Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

This caramel apple pecan pie is what happens when two desserts become one. The riff on classic apple pie, albeit a single-crust pie filled with sliced apples and warm spices, includes two layers of caramel and a crunchy pecan topping. Make it entirely from scratch with your favorite pie crust recipe, or save time with store-bought items like caramel sauce and a premade pie shell. Either way, it will go over well at any autumnal gathering, including Halloween parties or after the turkey and other traditional Thanksgiving recipes.

Ingredients for Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

• Single-crust pie dough: You can always make a classic butter pie pastry crust for this pie, but you could also buy a single deep-dish pie crust to save time.
• Tart apples: Granny Smith, Cortland, Braeburn, Northern Spy or Honeycrisp are the best types of apples for apple pie.
• Lemon juice: Because apples tend to brown after being sliced, they’re often tossed with lemon juice, which helps prevent oxidation (aka, a chemical change that happens in the presence of oxygen). If you’re squeezing the lemon juice yourself, don’t forget to zest the lemon first and toss that zest into your pie filling or another recipe.
• Vanilla extract: Lean on real-deal vanilla extract for baking and avoid imitation vanilla if you can.
• Pecans: These nuts have a lovely texture, crisp up beautifully, and pair well with apples and caramel.
• Sugars: The apple filling includes brown and granulated sugars, giving it an extra flavor boost.
• Cinnamon: Cinnamon adds a bit of sweetness and classic warm and cozy spice flavor. Ceylon cinnamon is typically milder in flavor than Saigon/Vietnamese cinnamon.
• Cornstarch: Cornstarch thickens the liquid as the pie cooks, creating a rich, gooey filling.
• Caramel topping: Look for a store-bought caramel topping with real cream and few preservatives.
• Butter: Use salted or unsalted butter in this recipe.
• Streusel topping: Flour, butter and sugar form the crunchy streusel topping. All-purpose flour is fine here, but you can also use nuttier whole wheat flour for an extra-healthy pie with a deeper flavor.
• Whipped cream: You can make whipped cream from scratch and dollop it atop the pie, or take the easy route and simply pour heavy cream over the top.

Directions

Step 1: Ready the pie crust

Preheat the oven to 350°F. On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough into an 1/8-inch-thick circle and transfer it to a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim the crust to 1/2 inch beyond the rim of the plate and flute the edge. Refrigerate while preparing the filling.

Editor’s Tip: Proper hand placement is the trick to crimping pie crust for a fluted edge. Pinch the dough gently with a thumb and index finger, pressing outward with another finger from your other hand, away from the pie, to create a pinched V shape.

Step 2: Combine the filling ingredients

In a large bowl, toss the apple slices with lemon juice and vanilla. Mix the pecans, sugars, cinnamon and cornstarch. Add the pecan combo to the apples and toss to combine.

Step 3: Fill the pie

Spread the caramel topping onto the crust, and top with the apple mixture. Drizzle with melted butter.

Step 4: Make the streusel topping

In a large bowl, mix the flour and sugar. Cut in the butter until crumbly, and stir in the pecans. Sprinkle the streusel over the filling.

Step 5: Bake the pie

Bake on a lower oven rack until the filling is bubbly, 65 to 75 minutes. Drizzle with the caramel topping. Cool on a wire rack. If desired, serve with whipped cream and additional caramel topping.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie Variations

• Use different nuts: Apples pair well with many nuts, including walnuts, slivered almonds and cashews. If you’re cooking for somebody with a nut allergy, pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, could be a good fit.
• Spice up the streusel: It never hurts to add spices to the streusel topping, including cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, clove and ginger. Or, make it easy and add homemade pumpkin pie spice.

How to Store Caramel Apple Pecan Pie

Once the apple pie with caramel and pecans cools, cover it tightly and store it in the refrigerator. It will last up to four days.

Can you freeze caramel pecan apple pie?

You can freeze caramel pecan apple pie, unbaked or baked. To freeze an unbaked pie, complete the recipe through Step 3, wrap it with a double layer of storage wrap and foil, and freeze it for up to three months. When you want to bake the pie, let it thaw in the refrigerator overnight, make the streusel topping, sprinkle it over the apples and bake it according to the recipe.

To freeze a baked pie, let it cool completely and wrap it the same way as above. Thaw it in the fridge overnight before reheating.

Caramel Apple Pecan Pie Tips

How do you make homemade caramel sauce?

This apple pie with caramel and pecans will be even better if you make it with a homemade salted caramel sauce. That little bit of salt will perk up the pie’s flavors. To make the sauce, heat sugar until it caramelizes, remove it from the heat, and add heavy cream, butter and salt. Once you know the technique, you’ll want to put salted caramel on everything.

How should you serve caramel apple pecan pie?

Unsurprisingly, caramel pecan apple pie is spectacular when topped with vanilla ice cream, cinnamon ice cream or heavy cream. You can also dollop it with whipped cream.

Watch How to Make Caramel-Pecan Apple Pie

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