Apple Pie Toastie

By toastiemaker.com · Updated 16 Oct 2026

An apple pie toastie turns a sealed sandwich toaster into a mini hand pie. The method that works is to cook diced apple briefly with sugar, cinnamon and a little cornflour into a thick, jammy filling, cool it, then toast it for about 3 minutes. Cinnamon sugar goes on after cooking, never before, so it can't caramelise onto the plates.

Why the filling is cooked and thickened first

Raw apple won't soften in the 3 minutes a toastie takes, and grated raw apple releases juice that soaks the bread. Pre-cooking softens the fruit; the cornflour then gels the juices so the filling sets like the inside of a pie. A thickened filling doesn't run towards the edges when the lid presses down, which is the main way sweet toasties leak.

Cooling is not optional. Hot, freshly cooked filling is loose, and putting it straight into the toastie adds extra steam. Five minutes spread on a plate is enough for it to firm up. It also makes the toastie safer to eat: fruit fillings hold heat far longer than bread.

Bramleys break down into a soft, tangy purée with some chunks; eating apples such as Braeburn or Cox stay in distinct pieces and are sweeter, so cut the sugar to 20g if you use them.

Sugar, burning and sticking

This filling contains sugar, and once preheated, toastie maker plates run far hotter than the temperature at which sugar caramelises and then burns. Three rules keep the machine clean:

• Keep a 2cm border. Wider than a cheese toastie, because syrupy fillings flow further.
• No sugar on the outside before cooking. Cinnamon sugar on buttered bread looks tempting but it caramelises directly onto the plates. Dusting straight after cooking, while the butter is hot, gives the same crunchy, churro-like finish.
• Clean while warm. If any filling escapes, unplug, let the plates cool to warm and lay a damp piece of kitchen paper over the spot for a few minutes before wiping. See why your toastie is sticking and how to clean a toastie maker.

Other machines and methods

In a deep fill toastie maker, use all the filling for one large toastie, or 3 tbsp each for two, and cook for 3–3½ minutes. A panini press won't seal the filling in, so it works only with a very well set filling and a short 2½-minute cook. In a frying pan, cook on low-medium for 1½–2 minutes a side and pinch the crusts together first. In the air fryer, 170°C for 6 minutes, turning once.

Variations

• Apple and blackberry: add a small handful of blackberries to the pan for the last minute.
• Apple crumble: sprinkle 1 tbsp crushed oat biscuit over the filling before closing.
• Apple and cheddar: a Yorkshire classic. Add 20g grated crumbly cheddar or Wensleydale to the filling.
• Tinned pie filling shortcut: 2 heaped tbsp tinned apple pie filling per toastie, chopped smaller. It's already thickened but very sweet, so keep the border wide.
• Cinnamon raisin bread: use it in place of white bread, but check at 2 minutes as it browns faster.

Mistakes to avoid

• Using raw apple slices: crunchy, watery and bland in a 3-minute cook.
• Overfilling: more than 2 heaped tbsp in a standard machine pushes filling to the seal. See how to stop toasties leaking.
• Brioche with lots of butter: enriched bread plus butter plus sugar is a recipe for scorching. If you want brioche, skip the outside butter.
• Eating straight away: the filling is like molten jam. Rest it for 2 minutes and cut it open first, especially for children.

Pair it with the Nutella and banana toastie or the s'mores toastie for a dessert spread, and find more combinations in our toastie filling ideas and toastie recipes.