This classic French “Invisible” pie is called that for a reason — there is almost no dough here. The maximum amount of apples and just a minimal batter that magically melts during baking into a delicate, fragrant vanilla cream.
The result is incredibly moist, juicy, and aromatic, with beautiful thin layers on the cut. It looks impressive, tastes refined, and is surprisingly simple to make. All ingredients are basic and affordable — but the final result feels like something from a French bakery.
Perfect for serving beautifully and for those irresistible close-up slices ✨
🌿 Ingredients
For the pie:
Apples — 800 g (unpeeled weight)
Milk — 100 g
Melted butter — 30 g
Flour — 70 g
Baking powder — 1 tsp
Eggs — 2
Sugar — 50 g
Vanilla sugar — 10 g
Salt — a pinch
For the streusel:
Flour — 80 g
Sugar — 30 g
Vanilla sugar — 10 g
Soft butter — 40 g
Salt — a pinch
👩🍳 Instructions
1️⃣ Prepare the delicate batter
Beat the eggs with sugar, vanilla sugar, and a pinch of salt until light and slightly fluffy. The mixture should become pale and airy, but not overly thick.
Add the milk and melted butter, mix gently.
Sift in the flour with baking powder and stir until smooth.
The batter will be quite thin and there won’t be much of it — this is exactly how it should be.
2️⃣ Prepare the apples
Peel the apples and remove the cores.
Slice them very thinly — almost paper-thin.
The thinner the slices, the more beautiful and “invisible” the layers will be after baking.
3️⃣ Combine
Add all the apple slices into the batter and gently fold so that every slice is coated on all sides.
The apples should be completely covered with a thin layer of batter.
4️⃣ Shape
Grease the baking pan with butter and line it with parchment paper.
You can use a round, square, or rectangular pan.
My pan size is about 10 × 22 cm.
Arrange the apple slices in layers, slightly pressing them down.
Pour any remaining batter on top.
5️⃣ First bake
Bake at 180–190°C (350–375°F) for about 30 minutes.
The pie will set but remain very tender and moist inside.
6️⃣ Make the streusel
Mix flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, and salt.
Add soft butter and rub with your fingers until crumbly.
Sprinkle the crumble over the pie and return it to the oven for another 20 minutes, until golden on top.
✨ The result
The pie turns out:
incredibly moist
juicy and fragrant
layered with thin apple slices
delicate and slightly creamy inside
lightly crisp on top thanks to the streusel
Let the pie cool completely before slicing — it will hold its shape beautifully and reveal those elegant thin layers.
The flavor becomes even deeper the next day 💛
Enjoy baking!