Recipe & Video
American Apple Pie
Yield: 8
Ingredients:
For the pie crust
- 4 cups (560 g) all-purpose flour (plus more for rolling)
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 2 tsp fine salt
- 1 cup (230 g) unsalted butter, very cold
- 3/4-1 cup cold water
- 1 tsp cider vinegar (optional)
For the filling
- 2-3 pounds (8 cups) thinly sliced or small diced apples*
- 3/4 cup (150g) brown sugar
- 1 tbsp (16g) lemon juice
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
For the egg wash
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tablespoon milk
Instructions:
Make the pie crust
- (before you deal with the crust, thinly slice the apples and toss with brown sugar & lemon juice, cover and set aside to macerate)
- Grate your frozen butter on the large side of a box grater and hold in the refrigerator or freezer.
- In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, and salt until well mixed.
- Add cold butter and toss with flour. Using your hands, break down pieces of butter by rubbing them into the flour until your mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
- Add 1⁄2 cup cold water and 1 tsp apple cider vinegar. Mix with a wooden spoon or your hand until a rough dough is formed. Add additional water as need, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you have few to no dry bits of dough.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured counter and knead briefly just until a cohesive dough is formed. Flatten into a rectangle and fold. Repeat fold 2 more times.
- Divide into two equal pieces, flatten to about 1 1⁄2 inch thickness, wrap with plastic and chill in fridge for at least 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400F. Cover a baking stone or sheet pan in foil and place in oven, with rack set to bottom third position.
- After dough as chilled, dust work surface with flour and roll one disk of dough to about 1/8-1/4 inch thickness, taking care to lift the dough and redust underneath to prevent sticking. Always roll from the middle out to the edge, stopping right before the edge.
- Ease crust into pie pan, making sure not to stretch the dough. Trim excess. Hold in the refrigerator or freezer.
Make the filling
- Drain macerated juice off the apples into a saucepan.
- Stir in spices, salt & butter. Simmer and reduce to a syrup.
- Toss apples with cornstarch and then fold apple syrup back into the apples.
- Pour into pie pan. Dot with butter.
- Roll out second disk of pie dough. Moisten rim of bottom crust with a wet finger. Place top crust over apples. Seal. Trim. Crimp.
- Cut vents.
- Whisk together 1 egg, 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon of milk and brush over crust (this is optional, but makes for a much prettier pie)
- Bake until a butter knife inserted through a vent shows apples are cooked and juices are bubbling up throught the vents. About 75 minutes.
- Check on the pie around the 40 minutes mark. Shield the crust edges with foil if they are over-browning.