National Pi Day
As many of you probably know yesterday, March 14, or 3.14, is National Pi Day! Now, I don't typically pay much attention to all these "National Food Days" but I had some apples and some time so Pi Day seemed like the perfect excuse to try my hand at apple pie! Oh my, am I ever glad I did. So worth it! Was surprisingly easy to do. The hardest part, honestly, was waiting for the filling to properly set. I should have started much earlier in the day because I didn't realize just how long the filling would take to fully set. This is why everyone says to read a recipe from start to finish BEFORE you begin to make sure you know what you're getting into.
Now, I've always thought that scratch-made pie shell was impossible and to be avoided at all cost. So until now I had always avoided complex pies. I've made a chocolate tart, a couple of pumpkin pies, and even a few galettes to get used to working with pastry dough, but never a proper top and bottom crust fruit-filled pie. BUT I managed to find a good all butter (no lard) recipe that comes together nicely in the food processor so figured there was no harm in trying. Came together easily and I had no troubles rolling it out. Definitely a keeper!
I went to Epicurious to find recipes for both the crust and the filling. I'll share those here but if you have a standard go-to recipe for pie shell then just go ahead and use your own. (*Note about the recipe in the pie link: recipe includes a part for making a shell, but I had already made my own so that's the recipe I put below. Use whichever shell recipe you'd like.)
Basic Butter Pie Crust (from Epicurious)
2 1/2 C all-purpose flour
1 tbsp granulated sugar
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1 C unsalted butter, cold and cut into 1/2" chunks
6 tbsp ice water (roughly*)
Place flour, sugar, salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse to mix. Add the cold butter and pulse until it becomes a course meal. Gradually add ice water while pulsing to combine. Continue until it begins to come together into a moist clump.
Divide into two balls, flatten each into a smooth disk, and wrap each in plastic wrap then refrigerate 2hrs (or overnight).
*I ended up using 7 tbsp to get my dough to come together
Classic Apple Pie (adapted slightly from Epicurious)
3 1/2 lbs apples (gala, honeycrisp, golden delicious)
1/4 C all-purpose flour
1/3 C sugar (feel free to adjust based on sweetness of your apples)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tbsp lemon juice
egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk)
coarse sugar for sprinkling
Peel and core the apples. Slice into 1/4" thick slices. Place in a large bowl with the remaining ingredients, and mix to thoroughly coat the apples.
Roll out one of the dough disks until 1/8" thick and large enough to fill a 9" pie plate. Gently transfer to the pie plate and lift edges to settle the dough down into the pan. Leave a 1/2" overhang and trim the excess. Fill with apple mixture, packing tightly.
Roll out second dough disk until 1/8" thick and large enough to cover the pie. Press down tightly onto the apples. Fold the edges under the bottom shell and crimp to seal (you can do the two fingers with thumb between crimp, or use a fork to press down around the edge, whatever works for you). Cut 5 slits into the top and chill for 30mins to set the crimp while the oven heats up.
Place a rimmed cookie sheet in the centre of the oven and preheat to 425F.
Brush top of the pie with egg wash and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Place the pie plate on the preheated cookie sheet and bake for 25mins. Rotate the pie and reduce oven temp to 350F and continue baking for 50mins (until juices thickened and bubbling). Cool on a rack for 3-4hrs to allow inside the juices to fully set.
Enjoy!
As always, I want to see what you've been baking! So be sure to tag your Instagram photos with #ragebake