Add Strawberries To Your Next Apple Pie For A Flavor Boost Unlike Any Other

To bake an apple pie that beats any bakery version, you need an ultra-flaky pie crust and an evenly spiced fruit filling with remarkable flavor. While you can certainly make your apple pie filling superior with something extra rich like sour cream or cheddar cheese, you can also elevate the standard combination of sliced apples, sugar, warming spices, and lemon juice with additional fruit. Sure enough, when you want an easy and delicious way to boost your next homemade apple pie, all you need to do is add a handful (or two) of fresh strawberries to your filling.

Strawberry apple pie not only has a more complex fruit flavor thanks to the berries' floral sweetness, but also adds a welcome pop of color that's absent from the classic autumn dessert. Plus, baking a multi-fruit pie isn't complicated and doesn't differ too much from most traditional apple pie recipes.

To make your own version successfully, once you've formed your pie dough, chop fresh apples and strawberries, then allow the fruits to macerate separately in their respective juices for one to two hours. This helps give your pie filling a more cohesive and concentrated flavor. When you're ready to assemble your pie, simply strain both juices into a saucepan and heat until thickened. This syrupy liquid is then added back to your fresh apples, strawberries, sugar, and spices right before baking. Fortunately, as you perfect this simple two-fruit dessert, you'll find there are many creative ways to prepare and serve your next strawberry apple pie.

For starters, make sure you're choosing the right kind of apples for the job. The best apple varieties to use for baked goods not only hold their shape well when cooked but also have a decent amount of natural sweetness. You can't go wrong with varieties like Braeburn, Honeycrisp, and Envy. You can also counteract the extra sweetness of fresh ripe strawberries with a more tart apple, like Granny Smith. Whichever kind you choose, make sure to chop both your apples and strawberries into even pieces for a pie filling that has a more uniform texture.

Speaking of texture, in addition to using the reduced liquid of both apples and strawberries to make a rich, juicy filling, if you want your pie to have a thicker consistency, you may want to add one more ingredient to the mix. To avoid runny fruit pies, use a thickener like cornstarch to improve the resulting texture of your pie's filling. All you need to do is whisk 2 tablespoons of cornstarch into a ¼ cup of water and add it to your simmering fruit juice mixture before pouring it over your prepared filling.

Once you settle on the best mode of preparation, feel free to get more creative as you assemble your pie. Instead of adding a lattice crust, top your pie with a streusel topping made of flour, oats, butter, and sugar. Or, for serving, make a strawberry whipped cream with crushed, freeze-dried strawberries.