So after much persuasion by my fellow peers, I’ve decided to start this blog in an effort to let everyone know about the food in my life. With so much pressure, I thought I’d start with sharing the absolute BEST apple pie recipe I know of, and its a collection of ideas that was adapted from Food Network, Martha Stewart, and random cook books. Here it goes:
Crust Ingredients
[list]- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp. salt
- 3/4 cup shortening (Crisco works best but you can use butter if you prefer, it’ll be a little heavier)
- Ice water in a small bowl
To make the crust:
[list type=”numlist”]- Preheat the oven to 375.
- In a medium bowl place the flour and salt into it and cut the shortening into the flour using a pastry blender until its the texture of cornmeal. (It doesn’t take very long to get this consistency)
- Add one tbsp of ice water and mix into the dough to get it wet.
- Keep adding water and mixing one tbsp at a time until the dough is just moist (but not gluey-if you’ve reached this state, you’ve over mixed and added too much water!)
- Roll into a big ball and place in the fridge to get cold.
- While the dough is chilling, start on the filling.
Filling ingredients:
[list]- 3/4 cup all purpose flour
- A Variety of apples- I like to use 3 large Gold Delicious and 2 large Granny Smith but you can use whatever combo. just make sure to mix up the varieties so you can get sweet and tart flavors combined
- 1 cup white sugar
- 1 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Lemon juice
Directions for the Filling
[list type=”numlist”]- For the filling, I wash, peel, and slice my apples with my Zyliss Easy Slice Mandolin, White
(I got it at Ross for real cheap but any kind of food mandolin will work) using the thinnest setting possible. I like to have the apples look like thin potato chips. If you prefer chunks, go for it but I’ve never done it this way. (Too much work!) As I slice the apples, I drizzle lemon juice on top of them so they don’t turn brown quite as quickly. You usually want to have about 6 cups of apples when they are all sliced up.
- I have invested in a LARGE measuring cup/bowl that I place the apples in and then add the 2 sugars. I mix the apples and sugar with my hands and add the flour & cinnamon and mix until it’s all combined and smells SOO YUMMY! Once you have that done, time for the hard part….
Baking the Pie
[list type=”numlist”]
- Get the dough from the fridge and divide it into 2 balls. I like to have them be about the same size, but make one a little bigger to be for your top crust. I like to put my dough on a well floured silicon mat on the counter so it’ll be easier to transfer into the pie plate.
- You will use a well floured rolling pin and roll the dough into a cirle to fit your pie plate (I believe I use a 9 inch plate). This task is very challenging because it’s virtually impossible to roll dough into a perfect cirle, but do not worry, it will be ok. Do your best!!
- Once you have it rolled as thin as you can go and it’s still in one piece, transfer the dough to the plate (this may be a 2 person process if this is your first time). If you don’t have a silicon mat to just flip over onto the plate, you can try the “roll the dough around the rolling pin and tranfer is to the pie plate” method, but I find this to be very stressful. Be sure to have total coverage for the bottom layer. If one of your edges is lop sided, tear some excess dough from one side of the plate and fill in the empty space.
- Next, dump your filling into the pie pan. Make sure it is laying flat and not overflowing in the pan because we still need to cover it!
- Then you will roll the 2nd dough ball into about a 12 inch circle and you will place this on top of the filling. Make sure you trim off the edges or I like to roll mine up and use a fork to make pretty indentions around the edges. (I don’t like to waste the yummy dough)
- You will then take a knife and cut 4 slits into the top and you will brush the top with a little bit of heavy whipping cream. I then use cinnamon and sugar (the sugar in the raw is my favorite for the top) and sprinkle it on top of the pie.
- Cover the pie with aluminum foil and place the pie on a cookie sheet that has edges. (The filling may overflow and spill and its easier to clean the sheet than it is your oven!)
- Bake the pie for 25 minutes.
- Remove the foil and then bake for another 35 minutes or until you see it golden brown to your liking. You can serve it warm with ice cream (vanilla pecan is my favorite or cinnamon ice cream is delicious too!). Enjoy!