Apple Double Crust Pie - avg 3.2lb

My crew and I build this pie's crust the only way we know how to do it right: 100% butter, never shortening. That one decision is the whole reason people who say they 'don't like apple pie' come back for seconds.

Granny Smith apples give this homemade apple pie its tart backbone — they hold their shape and don't collapse into mush the way sweeter apples can. We balance that tartness with freshly ground nutmeg, allspice, and cinnamon, a splash of rum, and real vanilla, and we mix the filling from scratch in our small White Bear Lake bakery, not in a factory line.

This is a frozen apple pie — keep it in your freezer until you're ready to prepare it, and follow the enclosed instructions to get the crust the way we intended it — golden, flaky, and worth the wait. For serving, we like it slightly warm, with nothing more than a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side.

This pie contains milk and wheat and is not suitable for gluten-free or dairy-free diets — we haven't pursued certifications for either. It's also not keto, paleo, or carnivore-friendly given the flour and sugar in the crust and filling. Keep frozen until use.

Ingredients: Granny Smith Apples, Bleached All Purpose Flour (Bleached Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamin Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid, Enzyme), Unsalted Butter (Pasteurized Cream, Natural Flavoring), Sugar, Water, Apple Cider (Apple Juice, Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Benzoate), Instant Clearjel (Modified Food Starch), Lemon Juice, Turbinado Sugar, Rum, Milk (Milk, Vitamin D3), Vanilla (Vanilla Bean Extractives, Water), Cinnamon, Himalayan Sea Salt, Nutmeg, and Allspice. Contains: Milk, Wheat.

---

Common Questions

How is this crust different from a typical grocery-store apple pie crust?
Most commercial pie crusts, including many sold frozen at grocery stores, use shortening or hydrogenated oil blends because they're cheaper and hold up longer on a shelf. This crust is 100% butter, never shortening. That's a specific ingredient choice, not a marketing phrase — you can see it in the ingredients list, where unsalted butter is the only fat used.

Why does an all-butter crust bake up differently than one made with shortening?
Butter is roughly 15-18% water, and shortening contains almost none. When butter melts in a hot oven, that water turns to steam, pushing apart the layers of dough and creating the flaky, shattering texture bakers work hard to get right. Butter's milk solids also brown, adding a nutty flavor shortening can't replicate — shortening produces a more uniform, tender-but-flat texture with less flavor.

Is this apple pie gluten-free or dairy-free?
No. The crust is made with bleached wheat flour and butter, and the filling includes milk. This pie contains milk and wheat, and we haven't sought gluten-free or dairy-free certification for it — if you're baking or shopping for someone with a wheat or dairy allergy, this isn't the right pie for them.

Why Granny Smith apples specifically, instead of a sweeter variety?
Granny Smiths are firm and tart, which means they hold their shape through baking instead of breaking down into applesauce inside the crust. That tartness also gives us more room to build flavor with spices, rum, and vanilla without the filling turning cloyingly sweet.

How should I prepare and serve this pie?
This pie ships frozen — keep it in your freezer until you're ready to prepare it, then follow the instructions included with the pie. Once it's ready, we like to serve it slightly warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, which plays well against the tart Granny Smith filling and the rum and spice notes.

Who actually makes this pie?
It's made by hand by Ben Neumann and his crew of bakers at a small, licensed bakery in White Bear Lake, Minnesota — not a factory line. The filling, spices, and crust are all mixed and assembled from scratch on-site.