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This Rose Apple Pie is a labor of love. It’s an apple pie that is in shape of a rose. It’s stunning to look at and even better to eat. And topped with a bourbon caramel glaze and flakey sea salt. Slice it up and enjoy your life.
Why Make a Rose Apple Pie
Make this rose apple pie if you want to stunt on people. I mean this with love. But if you wanna win Thanksgiving and let everyone know that you are that girl/guy, make this pie.
It is a true labor of love but it’s beautiful to look at and it’s delicious. Apples that are layered side-by-side make the pie look like gigantic rose. I like to brush it with a butterscotch glaze for some flavor and top it with flakey sea salt.
And of course, if you want to make something easier that involves easier, definitely look to my Homemade Apple Pie or Easy Apple Cobbler.
Ingredients You’ll Need for Rose Apple Pie
- Apples – I love to use a combination of granny smith and honey crisp or gala. I like the color variation of the red and green.
- Lemon – You definitely need to toss the apple slices with lemon to prevent them from browning.
- Spices – This pie uses cinnamon and nutmeg. Two classic apple pie spices.
- Brown Sugar – I love brown sugar and this pie is tossed in brown sugar. AND we need brown sugar for the butterscotch glaze.
- Pie crust – You can make your own homemade pie crust. OR you can buy one. Zero shame!
For the rest of the ingredients, please refer to the recipe card below!
Tips and Tricks
It looks harder than it looks, for sure. Because this recipe is a bit more challenging (really just with the arranging), I’d like to share some things to keep in mind:
- A mandolin is a must. It’ll make the whole process go much quicker and you really need to have apple slices that aren’t too thick.
- My apples were pretty small. If you’re using normal-sized apples, use a pie pan. (I opted to use a tart shell because the apple slices were pretty small.) My apples were too small for a normal pie pan and a tad bit too big for a tart shell so I trimmed about a 1/2-inch from the bottom of the slices.
- On arranging the slices. The second layer of apple slices should be arranged in between the first layers indentations. Does this make sense? This creates the illusion of a rose. It’s fairly easy and actually kinda fun once you get started.
- The freezer is your friend. Freeze the whole thing for 20 minutes before baking it. I know that seems weird but arranging the apple slices takes a good 15 minutes or so. By the time you’re done, the pie shell or tart shell will need to rechill.
- Use a combination of apples. I used granny smith and pink lady. I liked the color variation. I think all granny smith would be too tart. But all red and pink lady or honey crisp would be delicious.
- If you want to add some flavor to it, you can make this Rose Apple Pistachio Tart version. It has a layer of delicious pistachio paste under the apples.
- Tent the center. If the apples start to get too brown, simply place a sheet of foil right in the center. I like to cut it out into a circle (it’s fine if it’s not perfect) and place it right in the center over the apples. This way the crust can cook without overcooking the apples.
Recipe FAQs
Yes, absolutely. You can make it the day ahead, freeze it (cover it lightly with plastic wrap) and bake it from frozen.
I don’t think any other fruit will really work. Maybe persimmons? But you really need a crisp fruit. Pears would be too mushy.
Absolutely, replace it with vanilla extract or water.
More Apple Recipes
Quick and Easy
Apple Pandowdy
Fall Recipes
Cheddar Rye Apple Hand Pies
Desserts
Apple Cheese Danish
Holiday
Apple Cinnamon Rolls
If you tried this Rose Apple Pie or any other recipe on my website, please leave a 🌟 star rating and let me know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Rose Apple Pie
Video
Equipment
- 1 (9-inch) pie plate or tart pan
- 1 mandolin
Ingredients
Filling:
- 1 lemon
- 7-8 apples, weighing: 1 1/2 pounds, cored and quartered
- 1/4 cup light brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
- Pinch kosher salt
Bourbon Glaze:
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1 tablespoon bourbon
- Flakey sea salt , for garnish
Instructions
To Make Prepare the Apple Filling:
- Squeeze the lemon into a medium bowl. Using a mandolin (set on the second setting), slice each quartered apple into 1/8-inch slivers.
- As the apples are sliced, transfer them to the bowl and toss them in the lemon juice; this will prevent them from browning. (Reserve one quarter of an apple for the center – we're going to slice that later).
- Repeat until all the apples are sliced and in the bowl. To the bowl, add the brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Toss until evenly coated.
To Assemble the Pie:
- Roll out your pie crust and place it in a 9-inch pie pan or 9-inch tart shell. (I chose the latter.) Trim the edges and discard. If you're using a tart shell, you can simply roll the rolling pin on top to trim it. Feel free to add a crimped edge to the pie if you're using a pie plate.
- Arrange the apple slices side-by-side, placing the cut side down on the pie crust. Start closest to the edge of the tart shell/pie plate. Continue as you work yourself around. This will take a good 15 minutes.
- As you get to the center, you'll need apple slivers that are very thin. Slice the reserved quarter of an apple very thinly (on the mandolin's first setting) and arrange it until the gap in the center is completely closed.
