An heirloom apple pie from Lois's handwritten recipe card: six cups of apples spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, and a scatter of cinnamon red hots that melt into the filling and tint it red. Simple, old-fashioned, and baked until bubbling. The original card is shown with the recipe.
VegetarianMake-AheadHoliday
Best for: holidays and Sunday dinners. Makes one 9-inch double-crust pie (about 8 slices). A from-the-card family recipe — the red hots are the signature touch.
Lois's Apple Pie — Recipe
Prep
25 min
Bake
40–50 min
Oven
425°F
Makes
one 9″ pie
Equipment
9-inch pie pan
Ingredients
Crust
1 store-bought double pie crust (top and bottom)
Filling
6 cups apples, peeled and sliced
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup flour
½ tsp cinnamon
½ tsp nutmeg
Dash of salt
2 tbsp butter
Cinnamon red hots, to taste (a few tablespoons; they melt into the filling)
Instructions
Heat the oven to 425°F. Line a 9-inch pie pan with the bottom crust.
In a large bowl, toss the sliced apples with the sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt until evenly coated.
Fill the crust with the apple mixture. Dot the top with the butter and scatter the red hots over the apples.
Lay the top crust over the filling, trim and crimp the edges, and poke holes (or cut vents) in the top crust to let steam escape.
Bake at 425°F for 40–50 minutes, until the crust is golden and the filling bubbles. If the edges brown too fast, shield them with foil.
Cool before slicing so the filling sets.
About the red hots
The cinnamon red hots are the signature of this version — they melt into the filling as it bakes, adding a candy-cinnamon punch and tinting the apples red. The card doesn't give an amount; a few tablespoons is a good starting point. Add more for a stronger cinnamon-candy flavor and color.
Notes
The recipe as written is faithful to Lois's card: the sugar, flour, spices, salt, six cups of apples, butter, red hots, and the 425°F / 40–50 minute bake all come straight from it. The assembly steps and the store-bought double crust are filled in — the card lists the filling and the bake but not a crust recipe or a method, so those are reconstructed in the standard way. Any apple works; a firm baking apple (Granny Smith, Honeycrisp) holds its shape best.
Make-ahead & storage
Bakes ahead well — it keeps at room temperature a day or covered in the fridge several days, and reheats nicely. Freezes baked, or assemble and freeze unbaked and bake from frozen with extra time.
