plan on freezing your pie, as cornstarch can separate when frozen.

I enjoy this fall sourdough apple pie with a dollop of whipped cream or a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It’s an excellent fall dessert for the holidays or at Thanksgiving with my the best, fluffy Sourdough Dinner Rolls or Sourdough Sweet Potato Dinner Rolls.

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❓ Frequently Asked Questions