The Secret Ingredient You Need for the Best Apple Pie

It balances and enhances all the warm, syrupy, sweet, and spiced flavors of apple pie filling.

Sometimes, when my Cantonese mother made traditional Chinese soups, she would add apples or pears instead of rock sugar to balance the soup’s savoriness with some sweetness. Taking a page from her book, I added Fuji apples to a miso soup, and its flavor pleasantly surprised me. That sparked another idea: incorporating miso into apple desserts like apple pie. A miso-laced apple pie might sound unconventional, but for years now, I’ve been swapping out the salt in my cookies and cake with miso.

Why You Should Add Miso to Apple Pie Filling

Now, you can incorporate miso into the pie dough, be it a shortbread or a pastry dough, but where miso really works its magic is in the apple pie filling, no cap. Miso, with its brackishness and umami, both balances and enhances all the warm, syrupy, sweet, and spiced flavors of apple pie filling. The filling won't taste cloying, and your tongue will welcome the subtle savoriness.

Adding a salty component—like miso or even soy sauce—to desserts is a technique common in Asian baking, where you’ll find salty pork floss and scallions on chiffon cakes, salted duck egg yolks in pastries like mooncakes, and Chinese sausage or pork fat in cookies. East Asian baked goodies are commonly not too sweet, thanks to adding salty elements and reducing sugar.

My Apple Pie Upgrade

• The Upgrade: Red miso (I prefer Hikari red miso)

• How Much You Need: 1 tablespoon miso mixed with 1 tablespoon water, apple juice, or Japanese whisky

• How To Add It: Stir the miso slurry into the apple-sugar mixture and toss to coat the apples thoroughly.

• Why I Love It: Miso balances and enhances all the flavors of apple pie filling. The filling won't taste cloying, and your tongue will welcome the subtle savoriness.

How To Add Miso to Apple Pie Filling

Ready to start adding miso to apple pie filling? First, pick out your favorite apple pie recipe. If you don’t have one in mind, try Elise Bauer’s five-star apple pie recipe. Then, of course, you’ll need miso. While many bakers and chefs will tell you to choose light white miso if you add it to desserts, I use red miso for everything. I like its bold, punchy flavor thanks to its longer fermentation time. The whole point of adding miso to sweets is to take advantage of its saltiness and bold flavors, so let’s not be shy. My go-to brand is Hikari’s organic red miso.

To incorporate the miso, dilute it with a bit of water, apple juice, or Japanese whisky (which has replaced vanilla extract for me), creating a thinner mixture that's easier to work with. For a single pie, start with a tablespoon of miso and a tablespoon of whisky, juice, or water and adjust accordingly to your taste. Stir the miso slurry into the apple-sugar mixture and toss to coat the apples thoroughly. And there you have it, a delicious apple pie filling with a pleasant kick of umami ready for baking.

With just a touch of miso, you can elevate the flavors of your next apple pie. Give it a try, and you might find yourself swapping out all the salt with miso like I do when baking.

More Tips for the Ultimate Apple Pie

• Use Granny Smith or Fuji apples (my favorite apples) for the pie filling.

• It’s okay if you prefer to use white miso when baking and making desserts. I won’t judge you.

• For added booziness, soak the apple slices in Japanese whisky before mixing them with the sugar and other filling ingredients.