The McDonald's Ordering Hack For A Timeless, Indulgent Dessert

McDonald's and apple pie are both quintessential American staples, so it makes sense that the fast food giant serves its own iconic baked apple pie. According to the official website, McDonald's rendition "features 100% American-grown apples and a lattice crust baked to perfection, topped with sprinkled sugar." While the apple pie is a delicious dessert all on its own, there's a simple way to make it even better — by combining it with the chain's equally delectable vanilla soft serve. Reminiscent of a classic Apple Pie à la Mode, this iconic dessert in the making pairs the warm and flaky apple pie with the sweet, cold, and creamy taste of classic vanilla ice cream. 

You can either dip the full apple pie into a cup of soft-serve, or crumble up the individual pieces into the ice cream and then eat the whole thing with a spoon. This hack takes two fairly simple treats and makes them into something much more complex that you might order at a sit-down restaurant or even make yourself at home when you're craving something sweet. You also don't have to stick to the vanilla soft serve; McDonald's itself suggests pairing their apple pie with the hot caramel sundae on its website.

There are tons of great ways to jazz up your fast food soft serve order. Even better, adding some apple pie to it is not the only delicious pairing for McDonald's soft serve in particular either. For instance, order an espresso shot and pour it over your vanilla soft serve to create a simple affogato in an instant. You can also pour out a little bit of your Coke or Dr. Pepper to make room for some soft serve, crafting an ice cream float. Since McDonald's serves chocolate chip cookies, you can also smash two cookies on either side of a scoop of soft serve to make an ice cream cookie sandwich. One hack that went viral (and for good reason) involves combining as many McDonald's treats as you can get ahold of into the soft serve. 

In a 2023 video that received thousands of likes, @fooddudescook on TikTok put six McDonald's ice cream cones into a small bucket before mashing them up and adding caramel and fudge sauce, apple pie, cookies, M&M's, fries, and several other items that are sadly no longer available, including pumpkin pie, Butterfingers, peanut butter chocolate chips, red, white, and blue popcorn, and rainbow sprinkles. While you obviously can't recreate this entirely with McDonald's items anymore (and most people wouldn't want to, given how overwhelmingly sweet it is), there's an argument for combining the McDonald's treats you like the most into a soft serve. Play around with flavors and make it your own.