diff --git a/sphinx/builders/applehelp.py b/sphinx/builders/applehelp.py
index 56e9bd6c0..b29ce3d95 100644
--- a/sphinx/builders/applehelp.py
+++ b/sphinx/builders/applehelp.py
@@ -35,13 +35,6 @@ if False:
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
-# Use plistlib.dump in 3.4 and above
-try:
-    write_plist = plistlib.dump  # type: ignore
-except AttributeError:
-    write_plist = plistlib.writePlist
-
-
 # False access page (used because helpd expects strict XHTML)
 access_page_template = '''\
 <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.1//EN"\
@@ -173,7 +166,7 @@ class AppleHelpBuilder(StandaloneHTMLBuilder):
 
         logger.info(bold(__('writing Info.plist... ')), nonl=True)
         with open(path.join(contents_dir, 'Info.plist'), 'wb') as f:
-            write_plist(info_plist, f)
+            plistlib.dump(info_plist, f)  # type: ignore
         logger.info(__('done'))
 
         # Copy the icon, if one is supplied
diff --git a/tests/test_build_applehelp.py b/tests/test_build_applehelp.py
index ed0022ce1..9c5d46941 100644
--- a/tests/test_build_applehelp.py
+++ b/tests/test_build_applehelp.py
@@ -17,12 +17,6 @@ import pytest
 
 from sphinx.testing.path import path
 
-# Use plistlib.load in 3.4 and above
-try:
-    read_plist = plistlib.load
-except AttributeError:
-    read_plist = plistlib.readPlist
-
 
 def check_structure(outdir):
     contentsdir = outdir / 'Contents'
@@ -30,7 +24,7 @@ def check_structure(outdir):
     assert (contentsdir / 'Info.plist').isfile()
 
     with open(contentsdir / 'Info.plist', 'rb') as f:
-        plist = read_plist(f)
+        plist = plistlib.load(f)
     assert plist
     assert len(plist)
     assert plist.get('CFBundleIdentifier', None) == 'org.sphinx-doc.Sphinx.help'