- I took a few slices and rolled it onto itself to and placed that in the very center like a rose's center.
To Chill the Pie:
- Transfer the pie to the freezer and freeze until firm, about 20 minutes. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Brush the edges of the crust with egg wash and place in the oven for 30 minutes, check on it at the 30 minute mark and if the tops of the apples are getting too brown, place a circle of foil right on top. I did this to make sure the tops of the apples didn't burn but the crust was baked through. Bake for an additional 20 minutes, until the crust is lightly golden brown. Allow to come to room temperature on a cooling rack.
To Make the Glaze:
- In a saucepan medium, placed over moderately high heat, warm the honey on the stove. Pour in the bourbon and cook for an additional minute or two. Just to cook some of the alcohol out.
- Brush the pie liberally with the warm glaze. Top with flakey sea salt and serve with ice cream or whipped cream.
Notes
- A mandolin is a must. It’ll make the whole process go much quicker and you really need to have apple slices that aren’t too thick.
- My apples were pretty small. If you’re using normal-sized apples, use a pie pan. (I opted to use a tart shell because the apple slices were pretty small.) My apples were too small for a normal pie pan and a tad bit too big for a tart shell so I trimmed about a 1/2-inch from the bottom of the slices.
- On arranging the slices – The second layer of apple slices should be arranged in between the first layers indentations. Does this make sense? This creates the illusion of a rose. It’s fairly easy and actually kinda fun once you get started.
- The freezer is your friend – Freeze the whole thing for 20 minutes before baking it. I know that seems weird but arranging the apple slices takes a good 15 minutes or so. By the time you’re done, the pie shell or tart shell will need to rechill.
- Use a combination of apples – I used granny smith and pink lady. I liked the color variation. I think all granny smith would be too tart. But all red and pink lady or honey crisp would be delicious.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
In the recipe card it says the cook time is 25 minutes. In the steps, it says to bake for 30 min, cover and bake for another 20 min. You might want to update that. My daughter is making this now and hoping itโs a success.
Hi Jen, Apologies for the confusion. You’ll want to bake it for 30 minutes, check on the apples (and cover with foil if needed) and bake for an additional 20 minutes until the crust is medium golden brown.
This Rose Apple pie made Christmastime Xtra special. Thanks for sharing this recipe.
I am looking forward to doing this for Christmas! Two questions though: 1) do you take the core out of the apple before cutting the slices in the mandolin? 2) can you bake the pie hours before serving it? And if you do.. do you put it back in the refrigerator or leave it at room temperature?
This has become our Thanksgiving staple. Everyone loves it. I serve it warm with vanilla bean ice cream and drizzle some of the caramel sauce over the whole thing. SO good and so beautiful!
I want to make this for Thanksgiving and did a test run last night. I used a food processors smallest blade to slice the apples and the assembly only too about 20 min. I did not pre-bake the crust and I wish I had as I ended up with a little bit of a โsoggy bottomโ, as they would say on the British Bake Off. I also doubled the glaze recepie and that turned into a yummy dark, thick, Carmel which I ended up pouring over the pie as you would have with this glaze. Wish I had more of the Carmel sauce.
My apples kept some bite to them from top to bottom and was not to liquidy at the bottom as others have said but, I do wish I had drained the apples first as I think the crust would have turned out better.
Pictures on my ig alzim4
Ahh thanks for these comments. I can’t see your photos bc your IG is private ๐
Looks so beautiful and delicious!
If I want to make this pie for an event that has kids is there another glaze I can use besides Bourbon? An alcohol free glaze?
Well this is basically caramel with bourbon in it, so you could just leave out the bourbon and be a-ok!
Yep, just looked over the recipe and you can just skip the bourbon all together. It’ll be a little thicker than what is pictured but it’ll surely work.
Beautiful pie. I tried making it and everyone absolutely loved its looks. I’d post a pic but I don’t see an option to. Unfortunately I shouldn’t have been trusted with a mandolin. I recommend keeping a box of band-aids and paper towels ready next to your apple slicing equipment…it would have helped me out A LOT
Oh I love when people posts pics of the recipes either on Instagram (you can use the hashtag #acozykitchen) or on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/ACozyKitchen
Sorry about the mandolin accident. It can get dangerous, trust me I know. My boyfriend taught me a trick. He said that your fingers shouldn’t be grabbing the vegetable or apple, but instead your palm should be grasping it (fingers should be parallel to the mandolin), this way there’s no change for your fingers to get sliced.
Thanks for the tip!
i just bought the oxo mandolin 2.0-it has a GIANT food object holder. it’s nearly the size of a salad plate. no way to cut your hand, and it has little spiky grippy things to hold the food you’re slicing. definite life changer!
this is so good to know thank you for sharing! xo
Great job! I absolutely love your attention to detail.
I’ve just created a similar blog post to this, check it out!
http://www.rosiepages.com
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Boozy pies are the best pies. This is gorgeous.