McDonald’s brings back fried apple pie for America’s 250th birthday

McDonald’s is celebrating America’s 250th anniversary by bringing back a nostalgic menu item.

The fast-food giant announced Tuesday that its beloved fried apple pies will be available again for the first time in over three decades.

These limited-time treats, featuring filling made with American-grown apples and wrapped in the nostalgic golden crunch and flaky fried crust fans might remember, will hit most U.S. restaurants starting June 23.

McDonald’s joins a growing list of fast-food chains marking the semiquincentennial with patriotic-themed offerings.

Burger King recently unveiled its Firecracker Cookie Pie, featuring a sugar cookie crust adorned with red, white, and blue star-shaped sprinkles. Sonic is also participating with a red, white, and blue slush float, priced at $2.50, while Hardee’s offers an iced Star-Spangled Biscuit, complete with red and blue sprinkles.

Here’s a look at McDonald’s fried apple pies by the numbers:

— 1968: The year McDonald’s introduced both its fried apple pie and the Big Mac hamburger. Litton Cochran, a McDonald’s franchisee in Tennessee, developed the rectangle-shaped pie, whch was served in a cardboard sleeve. 1968 was a momentous year that included the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. in Memphis and Robert F. Kennedy in Los Angeles, protests against the Vietnam War, and the signing of a federal law prohibiting housing discrimination.

— 1992: The year McDonald’s replaced the fried apple pie with a baked version in most of the U.S., responding to growing consumer awareness of fat and cholesterol consumption. The U.S. Department of Agriculture first published its food guide pyramid the same year. Fried apple pie remains on McDonald’s menus in some other countries, including Mexico, Australia and China.

— 230: Number of calories in McDonald’s baked apple pie. That’s 10 more calories than the fried version, according to the company’s website. A cup of boiled lentils, a single almond Snickers bar and a grande coffee Frappucino from Starbucks have the same calorie count, according to publicly available nutrition information.

— 130: Number of members of the Facebook group “Bring Back the Original McDonald’s Fried Apple Pie”

— 170 million: Number of American-grown apples that McDonald’s says it serves every year at its U.S. stores.

— 35: Height, in feet, of a giant fried apple pie that McDonald’s is installing on Route 66 in Joliet, Illinois, near McDonald’s Chicago headquarters. That’s about the height of a three-story house and some species of palm trees. The giant apple pie will stay in place until July 4, the company said.