Since I was craving all things apple and cannot wait until Thanksgiving for pie, I thought I would make a classic apple pie served warm with a scoop a vanilla ice cream. I researched a few recipes and brought them together into my own below. I think the trick with freezing the butter for your pie crust then grating it into the flour is the easiest way to make the dough without a food processor.
Serves 8 to 10
3 1/2 pounds of apples (I used 4 large Granny Smith and 4 small Gala)
Juice of half a lemon
2/3 cup white granulated sugar
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 recipe of All-Butter Pie Crust (see below)
Egg wash: 1 tablespoon whole milk mixed with one large egg yolk
Preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
Peel and core the apples and slice to 1/4 inch thick pieces. In a large bowl, combine sliced apples, lemon juice and sugar. Stir to combine then add the flour, cinnamon and nutmeg.
Roll out one disk of dough to fit a 9 inch pie plate. To easily transfer the dough to the pie plate, carefully fold it in half and then in half again. Place into one corner of the pie plate and carefully unfold.
Fill the pie plate with the apple mixture, mounding it high in the center. Next, roll out your second disk of dough and use the same folding technique to place on top of the apples. Fold the overhanging dough and crimp the crust. Cut a few slits on the top of the pie to let the steam escape.
Brush the pie with the egg wash mixture and sprinkle coarse sugar on top if desired. At this point, I also used some aluminum foil around the crust to prevent it from browning too much. You can also let the crust brown first and then cover it with aluminum foil.
Place the pie in the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 minutes. After the 30 minutes, turn the temperature down to about 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 45 minutes to an hour, until golden. When there are about 20 minutes remaining, take away the aluminum foil protecting the crust to let it brown.
Let the pie cool on a wire rack for a couple of hours to allow it to set. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or freshly whipped cream. To store, I like to keep this pie in the fridge.
All-Butter Pie Crust
Makes one double 9-inch crust
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup (about 226 grams) unsalted butter (frozen)
6 to 8 tablespoons ice water
First, make sure your block of butter is completely frozen. I usually put the butter in the freezer the night before (already measured) or for at least 3 hours before starting the crust.
In a large bowl, whisk flour, salt and sugar together until combined. Use a box grater (medium holes) to grate the frozen butter directly into the flour mixture. I use this method instead of a food processor (since I don't have one!). Once all of the butter has been grated, use a pastry blender to combine the butter and flour. At this point, the mixture should be very coarse. Start adding the ice water, one tablespoon at a time and continue to use to pastry blender until just combined. Once the dough is just starting to come together, I use my hands gently shape the dough into two flat discs (it is still a bit crumbly at this point). It is important here to not work the dough too much, just so the crumbles come together in order to have an extra flaky crust. I find this process comes together much faster grating the butter.
Have two pieces of plastic wrap ready on the side and tightly wrap the two discs of dough. Refrigerate the dough at least 2 hours or for 1 hour in the freezer. After the dough has been chilled, it is ready to be rolled out for your pie.
