Mock apple pie uses what ingredient instead of apples?

Mock apple pie uses crackers instead of apples.

Mock apple pie is a clever “make-do” dessert in which crackers are cooked with sugar, spices, butter, and an acidic ingredient to imitate the flavor and texture of apple filling. The finished pie looks like an ordinary apple pie, despite containing no apples.

The recipe is associated with practical cooking and may have been developed for shipboard use, where fresh fruit was difficult to store. A recipe known to the British Royal Navy dates to 1812, while published American versions appeared by the 1850s. The idea was especially useful when apples were unavailable, expensive, or out of season.

Ritz Crackers later made the dish famous in the United States. During the 1930s and afterward, the company promoted a mock apple pie recipe using its crackers, sugar, spices, and other familiar pantry ingredients. “Mock” does not mean the pie is simply apple-flavored pastry; it specifically signals a substitute filling. Bread crumbs, oats, and cornflakes may appear in other desserts, but they are not the canonical answer here.