Heritage-apple Pie

Apple pie is a Thanksgiving staple and I suspect there are as many recipes as there are apples in the world; this version by Grace Parisi appeared in Food and Wine magazine in November 2008. It’s good, and it uses a mix of traditional American orchard grown apples, hence the name. The notes on pastry crust techniques are gleaned from Shirley O. Corriher’s Cookwise.

8 servings
2 ¾ cups all-purpose flour (see notes), plus more for dusting
½ tsp salt
2 sticks plus 1 T. unsalted butter, cube
½ cup ice-water
2 large Granny Smith apples
2 large Pink Lady apples
2 large Golden Delicious apples
2 T. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 cup sugar
¼ tsp cinnamon

In a food processor, pulse 2 ½ cups of the flour with the salt. Add 2 sticks of cubed butter and pulse until mix forms small pea-sized lumps. Drizzle on the ice-water and pulse until evenly moistened crumbs form; don’t over mix (see notes). Turn out onto a cold surface and gently form mix into a ball; divide the dough in half, flatten into disks, wrap in plastic and refrigerate until firm. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Set a baking sheet on the bottom rack (this will catch any juice that drips from the pie during cooking).

Peel, core and slice the apples (or cut them into 1-inch chunks if you prefer). In a bowl, toss the apples with the lemon juice, sugar, ¼ cup flour and the cinnamon.

On a floured surface, roll a disk of the pastry dough to a 13-inch round; fit it into a deep 10-inch glass pie plate (see notes) and brush the overhang with water. Spoon the apple mix into the crust and top with the remaining 1 tablespoon of cubed butter. Roll out the second disk of dough to a 12-inch round and center it over the filling. Press the edges of the dough together and trim the overhang to 1-inch all round, fold the overlay under itself and crimp. Cut a few slits in the top crust to let steam escape.

Bake the pie in the center of the oven for approximately 1 hour and 10 minutes, until the crust is golden. If the crust begins to brown too much cover it with a pie-crust protector or strips of aluminum foil. Let the pie cool for at least 4 hours before serving.

Notes:
If you can’t find Pink Lady apples, any locally-grown variety can be substituted.

I’ve never been a great fan of the food-processor method of making pie dough –it is quicker but it is also easy to over mix the dough, producing a tough crust. Blending the butter in to the flour with your fingertips is not only viscerally satisfying but the heat of your hands helps soften the fat (butter in this case) to better coat the gluten-forming proteins in the flour thus restricting the formation of gluten - a key to producing a tender crust. Using a pastry cutter or two knives (I was never any good at THAT) is also an option.

For a really tender crust look for a low-protein flour, or combine two parts bleached all-purpose flour with and one part cake flour. Try substituting sour cream for the water (gluten-forming proteins cannot join without water).

Cook’s Illustrated and America’s Test Kitchen found that glass pie plate produce more even baking and a browner crust than ceramic or metal. (They also recommend baking pies on the bottom rack of the oven for a better result; the baking time would be less of course as the bottom of an oven can be as much as 50 degrees hotter than the middle.)