Eats: Michigan Apple Pie

8:41 PM

A few weeks ago I made THE BEST thing I have ever made: A Michigan Apple pie. Why is it a Mitten-Pie? Because I used Michigan apples, AND because I screwed up the top crust royally. So I used a Michigan shaped cookie cutter and placed them all over the apples before baking to make a half-ass top crust. Kyle thought it was the greatest thing ever, so until he reads this blog post, he will just thing I am a baking genius.

Here is the recipe I used, found here.

Filling Ingredients:

11 cups of your apple of choice, peeled (optional), cored, and thinly sliced (approximately 3½ pounds of apples)

¾ cup sugar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced

1 tablespoon whole milk

Directions:

In a large bowl, stir all apples, ¾ cup sugar, lemon juice, ½ teaspoon cinnamon, and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Let mixture stand for approximately 15 minutes until juices form. Then, mix in flour. Once this mixture has been added to the pie dish on top of the bottom piecrust, dot it with the 3 tablespoons of diced butter before applying the top crust and sealing the pie for baking.

Piecrust Recipe

(Makes two pie disks for one double-crust apple pie)

Ingredients:

2/3 cup unsalted butter

1¾ cups all-purpose pastry flour

7 teaspoons sugar, plus 1 tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon salt

1 large egg yolk

3¾ tablespoons iced water

1 large pinch ground cinnamon

Directions:

Process the flour, salt, sugar, and butter in a food processor, using the pulse setting, until it forms a crumbly consistency. Beat the egg yolk and water together; using the feed tube, gradually drizzle in the egg yolk and water until the mixture begins to form a ball. Do not overwork the dough. Remove all of the dough from the food processor, gather into a ball, and divide in half. Flatten into two disks, wrap each in parchment paper or plastic wrap, and chill disks in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

To assemble the pie, roll out the bottom disk on a lightly floured surface until it is approximately 12 inches in diameter, and place in a greased pie dish (spray it with baking spray or coat it with a little butter). Mound in your filling, and dot it with butter as mentioned above. Then roll out the second disk to approximately 13 inches in diameter, and place on top of the pie. Pinch the edges of the top and bottom crust together with your fingers, trim to about a ½-inch overhang, then fold and crimp the pie edges. Slit some steam holes in the top crust, brush the top with milk, combine the 1 tablespoon sugar with a pinch of cinnamon, and sprinkle the crust with it.

Put your pie on a baking sheet and into the oven. Turn the temperature down to 375 degrees. Bake for approximately two hours, or until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling with a thick, syrupy texture. During the baking process, you may notice your piecrust edges getting darker than you'd like. To prevent them burning, place foil around the edges.

So, yeah, WICKED GOOD STUFF. Now go make a pie.