Juicy Apple Pie

By: Jackie

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans” - John Lennon

After a two month blogging hiatus, we’re backkkkk! We haven’t stopped cooking or taking photos of our food, but we briefly stopped blogging and reading others’ blogs. Shame on us.

With work, a cyclist’s training schedule (Jon), Zuckerberg sightings at dinner, bidding adieu to family moving to Japan, acupuncture appointments (me), and holiday and birthday dinners, Jon and I had barely any time to do anything. Phew… As summer slowly approaches, things are finally starting to wind down, so here we are! Back with a fresh post about an apple pie I baked for my dad’s birthday two months ago… in March!

Happy (Belated) Birthday, Dad!

We had a quiet dinner at home to celebrate my dad’s birthday. I wanted to bake an apple pie for dessert, so thus began my search on the interwebs for the very best apple pie recipe with a doughy yet flaky crust and a juicy filling.

Since it was my first time attempting pie, we asked for recipes and tips on our Facebook page and found two great suggestions! Smitten Kitchen’s All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough for the crust and Paula Deen’s Crunch Top Apple Pie filling. The combination was aweeesoommeee.

Juicy Apple Pie

Crust by Smitten Kitchen

Filling & Topping by Paula Deen

Makes one double crust 10” pie

Part I: All Butter, Really Flaky Pie Dough

The Goods:

2 1/2 cups flour

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, very cold

1/2 cup ice cold water

The Steps:

1. Fill a liquid measuring cup with one cup of water and a few ice cubes. Dice two sticks of butter into 1/2 inch pieces. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. 

2. Sprinkle butter cubes over the flour mixture and begin working butter in evenly with a pastry blender until butter pieces are pea-sized.

3. Drizzle 1/2 cup of ice-cold water (only! No ice!) over butter and flour mixture. Gather the dough together with a spatula. Add 1/4 cup of water a tablespoon at a time until dough forms large clumps. When dough comes together in large clumps, set spatula aside and use hands to gather dough into one mound.

4. Divide dough in half using a scale. Shape dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Allow to chill in the refrigerator for one or two hours (ideally).

While you’re waiting for the dough to chill… move onto… 

Part II: Filling and Topping

A. Filling

The Goods:

3/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

Dash salt

3 1/2 cups peeled, chopped cooking apples (about 6 medium apples; we used Golden Delicious and Granny Smith)

1 (12 ounces) jar unsweetened applesauce

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

2 tablespoons butter, chopped into small pieces (will be used in Part III: Assembly)

The Steps:

1. Combine sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a large bowl.

2. Stir in apples, applesauce, and lemon juice. 

B. Crunch Topping 

The Goods:

6 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoon sugar

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

2 dashes salt

2 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

The Steps:

1. For crunch topping, combine flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. 

2. Cut in butter with fork until mixture is crumbly.

Part III: Assembly

1. Roll out one dough disc and place in pie pan. Step-by-step directions by Smitten Kitchen can be found here.

2. Spoon apple mixture into bottom crust and dot with butter (2 tablespoons chopped in small pieces).

2. Roll out second dough and cut into strips. Arrange strips in lattice design over top of pie filling. (But, we just laid strips across because we got lazy.)

3. Sprinkle crunch topping mix over top of crust.

4. Bake for 10 minutes at 425 degrees F, then reduce heat to 350 degrees F and continue to bake for about 45 minutes, or until crust and topping are golden brown.

Tips:

- Pie can cook for up to 60 - 85 minutes, like ours did!

- Bake in a clear pie pan so you can see when the bottom crust is fully cooked.

- Place pie pan on top of cookie sheet while baking in the oven to catch juices that may spill over.

- Pie needs SEVERAL hours to cool for pie filling to solidify. This prevents runny filling when serving. 

- Pie is particularly delicious a la mode style!