I cannot get through the fall season without making at least three of these pumpkin apple pies. The pie offers the best of both worlds: A layer of tart apples flavored with cinnamon and a creamy layer of pumpkin pie. Try this for your next Thanksgiving dinner. You'll never go back to plain pumpkin or apple pie again!
The best apples for pie
I like using Granny Smith apples for pie. Since they're tart, they hold up to the addition of extra sugar well without being too cloyingly sweet. They also retain some of their original texture when cooked, so the pie does not become mushy.
Why combine pumpkin and apple?
Pumpkin pie used to be my favorite type of pie, with apple being a close second. I love the mix of ginger, clove, nutmeg cinnamon and allspice in pumpkin pie, but it can be textually boring. The tart apples cut the sweet pumpkin custard well and add a bit of texture to the pie. And that's why pumpkin apple pie is the perfect combination!
Pumpkin Apple Pie: Step by step instructions
For the crust:
Cut butter into small cubes and freeze for about five minutes
Whisk flour and salt together well. If you have a food processor, you can combine the flour and butter and pulse until the mixture becomes fine like sand.
If you don't have a food processor (like me), squeeze the cold butter with flour between your fingers until you get a similar texture. It can be helpful to put the ingredients in a chilled bowl to keep everything cold.
Add 1-2 tablespoons until the pie dough just comes together. It will be rough and craggy, and there still may be some flour left in the bowl.
Dump the dough and excess flour out on a work surface and work into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour or up to two days. You can also freeze this until ready to use.
Apple filling
Melt butter in a large skillet and add brown sugar, cinnamon, corn starch and water. Heat until the mixture has thickened.
Add peeled and sliced apples to the cinnamon sugar mixture and cook on medium heat until the apples are soft and flexible. Set aside to cool.
Pumpkin filling
Whisk together canned pumpkin, evaporated milk, egg, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, allspice and ground ginger.
Assembling the pumpkin apple pie
Roll the pie dough out until it is about a quarter of an inch thick. You want to have some dough hanging off of the side of your pan so you have room to crimp it.
Make sure your pan is greased before adding the pie crust. To do this easily, wrap the crust around your rolling pin and then unroll it on top of the pie pan!
Crimp the edges of the dough and add the apples. They should be pretty soft at this point, so flatten them out as much as you can in order to layer the pumpkin on smoothly.
Pour the pumpkin custard over the apples and bake for about 50 minutes, or until the pie is set.
Pumpkin apple pie serving suggestions
This pie tastes great cold or warmed up. I personally prefer it cold, with whipped cream. For warm pies, I recommend serving with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
Pumpkin Apple Pie
Equipment
- 9 inch pie pan
Ingredients
Crust
- 150 g all purpose flour
- 1 tsp salt
- 10 tbsp butter, cubed
- 1-2 tbsp ice water
Apple Filling
- 3 apples, sliced thin about 550g
- 2 tbsp butter
- 100 g brown sugar
- 1 tbsp corn starch
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp salt
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 75 ml water
Pumpkin Filling
- 200 g canned packed pumpkin
- 175 ml evaporated milk
- 80 g sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp nutmeg
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp allspice
- ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 1 egg, beaten
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Crust
- Whisk flour and salt well. Using a food processor, pulse flour and cold cubed butter together until the mixture is sandy.
- If not using a food processor, squeeze butter and flour between fingertips in a chilled bowl until mixture is sandy. If mixture gets too warm and butter starts getting too soft or melted, put the bowl in the freezer for a minute or two.
- Add ice water one tablespoon at a time until the dough just comes together. It won't be wet, and it's ok if you still see some dry bits
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and gather all the flour into a ball. Flatten into a disk and cover with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour or up to two days.
Apple Filling
- In a large pan or skillet, melt butter
- Add water, cinnamon, brown sugar and cornstarch and salt and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
- Once the caramel has thickened, add apples and cook until tender and flexible, stirring constantly. This can take 5-7 minutes.
- Add the vanilla extract and set aside to cool
Pumpkin Filling
- In a mixing bowl, whisk together canned packed pumpkin, evaporated milk, sugar, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and ground ginger.
Assembling and baking the pie
- Generously flour your work surface and roll out the dough until it is ¼ of an inch thick.
- Roll crust around your rolling pin and unroll it over a greased, 9 inch pie pan. Crimp the edges of the crush by putting the index finger of thumb of one hand on the outside of the rum and pushing the crust into your fingers with the index finger of the other hand.
- Spoon the cooled apple mixture into the crust and smooth the filling out as flat as you can
- Pour the pumpkin mixture on top of the apple mixture. use a toothpick to pop any air bubbles
- Bake for about 50 minutes, or until a knife or skewer comes out clean
- Let pie cool completely before cutting. This pie can be made 1-2 days in advance.
What a great idea to make a pie layered with apple and pumpkin at the same time. You are genius! Thanks for sharing!
What a fantastic idea!! I love that it's two in one.
My kids want both apple and pumpkin pie this year! This is a great alternative to making two pies! LOVE IT!
I usually bake one apple and one pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving. Now I can only bake one and call it done! 🙂
Oh hurrah! No need to choose between pumpkin or apple pie anymore - now we can have the best of both!