In honor of America’s 250th anniversary, McDonald’s is bringing back Fried Apple Pie to participating locations across the country.
The fried pies — which were phased out nationally in 1992, and largely replaced with a baked variety — will be available starting June 23 on the all-day menu, for a limited time.
Fried Apple Pie was first introduced at a McDonald’s in Tennessee in 1968. As the story goes, Litton Cochran, a McDonald’s operator in Knox County, was looking to create a dessert to complement the menu, and settled on a small fried hand pie.
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Cochran’s grandson once told Knoxville news outlet WBIR that Cochran and his wife Jo experimented with the recipe for months, making and sampling a few different versions every night until settling on the version they ultimately showed to Ray Kroc.
“[Kroc] tried it out, and told them to go find a producer to start making it,” Cochran’s grandson Eric said.
McDonald’s phased out the fried pies in the early ‘90s — reportedly in response to health trends, according to Eater — but they can still be found from time to time in select restaurants or regions. (Restaurants in Hawaii, for example, currently appear to be offering fried apple pies.)
June 23, however, marks the first time that Fried Apple Pie will return to the national menu at participating restaurants in 34 years.
“There are certain things that just take you back — and the Fried Apple Pie is one of them,” Eric Cochran, now a McDonald’s owner/operator, said in a press release announcing the return of the pie. “It’s something that people love and remember from growing up.”
In addition to bringing back its fried pie, McDonald’s is celebrating America’s 250th anniversary with a new roadside attraction near the company’s headquarters: a 35-foot apple pie sculpture off Route 66 in Joliet, Illinois.
The sculpture will remain at the site — at 920 N, Broadway St. in Joliet, Illinois — through July 4, in celebration of “our fans’ love for this classic American dessert,” according to McDonald’s.
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