My dad made these pretty often when I was a kid, but I never paid attention to what he was doing until it was time to eat.
Then last year, I was gifted with my great-grandmother’s recipe collection. Jesus Lord. It was a veritable treasure trove of good food maps. Most were written on cards and neatly filed in those little plastic card boxes. But the real fun was the big cardboard box filled with all the recipes not written on little cards.
There were recipes written on the backs of paper plates, receipts, bank statements, cash envelopes, even some fancy hotel stationary. I like to imagine that old great-granny of mine just globetrottin’ all around the place, bugging people for their secret recipes everywhere she went. This was one of those. Properly titled, “Mrs. McCoy’s Fried Apple Pies”, my dad said his grandma had a plate of these ready for him every day after school. Pretty sweet, right?
- Pie Crust for 1-9″ pie
- Apple filling:
- 1 large Granny Smith apple
- 1 tablespoon butter
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- Peach Filling:
- 3-4 peaches
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- Oil for frying (1/2″ deep, about 2 cups)
- Prepare the pie crust or allow store-bought crust to thaw.
- For apple filling: Quarter and core apple, thinly slice each quarter crosswise. You should have about 2 cups. Saute apple in butter over medium-high heat for about 2 minutes until just softened. Add sugar and cinnamon and cook another 2 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature.
- For peach filling: Pare and pit peaches. Chop finely and combine with sugar and heat in a small pot over medium heat, about 2-3 minutes, until softened. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Cool.
- To make pies:
- Roll the dough out very thin, on a floured surface.
- Cut 3-inch circles (you will get between 12-16 circles) and gently roll each circle further to form a slight oval.
- Place about a tablespoon of filling (drained of excess liquid) on half of each oval.
- Dampen the edges of the dough and fold over, crimping shut with a fork.
- Heat the oil until around 350-365 or until a bit of flour sizzles when thrown in.
- Fry each pie for 1-2 minutes on each side until golden brown.
- Allow to drain and cool a few minutes before eating alone or with ice cream!
Click here to be directed to a foolproof homemade pie crust recipe!
The LEARN TO COOK Book is Here!
By popular demand, Learn to Cook is now available in print! Over 300 pages of knowledge between two soft covers.
Learn To Cook is designed to get you cooking for yourself like a civilized human being! Drawing from a lifetime of cooking and over two years experience making instructional cooking videos, author Hilah Johnson has produced a beginners’ cookbook for today’s young adults. The casual, straightforward style will appeal to anyone with a sense of humor and the focus on fresh, simple recipes will appeal to anyone who loves to eat. The book includes chapters on menu planning, knife skills, grocery shopping and more, plus a comprehensive spice chart and over 150 recipes from breakfast to dinner to snacks in between.
I create short-form, educational, and occasionally hilarious cooking videos geared towards beginner and intermediate cooks, as well as people who are just looking for simple, low-cost recipes. Everything is made from scratch, people!
{ 47 comments… read them below or add one }
Looks like you sprinkled a little granulated sugar on the outside of the pies, probably when they were still hot, so it’d stick. Even better!
How can you say this isn’t healthy (unless you have diabetes, God forbid, and can’t eat the filling)? Just fry it up in canola oil and soak up the good monounsaturated fats, then exercise the calories off.
We had Pueblo Indian frybread in Taos, New Mexico, and the Pueblo women said that it was fried in canola oil because it was so healthy. If I couldn’t believe them, who could I believe? (I keep telling myself that.)
Yes! I did sprinkle sugar on for the picture. Wish I’d thought to do that in the video – or even cinnamon/sugar! I also used canola oil, too, then ran around the block a hundred times.
I still need to try making fry bread. I hear there’s a new food truck in Austin called Navajo Tacos. Maybe they’d give me the recipe…
Go nuts — try sprinkling on maple sugar!
Hey Hilah! loved those fried pies you made, can I put them in a deep fryer instears of on the stove? and how long should they be deep fried?
Hi Ron! I have never tried them in a deep fryer but I think they should work as long as you’ve crimped the edges tightly shut. I’d think they would need no more that 2 minutes to get cooked and brown. Enjoy!
this is my all time fave… combination of peach and mango is also a good alternative
Oh that does sounds delicious! I never would have thought of mango pies. Yum!
Think I could try this with my Strawberry Rhubarb pie filling I make at home??
YES! PLEASE! Sorry I missed this question before. But, yes. That sounds absolutely wonderful!
I just made these for the family. They were ok I think I will try the sugar on the outside next time.
Hi Olivia!
This filling is not very sweet. I should have mentioned that. You can add a couple more tablespoons of sugar next time, or your idea. I do like the texture the post-fry sugar coating adds to them.
hello paul from sunrise i love this recepi i wii make to day my friend the com over to night for game boston and miami paul fl
I curse the day McDonald’s stopped frying their pies. I rarely, if ever, eat fast food and when I do, I am fully aware of what I am putting into my body. Nobody goes to fast food joints for health food. Thanks for the recipe. Now if you’ll excuse me, I am going to sweetly caress my fried pie before I tenderly stuff it in my mouth.
Ha! I totally agree with you, Victor. I like to eat mostly healthy, but when I’m ready to not be healthy, I like to go ALL THE WAY. Fried pies 4-ever!
Hilah, Здравствуйте почитал Ваш рецепт и ничего не понял. Наверно это пироги с яблоками и персиком. Вы молодец заходите в гости ко мне!
