DIFFICULTY: EASY
I love apple pie, and this recipe will put a smile on your guest’s faces at Thanksgiving. As I do with all my recipes, I have fine-tuned the sugar level to satisfy everyone without it being childishly sweet. Also, unlike many apple pie recipes, I precook the filling so the apples are tender and soft without relying on the bake to do the work. Let’s get right to it!
Apple Pie
Ingredients
Crust
- 396 g ABC+ 11.5% White flour
- 1 tsp Salt
- 80 g Vegetable Shortening
- 150 g Unsalted Butter Approximately 1.5 sticks
- 160 g Water, Cold Range needed is 145g-185g (see notes)
Filling
- 1.8 kg Apples (approx 4 lbs or 9-10 apples) Cored and peeled
- 70 g White Sugar
- 80 g Brown Sugar
- 28 g Lemon Juice
- 8 g Vanilla Extract
- 30 g Unsalted Butter
- 1/4 tsp Salt
- 12 g Apple Pie Spice 2 Tbsp
- 2 Tbsp Corn Starch Mixed into 1-2 Tbsp cold water
Apple Pie Spice
- 4 Tbsp Cinnamon
- 1 tsp Nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp All Spice
- 1 tsp Ginger Powder
- 1 tsp Cardamom Powder
Instructions
Crust
- Cut the butter into chunks and add to the dry ingredients. Scoop in the vegetable shortening.
- Use a pastry cutter to incorporate the fats into the dry ingredients. Keep the butter and shortening very chunky, do not try to mash things into small pieces.
- Add in water incrementally until you can form a cohesive mass. Attempt to use as little water as is necessary to get the job done. Using my 11.5% flour, I need 160g of cold water.
- Roughly divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3 pieces, round and flatten them both. Place in the refrigerator for about an hour or longer.
Filling
- Combine all ingredients (EXCEPT the corn starch) in a 4Qt pot. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to simmer. Leave pot uncovered while cooking to reduce the total amount of liquid in the filling.
- Cook until apples are tender, or to your preference. I cook mine until they are quite soft, about 15 minutes.
- Mix the corn starch with a little cold water until fully dissolved. Mix this into the hot filling, stir well. Turn off the heat and set aside to cool.
Assembly
- Wait for the filling to mostly cool. I use mine a little warm but not hot.
- Take out the cooled dough from the refrigerator and start with the larger piece placed on a floured surface. Flour the top surface as well and begin to roll it out.
- Keep lifting this gradually thinning round dough and periodically throw a light dusting of flour under it. It's important to make sure you can easily lift it off your work surface at any point. Keep widening the circle until it's about 11in in diameter (larger than your pie tray). Lay it into your tray and gently press it against the sides and edges so it adapts to the contours. Use scissors or knife to cut away dough that extends beyond about 0.5in from the edge (e.g. leave a little extra hanging over the edge of the tray).
- Now roll out the smaller piece of dough for the top of the pie. The final diameter will be closer to 9.5in, and you can incorporate extra scraps from the bottom crust if you have any. Cut into 1.5in strips for a lattice or use the entire circular piece as-is (just be sure to cut a few vent holes). Seal the edges.
- Add an egg wash – 1 whole egg plus 1/2 yolk. Add pearled sugar if desired.
- Bake at 375°F for 50min to 1hr 10min. This varies based on your pie tray, whether you use a convection over or not, whether your filling was warm or refrigerated, and other variables. In my convection oven using a thick glass Pyrex pie tray with warm filling, I need 1 hr and 10 minutes to fully bake.
- Allow to FULLY cool before cutting. You can always re-heat it before serving, but I strongly recommend you let the pie fully 100% cool before doing anything else, otherwise you risk a runny watery filling.
Detailed Instructions:
Everyone I know loves apple pie. I generally don’t like fruit pies at all, but even this one tops my list of favorites. Along with some vanilla ice cream, it can’t be beat for a Thanksgiving dessert.
CRUST
This crumbly tender crust is really easy to make, so don’t be tempted to go out and buy something from the store. Your guests will be so impressed you made the whole pie yourself. All you need is some flour, fats and salt.
Start by cutting up the butter (about 1.5 sticks) into the dry ingredients. Scoop in the vegetable shortening. I use this shortening from Whole Foods which has no hydrogenated oils in it, so now I can claim this pie is healthy!
Use a pastry cutter to break up the fats into the flour. The idea here is to get a bunch of butter and shortening chunks all integrated without making those chunks too small. You’re just roughly breaking things up.
