Modern English apple pie usually uses which cooking apple?

Modern English apple pie usually uses the Bramley apple. Bramley is prized as a cooking apple because its sharp acidity balances sugar and its flesh softens into a fluffy, aromatic filling when baked.

The variety began with a seed planted by Mary Ann Brailsford in Southwell, Nottinghamshire, around 1809. It was later propagated and became the defining culinary apple of England and Wales. Traditional British pies often mound sliced Bramleys beneath shortcrust pastry, allowing the apples to shrink as they cook without leaving a large hollow beneath the crust.

Fuji, Gala and Cox are primarily dessert apples. They can be baked, and cooks sometimes combine sweet eating apples with a tart cooker, but they are not the classic answer for a traditional English apple pie. Bramley is also widely used for apple sauce, crumbles and baked apples.