I compared Martha Stewart's and Ina Garten's apple pie recipes. Only one actually tasted like apple pie.

Martha Stewart's apple pie. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I compared apple pie recipes by Martha Stewart and Ina Garten. Garten's crust called for shortening and used more citrus, while Stewart's recipe was simpler overall. After this experience, I will take any and all baking tips. Apple pie is a fall staple, but if you're anything like me, you've stuck to buying it from a grocery store or a bakery. Ahead of the beginning of fall, I wanted to try to bake an apple pie from scratch for the first time. As a novice baker, I needed all the help I could get and decided to attempt two recipes from cooking icons who know what they're talking about: Martha Stewart's Old-Fashioned Apple Pie and Ina Garten's Deep-Dish Apple Pie. My official review? Making apple pie is not for the faint of heart. But if you're feeling ambitious, read this, learn from my mistakes, and make sure you have all the kitchen gadgets required. Here's how Ina Garten's and Martha Stewart's apple pies compare. The first step of any good pie is the crust. These are the ingredients I needed for Stewart's recipe. The ingredients for Martha Stewart's pie crust. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Her recipe called for flour, butter, sugar, ice water, and salt. The next step was to combine the flour, butter, sugar, and salt in a food processor. The food processor. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider This is where I hit my first roadblock. My food processor wasn't big enough to fit the entire mixture, so I had to split it up and run it in multiple batches. The recipe said to mix until it looked like a "coarse meal" — I think it looks pretty accurate. The dough. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I then slowly mixed in ice water. Using cold ingredients like ice water and chilled butter helps keep the dough flaky for baking. Since it would've been too difficult to portion out the water in the smaller food processor, I combined it all in my standing mixer. After mixing in the water, I split the dough into two halves and put it in the fridge to chill. The finished pie dough. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider That's for the top and bottom crusts. The recipe instructed me to flatten both halves into discs. This crust was pretty firm even before I put it away to chill. It didn't stick to the cutting board at all. Next, I made Garten's crust. The ingredients for Garten's recipe. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Garten's recipe is similar, bar one ingredient: It calls for flour, ice water, sugar, salt, butter, and shortening. I used Crisco. The process was essentially the same, but this dough was much stickier. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Maybe it was the addition of the shortening; maybe I added too much ice water; maybe I made some other rookie mistake — but this dough was sticky. I had to coat my hands in flour to get it out of the bowl and off the mixing tool. I covered the cutting board in flour to counteract the stickiness of this dough. The dough. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider It took a few minutes for me to successfully roll Garten's dough into a ball without leaving too much behind on the cutting board. The Barefoot Contessa's recipe didn't say to split the dough in half before chilling it, so I kept it as one ball. I let them chill in the fridge overnight. Enjoy the view of my fridge. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I decided I didn't have the mental fortitude to attempt making the pies on the same day, so I gave myself a full night to prepare. The next day, I began making the filling for Garten's pie. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Both recipes recommend using Granny Smith apples, since they're firmer and don't get mealy when heated up. Garten's recipe said to use 4 pounds of sliced apples — thankfully, I had a food scale. I ended up using nine large Granny Smith apples. Next, I added spices and other flavorings. The filling. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I needed: A zested lemon A zested orange 2 tablespoons of fresh lemon juice 1 tablespoon of fresh orange juice ½ cup of sugar ¼ cup of flour 1 teaspoon of salt ¾ teaspoon of ground cinnamon ½ teaspoon of ground nutmeg 1/8 teaspoon of ground allspice Thankfully, I have a manual juicer. Here's what it looked like when it was mixed. The filling. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I was concerned the orange zest and orange juice would make this taste a bit too citrusy, but I trusted the process. I was sure the Contessa would not lead me astray. This is where things started to go wrong. The crust was simply too sticky to roll out. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider It may look good here, but let me tell you, I thought this was going to be the death of me. I had to use what felt like a gallon of flour to make sure this wouldn't stick to my hands, the rolling pin, or the board. I couldn't believe that after nearly a full day in the fridge, it was still this soft. Once I finally got it to a good size and texture, I couldn't get it into the pie dish. It was sticking to the board. My only solution was to put the dish on top and then flip it over. This was my only solution. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Flour was everywhere. But at this point, I was so frustrated that covering my kitchen with flour was a price I was willing to pay. But wouldn't you know — even after flipping it upside down, the crust was still partially stuck to the cutting board. It took a couple of tries, but I eventually got the dough inside the dish. I piled the apples on top. A perfectly filled-in apple pie. