I like a combo of Granny Smith & Golden Delicious.

I don't ever use any kind of delicious apples for cooking...too soft for me and lacking in what I call apple flavor.
I like all Granny Smith or Jonathin...but I notice you live in apple country! There should be lots of wonderful apples in Michigan...
You have to judge how much flour to mix with the sugar in your pie, based on how juicy the apples are....sometnings not easy to do.
All in all an apple pie is pretty subjective....takes judgement on the part of the cook. That's why a perfect apple pie is so special....but even a too juicy pie is delicious!
Linda C

Believe it or not, last year the best pie I made was with a gala apple. I served it at a family reunion and everyone said it was the best they ever tasted! I prefer to use granny smith usually, but the store was out that day and my dad wanted the pie. So I used what was available. I was very surprised at the result!

I use a combination of Mutsu, Stayman, and Ida Red.

Golden delicious and Granny Smith are the best in my opinion. You cannot use red delicious tho. I make a very good apple pie with the Golden.

I've tried tons of different apples in pursuit of the perfect apple pie, and there are a handful that I believe are superior to the common grocery store standards like Granny Smith and Golden Delicious. Many you'll have to grow yourself unless you've got easy access to an heirloom apple orchard.

The common traits they share are that they're all tart (with varying degrees of sweetness), firm, juicy and keep their shape when cooked.

My top ten are as follows:

1. Northern Spy (the quintessential pie apple)
2. Gravenstein (the best EARLY pie apple)
3. Opalescent (worth tracking down!)
4. Porter (considered tops in Fannie Farmer cookbook)
5. Bramley's Seedling (definitive English cooking apple)
6. Reine des Reinettes (syn. King of the Pippins)
7. Belle de Boskoop
8. Reinette Grise du Canada
9. Baldwin (I grow a sport called Olympia)
10. Annie Elizabeth

WORST apple for pie? No question---Red Delicious. Anyone who tries to tell you otherwise has probably never used anything else.

Hope this helps!

John

Here is a link that might be useful: Lamb Abbey Orchards

I use Northern Spy or Ida Red

I've always used Galas ever since I got stuck with them when HEB was out of Golden Delicious (which I used b/c it was the only apple I liked to eat, so figured was one I'd like in pie).

Every year at our office Christmas party, I'd bake an Apple and Caramel-Apple pie. When I brought the Gala apple pies, everyone flipped. One of the jerkier doctors I was working for (whom I thought it seemed unlikely would know my name) actually joined the party (!with the 'underlings'!) to find me and thank me for the pie. *sigh* That was my one moment of glory... he promptly forgot my name afterward.

I hardly ever visit this forum, but was browsing tonight for desserts for our two-week grandchildren visit.

I was so surprised to see Northern Spy apples mentioned here. I LOVE THESE APPLES. Nothing makes a better pie. My DD and SIL have these on their property in Ohio, and gave me two of these apple trees a few years back as a gift. They are starting to produce apples and I'm so excited. I am in WI, and you can't buy these apples in the stores here.

My absolute favorite, but hard to find apple is the Transparent. It makes a tart pie, which I like. I believe that my mother also like to use Northern Spy, Wealthy, or Jonathon. We would have Winesaps and Baldwins for eating, but I don't think she used them for pies. I'm so sad that so many of the old orchards where we could get a wealth of varieties have all gone.

We had 6 red delicious trees on our property, but would you believe that none of our family of 7 cared to eat them--we gave them away!