Hey Hilah,
These looked so amazing i had to try them. But sadly im on a diet so i couldnt fry them so i baked them instead THEY WERE AMAZING. One thing i did do different was with the apple filling i made what we call here in Ireland stewed apple. Its a little healthier because there is no butter i think ye call it applesauce but i made mine chunky tho. Wow would you look at that i only meant to write a line or two
.
Love you Hilah.
- Shane
Hey Shane!
Thanks so much for that tip! I’m glad they came out. Do you remember what temperature and how long you cooked them for? Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea for me to try it baked, too!
Yeh I baked them at 180 C which is 350 F. I baked until golden brown it took 10 – 15 minutes. They were so yummy. I might make some more now, but i have already eaten quite a few. I’d love too work out the calories just incase
Oh, thank you!
Oh my god Hilah im so sorry i was making enchilladas while typing this, The time is right, but you need the temp to be 425 F.
Sorry once again
,
Love from Ireland
hi its me again here’s a suggestion make sugared apples
Love these!! I baked them instead of fried them and they came out amazing. Thanks Shane for the tip! Seriously Hiliah, you really hit the spot for me with this recipe. It was baked savory goodness
Yay! Thanks, Jessica! So glad you tried the baking method, too.
I must admit that these are delicious but being a health freak, (you know the person who won’t eat a thing without making sure it’s okay with their diet) I wanted to ask what the serving size for this is. Thank-you for this delicious recipe! (Don’t worry I only had one)
Hi CeCe! I guess one fried pie would be a serving and I get between 12-16 out of this recipe. It varies with how thin I roll the dough and how efficient I am with cutting circles and re-rolling the scraps.
Also, check out the comments. About halfway down, Shane gives instructions for how he baked them which would be much more diet-friendly.
So I’m going to try theis today and I hope they turn out just as you did them
Hope you liked them, Nancy!
Howdy, love! Just wanted to let you know that you are my newfound food goddess! I discovered you via yahoo when they did an article on your chick fil gays, and I was instantly hooked when my boyfriend and I made them. Yummy in the tummy! We adore you!
Thanks, Lance!
You are too kind!
G’day again, just wondering, would it still be magic if I used honey instead of sugar and if so do I use the same amount?
In theory the brown paper sack you used for the oil still was recycled cause it was had a second use at fire starter so it’s all good.
opps with the typo, I noticed too late
Hi Nate! Are you talking about using honey in the filling or on the outside? Doesn’t really matter I guess, though, because I think it would work both ways. Now I’m envisioning a fried, apple-filled honey-pie. Yum! Sticky and hard to eat but delicious!
I tried both last night. the honey ones, I meant using it in the filling only, I’m too lazy to enjoy it on the outside cause of the mess. nice, but I think I’m used to the sugar instead so we liked the sugar ones more. I couldn’t find any sugar so I was gonna use honey but I found some sugar sachets from takeaways we were too stingy to throw out/waste… Everyone in the house prefers them to the McDonald’s pies. I did them as rectangles cause they were bigger and we are apple-pie greedy. this was so easy to do, thanks again
Oh man, I never thought to make them rectangular! I’m glad you found your way with the sugar packets. More than once, I’ve been thankful to have kept the little soy sauce packets that come with Chinese take-out, as well as the parmesan and red pepper flakes that come with pizza.
Hey girlie, how’s about drizzling some buttery vanilla icing glaze over ‘em..?? ah! that’s how I’d eat ‘em!! yum!
Holy mackerel I just flipped my lid! How come I never thought of that?!?!? Thanks, Renee! I know what I’ll be doing next time.
you are one funny chick! hah! Happy Birthday hon! I made us a peanut butter pie today just because….wish I could give ya piece for your birthday!!!
Help!! I made these pies, they were amazing, but they fell apart as soon as I picked them up, did I use too much flour rolling out the dough? They were super tasty though!
Hi Lauren!
I’m glad you were able to enjoy them even with the trouble! Can you tell me, do you mean they fell apart before or after you cooked them? If the dough was breaking before frying, then yes you might have used too much flour. If they broke after frying, them maybe you just rolled it too thin. Hope that helps!
Thanks for the reply! They fell apart after frying, I will try less flour, I tend to get too cautious about stick dough. I will try them again!! Yay!
I like the idea of sprinkling these with cinnamon sugar after the frying and then eat em with a dollop of vanilla ice cream. Some people like cheddar cheese on their apple pies which I’ve never “gotten” but for those, you could chunk in some cheddar and I bet they’d go gagga! The only fried pies I’ve ever tried before was won ton wrappers with bananas and Nutella inside. Those were just sinful!
Sounds great, Jenn! I think the cheese would also be a good addition, though I’ve never tried it with these. Maybe a mild cheddar… I do like apple slices in a grilled cheese so I can imagine this would be good, too.
This is such a late comment but I hope you see it…I want to make these for my boyfriend, but he likes cherry filling (kinda like what would come in a McDonald’s cherry pie since those are his guilty pleasure). Can you suggest ingredients for that filling? I wasn’t sure if I could just use cherry pie filling or what…
Sure, that will work! Or use some frozen pitted cherries in place of the apple here. Enjoy. Happy Valentine’s!
HI Hilah,
Just thinking out loud here but I wonder how these would be if filled with your Cherry Chipotle Sauce? (It may have to be reduced a bit more to make it less runny.) And maybe add a slice of Cream Cheese inside to keep it company?
Anyhow, these Pies have been added to my ever growing list of your recipes to make and have fun with. I will let you know if I give the Cherry ones a shot.
Sounds terrific, Keith! I think it’s surely worth a try. Maybe you could thicken the sauce with some cornstarch, too. Let me know if you try it!
Heehee! Thanks for amending that, Shane. Hope the enchiladas came out good!