Apple Butter Pie

Our family favorite Apple Butter Pie

We couldn’t wait to share this recipe and hope you get the chance to try it. It may look a lot like pumpkin pie but doesn’t taste like pumpkin at all. Our Apple Butter Pie does have a pumpkin pie quality however, mostly due to the melt-in-your-mouth texture and the ease of preparation. Bet you’re going to love our Apple Butter Pie as much as we do!

Ingredients Overview

For the pie crust:

• 1 par-baked or blind-baked (9-inch) deep-dish pie crust, homemade or store-bought
• egg white (reserved from the filling) lightly beaten

For the filling:

• block cream cheese at room temperature
• eggs
• sweetened condensed milk
• sweetened, well spiced, prepared apple butter
• salt
• vanilla extract

How to make our Apple Butter Pie recipe

Prepare the pie crust:

• Prepare the pie dough, roll into a large circle and line a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate. Trim the dough and crimp the edges as desired. Prick the bottom and sides of the crust with a fork. Place the pie shell in the freezer for 30 minutes to help control shrinkage during the blind bake.
• While the crust is chilling, preheat oven to 425°F.
• Line the chilled pastry with two sheets of heavy duty foil or parchment paper then fill with 2 cups dried beans or pie weights. Bake for 20 minutes then remove the foil, beans or weights and return the pastry to the oven. Bake for an additional 10 minutes then remove from the oven. Brush the inside of the crust with the lightly beaten reserved egg white. Return the crust to the oven and bake 5 minutes longer. Remove the crust from the oven.
• Cover the edges of the crust with foil to prevent over browning and set aside while preparing the filling.
• Place a foil lined baking sheet in the oven to preheat. This will help the crust stay crisp and avoid the dreaded soggy bottom.

Prepare the filling:

• In a large bowl beat the cream cheese, egg and egg yolks on medium speed with an electric mixer until blended and smooth. Add the sweetened condensed milk, apple butter, salt and vanilla. Blend on low until incorporated.
• Place the baked pie crust on the foil lined baking sheet in the oven. Carefully pour the filling into the crust and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce the temperature to 350°F and continue baking for 35-40 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
• Remove the foil around the crust and cool on a wire rack for 2 hours. Serve immediately or refrigerate until needed.

Easy, old-fashioned pies are often some of the best desserts

Apple Butter Pie is that good

As mentioned above, it’s practically shocking how much apple flavor is in this pie. Each bite is sweet, creamy, tart and apple-intense! We shared this pie with a group of taste-testers and each gave a very passionate, positive response.

From the flaky, buttery crust to the moan-worthy filling, this pie gets 5-stars across the board. Knowing how easy and fool-proof it is to make, there are a few folks making this apple butter pie for Thanksgiving instead of pumpkin!

Make ahead for easy entertaining

This pie is easily made ahead a day or two and refrigerated until needed. Remove the pie from the refrigerator an hour before serving for the best results. Since it’s a sweet pie you don’t need to add anything like ice cream. However, lightly sweetened whipped cream is a nice add-on, but not necessary.

Freezable Apple Butter Pie

After you bake this apple butter pie allow it to cool completely at room temperature. Place the entire cooled pie directly in the freezer for a few hours. Once slightly frozen, cover the pie in plastic wrap and seal in an airtight container or aluminum foil.

The day before you plan to serve the pie, remove the wrapping and allow the pie to thaw overnight in the refrigerator. We often freeze individual slices of this pie with great success. Make ahead apple butter pie for the holidays!

Homemade or store-bought Apple Butter

You can make this lovely little pie with a homemade apple butter recipe, store-bought, farmers’ market or even gifted apple butter! You’ll need two cups of well spiced (lots of cinnamon) dark, thick apple butter that is sweetened with some kind of sugar.

If using store-bought apple butter I recommend buying something made with apples, sugar and spices and NO high fructose corn syrup. If you have a farmers market nearby you can probably snag a jar or two of home-canned apple butter during the fall. I do not recommend making this pie with apple sauce.