McDonald’s is bringing back its quintessentially American fried apple pie, just in time to celebrate the nation’s 250th birthday, the fast food giant recently announced.
Starting June 23, the fan favorite will return at participating restaurants nationwide for a limited time.
It will be available on the all-day menu and features McDonald’s signature filling, with American-grown apples tucked into a flaky fried crust.
“Now this is how you celebrate America,” one Reddit user commented on news of the nostalgic dessert’s return after over three decades. Another user recalled its piping hot filling, writing, “I only burnt my mouth 12 or 13 times on these things before I learned my lesson.”
The fried apple pie is not to be confused with the chain’s baked apple pie, which replaced the fried version in 1992 amid growing public interest in eating healthier after the U.S. Department of Agriculture introduced the “Food Guide Pyramid.”
The indulgent fried apple pie has remained a permanent menu staple in Downey, Calif., home to the oldest operating McDonald’s, and in Hawaii, where there’s continued demand for it. There’s now a Change.org petition calling for the treat to be brought back permanently.
The fried apple pie originated as a family recipe in East Tennessee in the 1960s, when franchise owner-operator Litton Cochran came up with the idea for the fried handheld treat. His wife, Jo Cochran, spent months perfecting the recipe. McDonald’s said it became a local fan favorite and eventually a staple on the dessert menu.
The golden arches are also celebrating America’s semiquincentennial with a monument of a 35-foot fried apple pie as a mile marker along Route 66 — a quintessential American dessert along one of its most iconic roads.
The monument will debut on June 23, just outside Chicago, at 920 N. Broadway St. in Joliet, Ill., and will remain standing through July 4.
