Classic Apple Pie

I had a pretty productive weekend in the kitchen, baking and cooking up a storm :). Some of the things I made were based on recipes, like the French muffins, fudge, hashbrowns, and apple pie...I've never made any of these from scratch before, so it was fun getting my hands dirty with batter, potatoes, and chocolatey goodness. One of the reasons why I've been baking a lot more on the weekends is because it's part of my job now! During the weekdays, I'm the blogger at Key Ingredient, and on the weekends, I try out the recipes that our members post on their KI profiles; it's a lot of fun. I'm learning quite a bit about food. I was always intimidated at the thought of baking an apple pie, but now that I'm getting in the habit of taking a baked good to work about once a week, I'm willing to face my baking/cooking fears a little more. I asked my co-workers what dessert they were craving and the response was apple pie...so I faced my apple-pie baking fear head-on today. I used a few recipes from How to Bake by Nick Malgieri, and was mostly happy with the results. The pie itself tasted great, but I think I should've taken the pie out of the oven before the suggested 40 minutes of bake time were over...it came out a little more toasted around the edges than I would've liked, but it definitely had that homemade apple pie taste that made all the work worthwhile!

I used two different recipes for the shell and crust, I also added a few more spices to the crust:

Bottom Crust: Flaky Pie Dough
1 1/2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp baking powder
8 TBSP butter (1 stick) <---lots of butter in this recipe :)
2 TBSP cold water

Top Shell: Sweet dough for pies
1 1/4 cup bleached all-purpose flour
3 TBSP sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
4 TBSP butter
1 egg

Pie Filling:
2 lbs apples (I used a mix of fuji and golden delicious; I'm not a fan of really tart apples)
2/3 cup light brown sugar
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest


I actually made a crumb topping, even though I made a shell crust for the pie, I thought it'd make the filling thicker, and it really did...I didn't think it made that big of a difference last night, but I just tasted the pie again, and right out of the fridge it has the perfect gooey filling, more thick and rich than just a plain apple filling, here it is:

Crumble Topping that goes on top of the filling
(this is an extra thing I added to the pie, but it makes a big difference)
3 TBSP apple sauce (not part of the recipe, but it added good flavor)
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1 cup flour
3-4 TBSP butter
2-3 TBSP apple juice (I love Simply Apple)

For the pie filling, everything gets mixed together in one bowl, minus the crumb topping (that gets sprinkled on top of the pie before it gets covered with the shell). For the pie crusts, after I mixed all the ingredients together in a bowl with a fork, I put them in the freezer for about 15 minutes (the recipe said to refrigerate them for at least an hour before use, but I didn't want to wait :D!).

I rolled each of the pie doughs out separately between two sheets of parchment paper, making sure to add flour to the bottom paper and the top of the dough before rolling the dough out into a circle shape large enough to fit/cover the pie pan.

After I arranged the crust in the pie pan, added the filling, then sprinkled the crumbly topping on top of the filling, I topped the pie with the shell. I then pinched the crust and shell together with my thumb, making sure to keep an even distance as my thumb went around the pie.

Before placing the pie in the oven to bake, make sure there are some small slits on the top shell of the pie so that air can escape while the inside of the pie bakes. I wish I could've created a great design (maybe after a few more pies), but I just used a knife to make a tulip shaped design/slit on top of the pie.

The recipe I followed said to bake the pie for 40 minutes at 375, I feel that is too long, since my pie came out a little charred around the edges. I think 25-30 minutes would've been perfect, next time I'll make sure to monitor it a little more (I was making hamburgers while the pie was baking...I know, it was a very all-American day in my kitchen :). Oh! I talked to a friend at work today and she actually said that it's best to cover the edges of the pie with foil so that they don't burn, since burning is a common occurrence.

I think this is a great recipe to try if you're a first-time pie maker, it's a lot of fun and not intimidating at all. My pie-baking fears are behind me now :)!