Now add some water and use your hands to get things together. I start with about 130g of water and then add a little at a time until the whole thing stays together in one cohesive ball. Try to keep the water you add to a minimum. You are not going for a bread dough here.
Divide the ball into 2 unequal pieces as shown in the picture above (2/3 + 1/3). The bigger piece will be the base and the small piece will be your top. Once they are rounded and flattened, place in the refrigerator for about an hour or longer. We’ll get back to this once the filling is done.
FILLING
As your dough is cooling, it’s a good time to finish the filling. Start by peeling and coring about 1.8kg of apples. There’s a lot of opinions regarding the best apples for an apple pie. Many believe the tart green Granny Smith apples are best, while others prefer the sweeter varieties. I buy my apples at Costco where they don’t carry Granny Smith, so I am “stuck” with Fuji apples. I do add a little lemon juice to give things a tart kick, so you may need less if you are already using a very tart apple.
Peel and core the apples. This will leave you with about 1.5kg (3.25lb) of apples in the end.
Now cut your apples up as desired. I have tried thinly slicing them and also a large chunky version. I have come to prefer the medium-chunk option. To do this, I cut each apple into 8 slices and then chop those up into smaller chunks, as shown in the picture below.
Now place all of your filling ingredients EXCEPT for the corn starch in a 4 Qt pot.
Begin heating everything until it comes to a boil. I personally like my filling to be soft and tender, I don’t like any crisp left in them at all by the time I eat the pie. This is a matter of preference. Some recipes call for placing everything uncooked in the pie and letting the apples soften during the bake. I have found that doing this results in some slightly crispy and under-cooked filling, so choose to precook everything. If you use very thinly sliced apples, this will be super quick. As your apple chunks get bigger, the cook time increases as well. Mine take about 15 minute of simmering.
Once things simmer and the filling is ready, mix your corn starch with a little cold water to dissolve it. Add it to your hot filling and stir thoroughly. Turn off the heat and set the pot aside to give the filling a chance to cool. I don’t really let mine cool all the way because that would take too long. Keeping the filling warm also reduces your bake time. Keep in mind though, that you also don’t want the filling to be too hot. Doing so could cause your top crust to get soft and break apart as you place it.
ASSEMBLY
This is a good time to preheat your oven so it is ready when you are. Start by getting out your larger dough piece from the refrigerator and place it on a lightly floured work surface. Dust the top with some flour as well. Try to avoid too much flour, as doing so can add unpleasant bitterness to your crust.
Slowly start rolling out the disc to be wider and thinner. Keep lifting the dough off your surface to throw a light dusting of flour under it as you go. It’s important to make sure you can easily get it off your work surface at any point to avoid tears.
Now gently lift the dough off your work surface and place it in your pie tray. I use a thick glass 9″ Pyrex tray. The thickness and material of your tray can affect your final bake time, so please pay attention to that detail if yours is different.
Now use a knife or scissors to trim away the excess around the edges. I like to leave a little extra along the edge (about 0.5″) so I have more to work with when I seal in the top.
Now pull out the smaller piece from the refrigerator and do the exact same thing you did above. The total diameter of this piece will be smaller, around 9.5″.
I like making a lattice, so cut 1.5″ strips using a pizza cutter and ruler.
You need about 9 or 10 strips to get the job done. You probably have scraps from when you made the bottom piece. Use those scraps to roll out more strips if needed.
Now place your filling inside the preformed bottom crust. Be careful not to spill filling on the edges.
Once your lattice is precut and placed over the filling, you will need to also trim its edges to not extend beyond the borders of the bottom crust.
Now begin folding the bottom crust over the top strips. If you used a lot of flour, the two pieces will not join well. It can be easier to first brush some water on the top pieces near the edge to get better adhesion.
Once everything is done, I like to egg wash (1 egg plus 1/2 yolk) the surface to get a shinier and darker finish. You can also sprinkle some pearled sugar on the top for more bling.
Place in your preheated 375F convection oven. I like using a Pyrex dish because I can see how much browning my bottom crust is getting, but these thicker dishes also increase your bake time. This can also cause your top to brown a little quicker than the bottom. If this happens, you can just rest a piece of aluminum foil over the pie to slow down how fast the top browns. For my conditions, 1 hour and 10 minutes seems to be about right.
COOL IT COMPLETELY
I find that if you don’t let the pie cool, totally, completely, 100%, the filling tends to be runny and this looks bad. Some people like their apple pie to be warm when served and I won’t argue with that. But I recommend letting it cool completely and then re-heat it if desired.
Did you try this recipe? Do you have comments, questions or general feedback? I’d love to hear from you below! Happy Thanksgiving.