The two key elements to the perfect apple pie are flavour and texture. You want a balance of sweet and tart, without mushiness or mealiness. That’s why Golden Delicious and Braeburn apples, according to J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats, have the best flavour and texture for baking.
Image from J. Kenji Lopez-Alt.
Kenji tested 10 varieties of apples to see how their flavour and texture fared when baked in a pie. He looked for apples that came out tender but not mushy, and weren’t overwhelmingly sweet or sour. Golden Delicious turned out to have a balance of sweet and tart, while not softening too much when baked. Braeburns had a pear-like flavour and were fairly firm after baking. All the other varieties either didn’t meet the flavour or texture standards.
The Food Lab’s Apple Pie, Part 1: What Are the Best Apples for Pie? [Serious Eats]
Comments
3 responses to “Why Golden Delicious And Braeburn Are The Best Apples For Pie”
Well I live in Sydney and have never seen or even heard of Bramley. There may be a lot of variety of Apples out there but In Australia we don’t many of them, so the article is perfect in testing more common types.
Get off your high horse, if you are happy with Bramley good on you.
There are several hundred varieties of apple grown in Australia, including Bramley, which is a great cooking apple that cooks to a soft puree. I prefer some of the others like Belle De Boskoop and Sturmer Pippin that are a bit firmer but Bramley is great in combination with them.
If people show interest in some of the unusual ones and support small farmers who still grow them (at farmers markets and farm shops for example) they will discover a whole world of different flavours and textures that will blow the supermarket kinds out of the water.