Apple Pie

Our favorite homemade apple pie recipe for over 10 years!  It’s simple and delicious, and requires zero chill time for the dough.  This American favorite uses basic ingredients like flour, sugar and cold butter for a quick and flaky crust!

Happy October!  Even though the first day of fall is in September, now that it is October I feel more official about celebrating all things fall.  This is when I bust out the apple and pumpkin recipes, and maybe finally unpack my colder weather clothing.  (Although that really depends on what the Mississippi weather decides.)

I made this apple pie TWICE in the last week.  That is not counting the ga-zillion times I’ve made it over the last 10+ years.  If we’re really keeping count, I first made this exactly 11 years ago.  ELEVEN.  I am a person that changes my mind a lot, but I never changed my mind about this apple pie…for eleven years now.

My older sister never liked apple pie until she ate this one.

We are leaving for our annual fall Michigan trip later this week.  Every year, we load into the van and drive up from our home in Mississippi to visit my family and spend a few days in the apple orchards and pumpkin patches while taking advantage of all of the other fun fall activities Grand Rapids has to offer — like donuts, Art Prize and fall color tours.  I’m hoping the leaves are changing colors already.  One year the trees were SO vibrant but then the next year there was hardly any color yet, so we never know what we’ll get!

My family already asked if I would make them this apple pie after we pick our apples together this weekend.

99% of the time I make this pie with a lattice top.  It is a beautiful presentation that doesn’t take much effort at all, especially once you get the hang of it.  Use a pizza cutter to slice strips in the top crust then just weave them one at a time.  This is a great video tutorial from Inspired Taste.

If you choose not to do a lattice crust, you can just lay the top crust over as a whole like a blanket, then slice a few venting strips with a sharp knife.  My photos show both a lattice crust and a full top crust.  This is the reason I made the pie twice this week.

One of my biggest tips for you when making this pie has to do with transferring the rolled out pie dough.  Once you have it rolled out to your 12-inch disc, use your rolling pin to easily transfer it to the pie plate.  You do this by loosely wrapping the dough around the rolling pin and then carefully lift it over to the plate and re-roll it out into the plate.  Make sure your keeping your dough well floured in the process.  Here is a helpful video from Epicurious demonstrating how to roll out the crust, transfer it to the plate and then crimp the edges.

A few items that might help you with this recipe:
Pie plate (I have 9- and 10-inch plates that both work with this recipe.)
Pastry mat (Not a necessity, but very helpful to have for rolling and measuring dough. I use mine for all my dough recipes.)
Rolling pin (Guessing you might already have one.)

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Apple Pie

Our favorite homemade apple pie recipe for over 10 years! It's simple and delicious, and requires zero chill time for the dough. This American favorite uses basic ingredients like flour, sugar and cold butter for a quick and flaky crust!

Course Dessert

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 50 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 45 minutes

Servings 8 servings

Ingredients

For the crust:

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter cut into small cubes
• 6 tablespoons very cold water

For the pie filling:

• 6 medium to large apples (Honeycrisp, Braeburn, Granny Smith, Jonagold or variety) peeled and sliced
• splash of lemon juice
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 egg white (for egg wash)
• 1 tablespoon water (for egg wash)
• raw sugar optional

Instructions

For the crust:

1. In a large bowl or stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, sugar and salt. Drop in the butter cubes a few at a time while fluffing with a fork to coat with the flour mixture.  Once all the butter is added, mix on low speed until the texture resembles coarse cornmeal and the butter pieces are no larger than small peas.  Add the cold water and continue to mix on low speed just until a dough is formed.  Do not overmix.
   
   (Alternatively, you can pulse everything in a food processor instead, or mix in a bowl using a pastry cutter.  I like using my stand mixer for convenience.)
   

2. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface.  Divide in half and set one half aside.  Pat dough into a ball and lightly flatten into a disc with 4 to 6 gentle taps of the rolling pin.  Lift and flip the dough and give it a quarter turn.  Lightly flour the bottom and top of the dough and rolling pin as needed while rolling to a 12-inch round.  Carefully transfer to the bottom of a 9- or 10-inch pie plate.
   

3. Roll out the other half of dough in the same way, then complete the steps for pie filling below before transferring top crust to the plate.
   

For the pie filling:

1. Preheat oven to 375°F.  Adjust rack to lower third position.
   

2. In a large mixing bowl, toss together the apple slices and lemon juice.  Mix in the sugar, flour, cinnamon, and nutmeg until evenly coated.  Transfer to the pastry-lined pie plate.
   

3. Transfer the second half of the dough over top of the apples.  Press edges to seal.  Use a sharp knife to cut slits into top of crust for venting the air.  (See instructions below for a lattice style crust.)
   

4. In a small bowl, mix the egg white and 1 tablespoon water.  Brush onto the pie crust (you will not use all of the egg wash).  If desired, sprinkle with raw or regular sugar.
   

5. Place pie on a baking sheet and bake for 50-60 minutes, until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown.  Allow to rest on the counter for 1-2 hours before slicing.
   

Recipe Notes

For lattice style top crust:

To create the woven lattice top, after rolling out the second half of dough, cut into strips. Use the longer pastry strips near the center of the pie and the shorter ones near the edges. Cross the two longest strips over the center of the filled pie. Place a second long strip over the top cross strip. Fold back every other strip onto itself and lay a cross strip in place, then return folded-back strips to their original position. Continue weaving in this fashion, working from the center of the pie toward the edges. Trim and flute the edges decoratively with your thumb.

Tip:  An easy way to transfer the dough is to use your rolling pin!  Loosely fold the rolled out dough over the rolling pin then lift and transfer to the plate.  Carefully roll it back out over the plate.

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