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Although I was concerned there were too many apples, I had come this far following Garten's recipe, and it was too late to turn back now. Anyone who can perfectly crimp a pie's edges is a personal hero of mine. It looked rough, I can admit it. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I will never understand how people make this look easy. My crust was simultaneously too thin and not big enough. If I stretched the top any more, the apples would start poking holes. But there wasn't enough to pinch the top and bottom together. At some point, I gave up and brushed it all over with the egg wash (one egg and 1 tablespoon of water beaten together), and sprinkled it with sugar. This was not my finest work. The finished product. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider The pie baked for an hour and 15 minutes at 400 degrees. To put it simply, it's not great-looking. But I was excited to see how it tasted. Who cares if it wasn't bakery-quality? Unfortunately, it didn't taste good either. The inside. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider After letting it sit for a couple of hours, I excitedly dug in. Besides the extreme sogginess of the bottom crust, which I know even the most experienced bakers have trouble with, I thought the orange taste was overpowering. However, once I got over the initial orange-forward flavor, I thought the crust and the apples tasted good. I especially liked a slice paired with vanilla ice cream. But overall, I was not pleased with how this turned out. I waited another day before attempting Stewart's recipe, which called for 12 apples. The apples. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider After making Garten's recipe, I felt like I had been standing for two hours. My back couldn't take baking another full pie. So the next day, I spent 10 minutes peeling, coring, and slicing 12 apples — three more than I had used for Garten's recipe. I have to admit, for both Stewart and Garten's recipes, I probably should've cut the apples into smaller pieces, but I was already so tired from using the slicer that I just couldn't face any further work. Lesson learned. The ingredients for the filling in Stewart's recipe were a little different. The filling. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider This recipe called for: 2 tablespoons of flour ¾ cup of sugar The zest and juice of one lemon 1 ½ teaspoons of cinnamon ½ teaspoon of nutmeg A pinch of ground cloves Compared to Garten's recipe, it contained less flour, more sugar, no oranges, more cinnamon, and cloves instead of allspice. Neither bowl was big enough for me to toss the apples effectively, so I split them. The filling. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider This is something writers like to call foreshadowing. If Garten's dough was too sticky, Stewart's was a bit too firm. Stewart's pie crust. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider Still, this experience was better. I'd take getting a workout while rolling dough over making a mess of my entire kitchen with flour and sticky dough any day. To have a reasonably sized pie, I ended up having to ditch about two or three apples. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I should've known that I wasn't going to be able to fit all the apples in my pie dish, but I was still annoyed at the waste. This recipe called for 2 tablespoons of butter to be cut and spread out on top of the apples before putting the top crust on. When it was assembled, I thought it was way more recognizable as a pie. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider After I brushed it with the egg wash, crimped the edges, dusted it with sugar, and cut vents in the top, I felt pretty pleased with myself. My first pie attempt wasn't even solid enough to cut vents into. I breathed a sigh of relief when this came out of the oven. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider It baked in the oven for an hour at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Is this the perfect-looking apple pie? No. But it's definitely better than my first try. This was a lot less soggy, but also more hollow somehow. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider After letting it sit for an hour, I cut into my pie. I was surprised to see how hollow the top was. It's possible I should've created larger vents to let steam escape from the pastry. However, thankfully, it wasn't as soggy as my first pie. I preferred the taste of this pie — it tasted like apples, cinnamon, and sugar, not orange. As my dad noted after taking a bite, it might not look great, but it tasted how it was supposed to. If I had to recommend following one recipe, it'd be Martha Stewart's. But if you're a novice baker like me, honestly, I'd stick to store-bought. Gabbi Shaw/Business Insider I can confidently say I never want to bake apple pie again, and I definitely never want to make my own crust again. If you prefer a tangier apple pie, then I'd say Ina Garten's is the one for you — just make sure you have buckets of flour on deck. If you're looking for a more classic sweet apple pie, go with Martha Stewart's, although both pair deliciously with vanilla ice cream. This was a challenge for me, someone who considers themselves an OK baker at best. This fall, I'll be sticking with my Stop & Shop pies, thank you very much. Editor's note: This story was first published in November 2025 and most recently updated in September 2026. Read the original article on Business Insider

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