That I have stretched my 15 minutes of apple pie fame into at least an hour? Hi there new people! If we met at the New York State Fair this weekend, thanks for coming out. Do you have a sudden, overwhelming urge to bake an apple pie now? I hope so. Lean closer and smell your computer screen. MMMMMmmmm, apples, cinnamon, butter, nutmeg...that's it, go out to the kitchen and start making pastry. If I can do it, so can you. Here's how:
Pastry
2.5 cups of flour (I use King Arthur at home)
1 cup of butter (2 sticks)
2 tsp. granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup ice water
Process flour, butter, sugar and salt in the food processor by pulsing until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the water and pulse until the pastry holds together. Divide the pastry dough into 2 parts, flatten into disks, wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour. You can blend the ingredients by hand with a pastry blender, but the food processor is foolproof. Try it if you have one.
Filling
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup maple sugar
2 tblsp. flour
1 tsp. cinnamon (I use the best Saigon cinnamon)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp.nutmeg (I grate my own and sometimes add a tiny bit more)
8 cups tart apples, peeled and sliced (I use Granny Smith and Gala, but any combo of tart apples will do. I peel and slice them on the hand crank thingamajig...great invention and timesaver)
2 tblsp. butter, cut in small pieces
1/4 cup heavy (or whipping) cream
1-2 tblsp. milk
1 tblsp. raw or turbinado sugar (called sugar in the raw here, available on restaurant tables everywhere)
Place the apple slices in a large bowl and sprinkle with the sugar, maple sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg (available as a mix in my Etsy Shop). Mix to coat.
Roll one dough disk out and and fit it into a 9" pie plate (I like Pyrex, but others work too). Make a couple of 1/2" slashes with a sharp knife to keep pastry flat.
Place filling on pastry and dot with butter, pour cream over the top of the apples.
Roll out the top crust and place it over the apples, seal the edges with your thumb or a fork. Poke a few holes in the top to vent (I use a maple leaf cookie cutter in the center of the pastry before I place the top crust).
Brush the top of the pie with the milk and sprinkle the raw sugar on top. Cover the edges of the pastry with aluminum foil and bake on a cookie sheet (for spills) at 375 degrees for 40 minutes. Remove the aluminum foil and bake for another 20-30 minutes until filling is bubbly and crust is golden.
Eat after cooling for 30 minutes. Let me know how it comes out and don't hesitate to write with questions. After I won the contest and the magazine published the recipe, a woman from Kansas called me one night at 9pm to ask whether or not she could substitute brown sugar for the maple sugar (I wouldn't). It's that baker/farmer cred. that makes me so happy!
Thanks for stopping by. Now go make a pie!
