Sunday Apple Pie

Mmmm . . . Pie. I was tasked with making an apple pie for last Sunday night's dessert and wound up with this delicious monster. I mostly followed Rose Levy Beranbaum's recipe from The Pie and Pastry Bible, which has been reprinted various places on the web (like here). Rose's trick is to macerate the apples, pour off the juice into a saucepan, and reduce the liquid to a syrup before adding it back into the pie filling. This helps the filling solidify and keeps the top crust from collapsing when you cut it. This syrup reduction part isn't strictly necessary, however. I did some experimenting with my Strawberry Rhubarb Pie recipe this summer and found that it's pretty easy to use about 1/4 c. or so of extra sugar, macerate your fruit filling for 30 min. to an hour, and simply pour off the extra juice before continuing with the recipe as written. That plus a lattice crust (helps with evaporation) and plenty of cooling time after baking (it's almost certain not to wind up runny if it cools overnight) greatly lessens the possibility that you'll get fruit pie soup. You'll get this instead:

But back to the pie at hand . . . The only pie dish in mom's kitchen turned out to be a very deep 9" one, so I wound up using 8 medium apples (instead of my standard 6 medium apples = 1 apple pie formula) and using heaping versions of the other ingredient measurements. Since such a deep pan is unusual, however, the recipe after the jump is for a standard 9" pie.
Sunday Apple Pie
(makes one 9" pie)
two 9" pie crusts
5-7 medium apples (I used Braeburn apples--they hold their shape well during cooking)
juice of 1 small lemon
1/4 c. light brown sugar, packed
1/4 c. white sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. sea salt
2 tbl. butter
2 tbl. cornstarch
1 egg yolk
~1 c. hot water
~1 tbl. cool water

Preheat oven to 425F. Roll out two pie crusts on a lightly floured surface (parchment works well). Flip pie plate upside down and make sure the rolled out crust extends 2" beyond the edge of the plate. Place one rolled out crust on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. Press the other crust into the pie pan and trim excess dough, leaving about 1/2" overhang.

Put both crusts in the fridge to rest for about an hour while you prepare the filling.

Combine hot water with the juice of half a lemon in a large bowl. Peel, core, and thinly slice apples. Place the apple slices into the hot lemon water as you go (this will keep them from browning).

When apples are sliced, drain with a colander and dispose of the water. Return apples to large bowl and add the juice of the other lemon half (about 1 tbl.), 1/4 c. brown sugar, 1/4 c. white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Stir to combine. Let this mixture sit and macerate for at least 30 min.

Drain apples in a colander and collect the liquid in a small saucepan. Add butter to the saucepan and boil over med. to med-high heat until the liquid reduces and thickens into a syrup.

While the juices are boiling, return apples to large bowl and mix in 2 tbl. cornstarch.

When the juices have thickened, pour the syrup over the apples and stir to combine. It's okay if the syrup hardens--it will dissolve during the baking time.

Add filling to prepared bottom crust.

Cover with top crust. Trim edges to about 1/4" all around (if needed).

Fold under and crimp decoratively (I like to use my knuckle, but a fork works too).

Cut a few steam vents in the top crust. Be sure to make them a bit wide (small slits will reseal themselves). Pop filled pie back the fridge to rest for 10-30 minutes.

Remove pie from fridge and set on aluminum covered rimmed cookie sheet (to keep any overflow off your oven floor!). Mix together one egg yolk with about a tbl. water (use a fork). This makes an egg wash, which is what makes pies look shiny and delicious when they come out of the oven. (Some claim that it toughens up the crust, but I've never found that to be the case.) Lightly brush top crust with egg wash.

Bake at 425F for 10 min. Reduce oven temp to 375F and bake for another 30 to 45 min. Cover edges with foil or pie shields if they start to over brown. If the whole thing starts to brown too quickly, tent entire pie with foil. (I'm still fighting with mom's oven, so my baking time looked like this: 10 min at 425; 30 min at 350; 20 min at 400; it worked out fine).  

Because the pie dish was so deep, the apple-to-crust ratio was crazy! But very tasty.

 Applesplosion!