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

• 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

This is something writers like to call foreshadowing.

If Garten’s dough was too sticky, Stewart’s was a bit too firm.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.