apple pie

In an attempt to be a little less "in my head" this post is going to be about the apple pie I made for a dinner I went to at Coach Kyle's house. The dinner was chocked full of superfoods (salmon burgers with homegrown spinich, tomatoes, and a whole wheat bun, sweet potatoes, and tea) and delicious. Because I'm a real live grown up, and because I enjoy baking pies, I asked if I could bring one. I also wanted an excuse to use the new pie pan that Cara gave/made me. In the following post you'll find the recipe for the pie, as well as some pictures of the day!

The recipe for the crust and pie come from Ken Haedrich's excellent recipe book "Pie: 300 Tried-and-True Recipes for Delicious Homemade Pie." Harvard Common Press, Boston, Massachusetts, 2004.

First off, make your crust. Can be store bought, but I like to make my own:

• 1 1/2 cups ap flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 stick cold unsalted butter (cun into 1/4-inch pieces)
• 1/4 cup cold vegetable shortening (I use the crisco sticks)
• ~1/4 cup cold water

Combine the dry ingredients, then cut the butter and shortening into the mixture. I use a pastry blender but two forks works fine as well. You're looking for the fat to be pea-sized. Toss half the water over and mix with a fork. Add the rest a couple of tablespoons at a time. I have to use some extra water, just add a tablespoon at a time until you can pack it without it breaking apart. This time around I kneaded the dough a couple of times to activate a little of the gluten in the hope that it would roll out without cracking, which worked wonderfully. Don't overwork it or it'll be too tough. To be honest, the only way to get it right is to try it multiple times. Flatten into a disc about 3/4-in thick, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate for at least an hour (needs to be cool in order to roll out properly).

Now for the pie:

Filling:

• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 7 cups pealed, cored, and sliced Granny Smith/Golden Delicious apples (for the pie pan Cara made me I used 4 apples, for my deep dish I use closer to 6)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice (I use a splash)

Crumb Topping:

• 3/4 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 1/4 cups ap flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Roll out the pastry. For this I lay it on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper and dust the top of the disc with flour, as well as my rolling pin. Starting in the middle of the pastry press out, letting up on the pressure as you get to the outside. Rotate 90 degrees and repeat until the pastry is large enough to fit into your pan and have some edge. This is what mine looked like when I got it into the pan:

Fold the overlapping pastry back into the pan, then pinch around the edges for a nice touch.

Put in the freezer for about fifteen minutes. While it's cooling preheat your oven to 400 and prepare your apples. Here are the tools I use for this part:

Medium knife, Oxo Potato Peeler, and Oxo Apple Divider

Peel your apples:

Then cut off the tops and bottoms. Divide the apples using the apple divider, then slice in half length-ways again. This should give you 16 slices per apple. Since the pie pan I was using was rather small I sliced in half the other way, giving 32 "chunks" per apple. When finished toss the slices in the lemon juice and combine the dry ingredients (sugar, corn starch, salt). Retrieve your pie crust from the freezer and put down one layer of apples and sprinkle with a tablespoon of the thickening mixture, and repeat until the pie is full (heaping). Place the full pie into the center rack of your pre-heated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, make the crumb topping. Again, combine the dry ingredients and mix in the melted butter. You can use your hands for this, though I mix it with a fork first because I don't like the feeling of butter on my hands. The topping should resemble small crumbs (go figure). After thirty minutes dump the topping onto the center of the pie and spread out:

 

Rotate 180 degrees, reduce heat to 375, and bake for another 35 minutes. You'll know it's done when the juices from the apple bubble thickly around the edge. Remove from oven and cool on a rack for at least an hour:

After that, walk down to a friends house and enjoy!

 

People seem to be astonished whenever I bake pies. I just want to say that it is quite easy, and anyone can do it. You're gonna get a little messy and your kitchen will be worse, but when you see the happy faces of your friends it's all worth it. Get to baking!

Oh, and thanks to Rob, Miss Lindsey, and Miss Justice for helping!