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This recipe is a combination of a couple of different recipes and tips I have picked up from watching other seasoned homemakers.
What you will need:
For the Crust:
2 1/2 Cups unbleached all-purpose flour (King Arther happens to be my favorite & yes it matters!)
1 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 sticks (1/2 pound) of chilled butter, cut into 16 pieces
6 tablespoons ice water
For the Filling:
7 Golden Delicious Apples
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
butter for dotting
flour for dusting
How to do it:
For the Filling:
1. Core and slice your apples. Place in a bowl and mix with sugar and spices. Set aside.
Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees.
1. The first thing you will want to do is prepare the work surface you will be rolling your pie crust on. You will need a clean, large, flat, work surface such as your kitchen table.
2. Mix flour, sugar, and salt together in a large bowl with a wire whisk or else in a mixer such as a KitchenAid.
3. Add cut pieces of butter to the flower mixture and stir with a wooden spoon until all of the pieces of butter are coated with flour.
4. Now get ready to make a mess! Dump the bowl of butter and flour mixture onto your work surface. Working as quickly as possible roll the flour and butter creating large wide flakes of butter. It is helpful to have a dough scraper handy. Roll a few times then scrape your flour and butter into a pile and roll again. Some of the butter will stick to your rolling pin and the table, just use the dough scraper to pile it all up again. Once all of the butter has been rolled into wide flakes of butter use your scraper to scoop it back into the bowl.
5. Add 6 tablespoons of ice water to the dough and mix just until combined. There will be some large clumps of formed dough and debris that have not clumped. The dough will not be smooth! Press together with your hands forming a rough ball. Your object in working quickly is to keep the butter cold and flaky so that it remains suspended as identifiable pieces within the dough. This is what makes the crust so tender and flaky with a puffed quality.
6. Dust a large, clean, flat surface such as your kitchen table with a generous portion of flour. Next sprinkle it with sugar and roll your rolling pin over the surface to help spread it around and coat the rolling pin with flour as well.
7. Separate the ball of dough into two equal halves.
8. Now it's time to roll your pie crust! Here is a video that shows how. My mother-in-law took the time to show me and it was very helpful. You can tell by the picture that the table has been generously dusted. That is key to not having your dough stick to the table or the rolling pin which can result in tearing. You'll notice that when the dough is small I shift it around picking up extra flour to keep it from sticking. As the crust gets rolled bigger I adjust by changing the position of the rolling pin instead. Roll from top to bottom, then from side to side, and then in diagonals, and repeat the process until you have a piece of circular dough large enough to more than cover your pie plate and account for any unevenness.
9. Center the rolled dough over the pie plate by using your rolling pin to help lift the dough. (Shown in video). Cut the excess dough away leaving about a 1/2 an inch to 1 inch of dough to fall over the sides of the pie plate. This can be done fairly crudely without to much worry.
10. Dump your spiced apples into the pie plate, dust with a bit of flour, and dot with butter!
11. Roll the top crust as in step 8 and use it to cover the top of the pie. Trim to the same length as the under-crust. Next fold top layer of crust under the bottom layer of crust creating a pocket.
12. Shape the crust by using your fingers to create ruffles. My pie plate is shaped with ruffles but this works just as well with a regular pie plate.
13. Create vents in a decorative pattern using a fork to prick the dough.
14. If you like you can add a little interest by adding a "centerpiece". I used small leaf cookie cutters from William Sonoma and added some coarse sugar for fun.
15. Next fashion a pie shield using tin foil so that the edge of the pie does not get overly done.
You can opt to save your "pie Shield" for future use or just make it from scratch each time
16. In goes the pie! Bake at 425 degrees for 10 minutes then rotate the pie a half turn and reduce the temperature to 375 degrees. Bake for 30 more minutes. Remove the pie-shield and bake for a final 10-15 minutes until the pie crust is a delicious golden brown!
17. Enjoy! You deserve it!
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