My wonderful in-laws are here for the weekend. As my father-in-law loves apple desserts as much as I do, I had a good excuse to bake an apple pie for dessert. I’ve always been fond of Nick Malgieri’s recipe…he suggests sauteing the apples before baking to avoid that big space between the top crust and filling in your finished product. I love using a variety of apples for the best tasting pie…mmmmmm...it was fabulous with a scoop of vanilla ice cream! And you can see that butter plus a bit of baking soda makes an extra flaky crust.
Apple Pie…adapted from Nick Malgieri
Crust:
2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 sticks cold butter, cut into tablespoon slices
4-6 tablespoons very cold water (I like to add a few ice cubes to a measuring cup with about a half cup of water…use that to pour into your measuring spoon).
Combine flour, salt and baking powder in food processor and pulse a couple times to mix. Add butter and pulse till mixture looks like coarse cornmeal…about 15-20 short pulses. Sprinkle with 4 tablespoons of water and pulse about 5 times. Squeeze a small amount of dough between your fingers…if it doesn’t hold together add up to 2 more tablespoons of water, one at a time, and pulse. Recheck dough after each addition till it holds together. (You can also do this by hand…use a pastry blender or two knives to “cut” the butter into the dry ingredients).
Put half of dough on a piece of plastic wrap and form into a disk. Wrap completely and repeat with other half. Refrigerate disks at least an hour before rolling.
Filling:
3 pounds apples (I used golden delicious, Granny Smith, and Jonagolds), peeled and each cut into 8 slices
3 tablespoons butter
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
2/3 cup sugar (you may use more or less depending on sweetness of apples)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 egg
Dash of salt
Melt butter in large saute or frying pan. Saute apples for about a minute, gently stirring to coat apples with butter. Add lemon juice and sugar and cook till apples are just tender, about 5 more minutes. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Allow to cool while rolling out bottom crust.
Preheat oven to 400º.
Place bottom crust into 9-inch pie plate. Fill with apples. Roll out top crust and place over apples. Seal edges and flute if desired. Cut a few vents into top crust to allow steam to escape. If desired, whisk egg with salt. Brush lightly over crust and sprinkle with sugar.
Place pie plate on sheet pan to catch any drips (since much of the moisture is removed by precooking, this isn’t a big problem). Reduce oven temperature to 375º, and bake for about 40 minutes, till top is browned and filling is bubbling. Cool on rack. Serve with vanilla ice cream if desired.
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Lizzy thisnis a gorgeous pie!! I love the leaf cutouts….so elegant:) Have a wonderful time with your inlaws:)
Thanks, Lora!
Beautiful Lizzy!
Your crust looks great!
Lizzy….This looks so good, love those leaf cutouts. Now I’m going to borrow your idea. Have a good time with your in-laws. Lambeau doesn’t look a day over 10 years old.
Thanks, girlfriends!!! It was a pain to work with, but the crust ended up pretty darn good!
LOL, Erica!
I agree, sauteing the apples is so great, then you always get tender apples too. Your pie looks absolutely perfect. I love your cut outs. They really are the perfect touch.
What a sweet thing to say! Thanks, Jacqueline!
Liz, this looks wonderful. Your photographs are better everytime I visit. THANKS for always posting tips. I have always felt so comfortable following your recipes. It’s time to write a book. LOOL, then I won’t have to remember what you said. I can look it up~!~!
You are so nice and generous with your compliments, diana…as always, thank you!
Beautiful apple pie, Lizzy! The crust looks very flaky, and it is so meticulously done with the cute little cutout decorations!
Enjoy you time with your in-laws!
Thanks, Lizzie! It was nice that the cutouts actually kept their shape
Another wonderful blog. You are such an amazing baker and I love to see what you have coming up next. My husband loves pies and this is one that I would like to make today. I have never put baking powder in my pie crust. What does it do to the texture and flavor of the crust?
Thanks, Susan!
It’s not my usual pie crust recipe, but it worked very well. The baking powder increased the flakiness…and I couldn’t taste it at all. I was nervous that the flavor would be noticeable, but there was no need to worry. I hope you give it a try!
Pretty leaf cutouts
Carole, it was nice to have some cutouts actually look decent. I may do it again with my pumpkin for Thanksgiving…thank goodness that only requires a bottom crust!