I absolutely love making pie and since it’s fall and I think that everyone could use a bit of cheering up lately, I thought I would share my favorite apple pie recipe. This recipe can be found online at my favorite baking blog Sally’s Baking Addiction which I follow almost religiously. My (maybe excessive amount of) notes, which include my adjustments, things to keep in mind, etc., can be found under the notes from the original recipe in italics. Keep in mind while reading these notes that I am not an expert, although I really do like to bake pies.
- Prep Time: 3 hours
- Cook Time: 55 minutes
- Total Time: 7 hours
- Yield: One (1) 9-inch pie
Ingredients:
- Buttery Flaky Pie Crust or All Butter Pie Crust†
- 5–6 Piñata apples, cored, peeled, and sliced into 1/2-inch slices* (approx 8–10 cups total)
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) lemon juice
- 1/4 cup (31g) all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon‡
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom‡
- 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg‡
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger‡
- 1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar§
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 Tablespoon (14g) cold unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten with 1 Tablespoon (15ml) milk
- optional: coarse sugar for sprinkling
Directions:
- The crust†: Prepare my pie crust recipe through step 5.
- Make the filling after the dough has chilled: In a large bowl using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, stir the apples, lemon juice, flour, all of the spices, sugar, and vanilla extract together until thoroughly combined. Set filling aside as the oven preheats; this time allows the apples to begin letting off their juice.
- Preheat the oven to 400°F (204°C).
- Roll out the chilled pie dough: On a floured work surface, roll out one of the discs of chilled dough (keep the other one in the refrigerator). Turn the dough about a quarter turn after every few rolls until you have a circle 12 inches in diameter. Carefully place the dough into a 9×2 inch pie dish. Tuck it in with your fingers, making sure it is smooth. Spoon the filling into the crust and discard some of the leftover juices in the bottom of the bowl. Dot the pieces of butter on top of the filling||.
- Finish assembling¶: Remove the other disc of chilled pie dough from the refrigerator. Roll the dough into a circle that is 12 inches diameter. Carefully lay the dough over the filling. Use a small paring knife to trim off excess dough from the sides. Cut slits in the top to form steam vents. Crimp the edges to seal.
- Lightly brush the top of the pie crust with the egg/milk** mixture. Sprinkle the top with coarse sugar. Place the pie onto a large baking sheet and bake for 20 minutes. Keeping the pie in the oven, turn the temperature down to 375°F (190°C) and bake for an additional 30-35 minutes. After the first 20 minutes of bake time, I place a pie crust shield†† on top of the pie to prevent the edges from browning too quickly.
- Allow the pie to cool for 3 full hours at room temperature before serving. This time allows the filling to thicken up. Cover pie leftovers tightly and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Notes:
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- Make Ahead & Freezing Instructions: This the best dessert to make ahead of time! To make 1 day in advance—after it cools, cover tightly and keep at room temperature. The pie crust dough can also be prepared ahead of time and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 3 months. Baked pie freezes well for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator and allow it to come to room temperature before serving. Prepared filling can be frozen up to 3 months, thaw overnight in the refrigerator before using.
- *Apples: Slice your apples a uniform thickness. You don’t want some solid apples and some thin, mushy apples. [you don’t have to use Piñata apples—I used Honeycrisps-—or slice them into exactly 1/2-inch slices-—I sliced them into 1/4-inch slices—just make sure you have 8-10 cups total]
- †Pie Crust: the two pie crusts mentioned are other recipes from the blog, Sally’s Baking Addiction. I used the Buttery Flaky Pie crust which calls for both butter and vegetable shortening. If you don’t have vegetable shortening you can use the other recipe. However, if you don’t want to make your own, you can use store bought crust. Just keep in mind that you’ll need a top and bottom crust.
- ‡Chai Spices: the chai spices are some of the spices usually used in masala chai (spiced milk tea originating from India): cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, ginger. If you don’t have or don’t want to use these spices, these are the adjustments that I’d advise: 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger. However, you can add whatever spices you prefer, these are just my own recommendations.
Also keep in mind that if you ground your own spices like I do, the flavour will be stronger than if you used store-bought already ground spices, so you might want to decrease the amount used.
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- §Sugar: I always like to decrease the amount of sugar when I bake because I don’t have a sweet tooth. In this particular recipe, the sugar is used less for its chemical properties in baking and more to balance out the sourness of the apples to make the flavour more complex, so I can change the sugar quantity by a little bit. My apples were pretty sweet already so I decreased the amount to 1/3 cup granulated sugar.
- ||Dotting Butter on the Filling: in my opinion, this step is unnecessary. The two most common assumptions is that it keeps particularly juicy pies from bubbling over or that it makes the filling creamier. From my own experience and research, the butter makes no discernible difference, but some do it in deference to tradition, so really doing this step is up to you.
- ¶Top Crust: I actually latticed the top of the pie. How you want to decorate the top is up to you, this is always my favorite part: you can braid the pie crust, use cookie cutters to cut out designs, etc. the possibilities are endless.
- **Egg Wash: this egg/milk mixture is actually called egg wash; it has no other purpose than to make your top crust a nice golden shine. I also consider this step to be optional, but if you want to make egg wash, but don’t have milk, you can use the same amount of water or cream as a substitute.
- ††Pie Crust Shield: a pie crust shield is used to keep to the pie crust from browning too much. If you don’t have a pie crust shield that’s fine, aluminum foil will do the same thing just as well. If you don’t want to cover your crust that’s fine too, your pie crust will just look a little more brown.