Traditional Apple Pie

Apple pie is hands down Luke's favorite dessert. I had never eaten an apple pie, much less made one myself, when I decided to try my hand at one this last year for Luke's birthday. I found this recipe in the cookbook, How to Cook Everything, and the pie turned out perfectly! I made it again for Thanksgiving and it came out of the oven looking beautiful, but a few hours later the crust was soggy. That is when I learned the importance of not letting steam build up inside the pie.
Bright and early this morning Luke had an extremely important APFT, so I made this pie while he was gone, and by the time he got home and told me he got a perfect score, I had a fresh out of the oven, absolutely perfect, apple pie for breakfast to congratulate him. The pie isn't exactly paleo, but we got over it. Follow this recipe exactly, and chances are good you will end up with a scrumptious pie of your own. I should note that I don't like pie as much as Luke, so I tried making a slice if the pie with a streusel topping instead of a top crust, and it couldn't have worked out better. I just rolled out the top crust like usual, and then before laying it over the pie I cut a slice out of it. Then after sealing up the pie, sprinkle the streusel topping on the open part, and you're good to go! Now everybody is happy. And Luke is very, VERY happy.

4/5 traditional apple pie, 1/5 streusel topping

Traditional apple pie, all it's missing is the vanilla ice cream

Streusel topped apple pie with vanilla Greek yogurt

Traditional Apple Pie

Ingredients for the traditional crust:

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar

16 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

6 tablespoons ice water

Ingredients for the streusel topping:

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup flour

Ingredients for the filling:

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

Pinch salt

6 or 7 apples, I used granny smith and gala

1 tablespoon cornstarch (optional)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into bits

Milk as needed

Directions:

            Preheat oven to 450ºF. Start with the pie crust. Combine flour, salt, and sugar in food processor and pulse a few times. Add the butter and process until the butter and flour are blended and the mixture looks like cornmeal, about 10 seconds. Place mixture in a bowl and sprinkle ice water over it. Use a wooden spoon to gradually gather the mixture into a loose ball; if the mixture seems dry, add an additional ½ tablespoon ice water. Make the dough into a ball with your hands and wrap it in plastic wrap. It should be very dry and difficult to get it all to stick in a ball, but that’s ok. Wrap the plastic wrap tightly and place in the fridge for 30 minutes or the freezer for 10 minutes. Dough can also be stored in the fridge for several days, or put in the freezer for several months.

            For pie with streusel topping: cream together butter and brown sugar in food processor. Stir in the remaining ingredients. If making a combination of traditional and streusel topped pie like the one pictured, reduce the streusel ingredients as necessary. For this pie, I only made a quarter batch. Note: if you are making your whole pie streusel topped, reduce the traditional crust recipe by half. Set aside streusel topping.

            While dough is chilling, prepare the filling. Toss together the sugars, spices, and salt. Peel and core the apples and cut them into 1/2-3/4 inch-thick slices. I use an apple peeler corer slicer if the apples are firm enough. Toss the apples and lemon juice with the dry ingredients, adding cornstarch if you want a less runny pie. Refrigerate while rolling out the dough.

            Sprinkle clean surface with flour and roll out half of the dough, being sure to shift the dough after every few rolls. Once the dough reaches about 10 inches, hold the pie dish over it to be sure it is large enough. After it is to size, fold the dough into quarters, move to the pie dish, and unfold. Press firmly to the bottom and sides of the dish.

            Get the filling from the fridge and pile onto the bottom crust, making the pile a little higher in the center than at the sides. For traditional pie: dot with butter. Roll out the top crust in the same way as the bottom, and then place it over the pie. Trim and decorate the edges of the pie. Brush lightly with milk and sprinkle with sugar. For pie with streusel topping: crumble the topping over entire pie. For combination pie: roll out the top pie crust, and before placing over the pie, trim out the section that you want to have streusel topping. Place over the pie, trim and decorate the edges, and crumble the streusel topping on the pie where there is no top crust. Brush top crust lightly with milk and sprinkle with sugar.

            Place the pie on a cookie sheet, and cut 3 or 4 two-inch-long vent holes into the top crust to allow steam to escape. For traditional or combination pie: bake at 450ºF for 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350ºF and bake for another 40 to 50 minutes, or until the pie is golden brown. Do not under bake. For streusel topped pie: bake at 375ºF for 45 to 60 minutes. Do not under bake. Cool before serving warm or at room temperature, preferably with vanilla ice cream on the side.

Click here to download a PDF of this recipe.

Recipe adapted from How to Cook Everything, by Mark Bittman, pages 685-688.