All you need to know to make the most delicious homemade apple pie

Here it is: THE classic, THE most-loved and always welcomed at any table, any day of the year: The APPLE PIE!

With this classic recipe you will get a fruity and juicy, buttery and cinnamon-y apple pie. Every bite of this dessert will burst in your mouth with the classic holiday flavor of apples and cinnamon, sandwiched in a buttery and flaky, homemade pie crust.

There's nothing quite like it!

Here are all my tips and recommendations to make the best apple pie you could imagine.

First of all: I strongly recommend making the pie crust from scratch (please don't go with store-bought crust!).

Your pie can only be as good as the crust you're using. So if you have the time, please please pleaaaaase, make the pie dough from scratch.

Note: this dough can be made ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator!

Making pie crust is really not time-consuming, especially if you have and use a food processor.

If you haven't made this pie dough before, it might just take a bit of practice.

Mostly, the biggest issue is to find the right amount of water to make the dough come together, without being too dry and without mixing too much.

So, here is what you need to make the best pie crust:

1. Really cold butter. You can put it in the freezer for 10 minutes if you like, or use it straight from the refrigerator. The dough will need to have little pieces of butter at the end, which will yield an airy and flaky pastry when baking and melting in the oven.

2. Really cold water AND in the right amount. Place one cup of water in the freezer (Same idea of the butter - we need to keep the pieces of butter cold and not "overheat the dough). Use as much water as needed for the dough to come together. Not too much. Which brings us to the next tip.

3. Weight the flour if you can, or measure it correctly. It's always a common mistake to pick up too much flour when packing your cup. More flour will require more water.

OR: remember to be flexible. Add more water than the recipe asks for if needed until you get the dough consistency just right!

4. Last but not least: do not overmix the dough. You need to be quick and just mix until needed. This is why I like to use a food processor. It takes only a few seconds to cut the butter into the flour and mix it all up. As I already mentioned, we want little pieces of butter in the dough to make a flaky pie crust. NOT the smooth dough we do for bread or pizza dough.

Now, let's talk about the apple filling.

What I strongly recommend is to let the apple slices sit at room temperature in a colander for at least 30 minutes when coated with lemon juice, cinnamon, and sugar.

The apple slices will release a lot of their juice which means they will not shrink as much when baking. The result, the pie will be nice and filled with sliced apples, with no empty gap between the shell and the apple! And no soggy bottom crust. I know you can agree, that NO ONE likes a wet pie bottom that looks underbaked!

So: Collect the juice released by the apple and use it to make a delicious denser syrup: mix with a little butter and simmer until it gets thick and golden. Add it to the filling (all or just some of it). Note: I add corn starch to the apple to dense up all the juice when baking ... again: no soggy bottom!

I know waiting for the apple to rest is time-consuming, but it's really worth the extra step. You can play with the dough and make the lattice while you wait!