McDonald's brings back fried apple pies after 30-year absence

McDonald’s put fried apple pies back on menus at participating U.S. restaurants on June 23, ending a more than 30-year absence for the dessert that once sat on the chain’s hot side. The limited-time item is also available on the McDonald’s app while supplies last, and the rollout is tied to the company’s celebration of America’s 250th birthday.

The pie uses 100% American-grown apples under a golden, flaky fried crust, and McDonald’s current product page lists 220 calories, compared with 230 for the baked apple pie that replaced it in the early 1990s.

McDonald’s traces the fried apple pie back to the 1960s, when East Tennessee owner-operator Litton Cochran made a fried apple hand pie after Ray Kroc was looking for dessert ideas for the chain. Eric Cochran, a McDonald’s owner-operator, said his father’s recipe helped shape the product. The fried version first reached menus in 1968 and was removed in 1992, when McDonald’s shifted to baked apple pies amid broader health-conscious diet trends. A few locations, including one in Downey, California, have kept a version of the original alive.

To promote the return, McDonald’s erected a 35-foot display billed as McDonald’s Largest Fried Apple Pie at 920 N Broadway St. in Joliet, Illinois, just off Route 66. The kickoff event ran June 23 from 3:30 to 6:00 p.m. CT, and the display is scheduled to remain through July 4.