What to use instead of apple pie spice
Quick answer
The closest option is Cassia with Nutmeg, rated excellent. Very close, because apple pie spice is cinnamon and nutmeg with a little allspice and nothing in it is hard to obtain. The blend exists for convenience rather than for any effect its components cannot produce separately.
It will not do for: Nothing meaningful. This is among the safest substitutions in the dataset..
All recorded options
Ranked by suitability. Ratios are given only where they are defensible, and always with their basis — by weight or by volume — because spice densities differ.
Use: 1× by volume — Four parts ground cinnamon to one part nutmeg, at the same total volume as the blend replaced. Half a part of allspice if you have it.
Very close, because apple pie spice is cinnamon and nutmeg with a little allspice and nothing in it is hard to obtain. The blend exists for convenience rather than for any effect its components cannot produce separately.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Apple pie, crumble and tarts
- Baked and stewed fruit
- Cakes, muffins, pancakes and porridge
Does not work for
- Nothing meaningful. This is among the safest substitutions in the dataset.
Cuisine: None. All three sweet-baking blends belong to the same tradition.
Pumpkin spice is the nearer blend if you have one and not the other, and the difference is ginger: pumpkin spice carries a lot where this carries a trace, so a pie made with it tastes sharper. British mixed spice differs by carrying coriander seed.
Mixed spice
Good matchUse: 1× by volume — Like for like. The two are close enough in strength that no adjustment is needed.
The British equivalent, and near enough to swap without thinking. Mixed spice carries coriander seed, which apple pie spice does not, and that gives it a faint citric lift; it is also usually a little less cinnamon-dominant. In a crumble the difference is noticeable to someone looking for it and invisible to everyone else.
| Flavour | Aroma | Colour | Heat |
|---|---|---|---|
| close | close | close | n/a |
Works for
- Apple pie, crumble and baked fruit
- Cakes, buns and biscuits
- Anywhere the blend is a background warmth
Does not work for
- Recipes where the cinnamon dominance was the point
- Anything relying on the cardamom in a cardamom-containing apple pie spice
Cuisine: Moves an American bake towards a British one, which for these two blends is a very small distance.
Pumpkin spice is the third member of this family and the least interchangeable, because its ginger fraction is large enough to change the character rather than shade it.