Homemade Apple Pie

An apple a day, keeps the doctor away. Thus, apples are healthy. Thus, apple pie is healthy. Thus, I will eat apple pie everyday and be a model of perfect health? Yes.

This apple pie recipe is adopted from the Smitten Kitchen and is awesomely easy and delicious. The buttery and flakey crust is in my opinion what sets it apart from other apple pie recipes. No shortening allowed, butter only baby. Plus, no food processor? No problem. This crust comes out perfectly every time and all you need to make it is a fork and clean hands. 

So take a walk with me, down the buttery, apple-y road of my homemade apple pie.

 

Homemade Apple Pie (adopted from the Smitten Kitchen)

makes 8 servings

INGREDIENTS:

Pie Dough (makes enough dough for one double-crust or two single-crust pies)

2 sticks, very cold butter, diced

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup ice-cold water

Filling

4 Granny Smith apples

2 Fuji apples

3/4 cups plus 1 tbsp sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/4 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp nutmeg

1/4 tsp allspice

1 egg white, beaten lightly

TO MAKE DOUGH:

Fill a small bowl with 1 cup of water and drop in several ice-cubes; set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Sprinkle the diced butter cubes over the flour mixture.

Using a pastry cutter (or a fork if you are like me and don't have one), begin working the butter into the flour. Make sure to redistribute the mixture so the butter is worked in evenly. Once all the butter pieces are about the size of peas, stop mixing.

Drizzle 1/2 cup of the ice cold water (but not the cubes) over the butter-flour mixture. Using a spatula, gather the dough together. Continue adding the water 1 tbsp at a time until you are pulling large clumps with the spatula. Once the dough begins to clumps together, get in there with your hands and knead it gently together into one mound. 

Divide the dough in half and place each half into a piece of plastic wrap. Form each piece of dough into a disk and chill in the fridge for at least one hour (the longer, the better).

TO MAKE FILLING:

Peel, core and cut the apples in half. Slice the halves into quarter-inch pieces. In a large bowl, mix 3/4 cup of sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Add the apples to the bowl and toss to coat; set aside.

TO ASSEMBLE:

Adjust oven rack to the lowest position. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees with a baking sheet in the oven.

Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out on a floured surface. Gently put one crust onto the bottom of a pie dish. Leave the dough that overhangs the pie dish. Chill in the fridge for 5 minutes

Add apples mixture including juices to the pie shell and mound in the center. 

Roll out the second pie shell and place on top of the filling. Trim the edges to fit the pie dish. Roll the bottom pie shell over the top pie shell and pinch with your fingers to seal together. **Optional: at this point, you can take the extra pie dough, roll it out, make shapes with it and add it to the top crust. I like to do this because it makes the pie prettier** Cut 5 slits on top dough. Brush egg white wash onto the top crust and sprinkle the remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Place the pie on the baking sheet and lower the temperature to 425 degrees. Bake for about 25 minutes until the top is golden. Rotate pie and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for an additional 30-35 minutes until the juices are bubbling and the crust is a deep, golden brown.

Allow pie to cool. Enjoy! Nom nom nom.

Images 1-9 via Smitten Kitchen