Smoked Apple Pie
On November 22, 2019 (Updated May 11, 2024)
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This Smoked Apple Pie is the perfect Thanksgiving pie. Cooked on the smoker and topped with a buttery crumble topping, I guarantee you’ll find excuses to make this pie all year long.
Smoked Dutch Apple Pie
This apple pie recipe is specifically a Dutch apple pie (meaning it has a crumb topping). The mixture of butter, flour, and sugar creates the most beautiful crispy crumble on top of the baked apples. Every bite is the perfect blend of spiced apples, flaky pie crust, and crispy sweet crumble topping.
If you want a more traditional apple pie with a crust topping, you can double the crust recipe below and make your crust topping in whatever design you want. The crust is all homemade and a full butter crust (no shortening) which means it is absolutely full of flavor and oh-so flaky and tender.
If you decide to go the double crust route, I’m a sucker for a classic lattice pie topping, but I’ll let you take the creative reins on this one.
Dutch Apple Pie Cooked on a Smoker
Technically speaking, this pie isn’t “smoked.” When you cook baked goods on a smoker over an open flame, you won’t add a lot of smoked flavor, but the food will come out tasting sooooo good. Anything above 275 degrees F and your grill is going to be focusing more on temperature and maintaining a nice bed of coals, so you won’t be getting a lot of smoke coming through the smoke stack, but it’ll still taste better than if its cooked in the oven.
It’s only been in the last 50 years that things were baked in an electric or gas oven. Before then, food was cooked over an open fire, so don’t be afraid to take things back to the way cooking used to be! You’ll be absolutely blown away by how subtly improved your baked goods taste.
Tips for Making Smoked Apple Pie
This apple pie is relatively straightforward to make, but I do have some tips to help you smoke the perfect apple pie. Keep these in mind before your fire up your smoker.
- Serve warm or cold. If you serve the pie hot right off the smoker, the filling will be a bit loose. If you let it cool, it will slice better and hold its shape.
- Use crisp apples. For a tart pie – use granny smith. For a sweeter pie – try jonagold or honeycrisp.
- Refrigeration is important! Chilled pie crust won’t shrink as much when you bake it. It will hold its shape better than unchilled pie crust.
Baking Desserts on Your Pellet Smoker
When baking desserts on you pellet smoker, there are a few things to keep in mind. First and foremost, use light woods, like maple, pecan, cherry, and apple. You want the flavors of the baked good itself to shine through, so the wood you choose should not overpower the sweetness. Apple makes the most sense for this recipe!
Before you plan on smoking your dessert, make sure to start with a clean grill. Check out my post on How to Clean a Pellet Grill to make sure you don’t have any residue on your grates. Your dessert will take on BBQ flavors quickly if there are drippings still in the smoker, and believe me when I say you don’t want your dessert tasting like last night’s fish dinner.
More Pie Recipes
Gearing up to make some pie for Thanksgiving or another special occasion? Check out these other pie recipes from Hey Grill Hey:
Smoked Pecan Pie
Pumpkin Pie on the Grill
Sweet Pies aren’t the only kind of pies you can cook on your grill. Pot pies taste amazing as well:
Chicken Pot Pie with a Cheddar Bacon Crust
Smoked Apple Pie Recipe
This recipe was created for you, backyard griller! Here at Hey Grill Hey, we’re in the business of helping you make better BBQ, feed the people you love, and become a backyard BBQ hero. You can find more of my smoking and grilling recipes here on my website (browse the Homepage for inspiration) on Instagram, YouTube or our Facebook Page.
Smoked Apple Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 8 Tablespoons very cold salted butter
- 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons sugar
- 4 Tablespoons ice water more as needed
Apple Filling
- 5 1/2 cups baking apples peeled, cored, and sliced into 1/4 inch slices
- 1 Tablespoon lemon juice
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
Crumb Topping
- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
- 1/2 cup salted butter softened
Instructions
- Prepare the pie crust. Cut the chilled butter into cubes and put it back in the refrigerator while you prepare the flour. In a large food processor with a steel blade, place the flour, salt, and sugar. Pulse a few times to mix. Add the butter to the flour and pulse the food processor until the butter has broken down to the size of peas (12-15 times).
- Start the food processor and while it is running, pour the ice water down the feed tube until the dough begins to form a ball. Stop the processor as soon as the dough just starts to come together (there will still be a lot of unincorporated pieces of dough in the mixer bowl).
- Dump out on a floured board and press the dough into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
- While the dough is in the refrigerator, preheat your pellet smoker to 375 degrees F. You can use whatever wood you like, but I recommend apple. At this higher temperature, you won’t get too much smoke flavor from the grill. If you want, you can bake in the oven. I recommend moving your oven rack to the lowest shelf.
- Unwrap the dough and place it on a floured surface and roll into a 12 inch round. Transfer carefully to a deep dish 9x3 inch pie tin and crimp the edges. Place the pie tin back in the refrigerator while you prepare the filling and topping.
- Combine all of the ingredients for the pie filling in a large bowl. Toss gently with a rubber spatula to distribute the ingredients without breaking too many of the apples.
- Pile the apples into the prepared pie crust and set aside.
- In another bowl, combine the ingredients for the crumb topping. Use a fork or a pastry cutter to evenly distribute the butter.
- Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the apples.
- Place the pie into your preheated smoker, close the lid, and bake for 60 minutes. If the edges of the pie crust start to darken too much, you can cover the edges with foil.
- Remove the pie and allow to cool before serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Making for the second time today, first was a big hit! Gotta love a birthday apple pie
I just made it on my Camp Chef Pellet smoker and it was out of this worldUse Applewood pellets. Great RecipeThanks for sharing