Apple Pie
This apple pie is perfect for the upcoming holiday season. It has the best all butter flaky crust and a creamy, spiced apple filling. You'll find yourself returning to this recipe again and again!
Ingredients
For the Pastry
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp granulated sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup unsalted butter 2 sticks, cold, cubed
- 2 Tbsp ice water
- 1 Tbsp vodka see notes
- 1 large egg for egg wash
- coarse sugar optional
For the Apple Filling
- 3 lbs your favorite baking apples peeled and chopped (honeycrisp, gala, granny smith, cortland, etc.) use a 3 lb bag of apples, peeled and chopped you should have roughly 2lbs of apples. if the weight exceeds 2.5 lbs, be sure to adjust the spices
- juice of 1 lemon
- zest of 1/2 lemon
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter cold, to be melted
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/8 tsp ground ginger
- 1 Tbsp cornstarch
- 8 oz cream cheese room temperature
- 1/2 tsp salt
Instructions
For the Pastry
- In a food processor, pulse together 2 ½ cups of all purpose flour, 1 Tbsp of granulated sugar, and 1 tsp of salt until combined.
- Add 1 cup (2 sticks) of cold unsalted butter cut into cubes directly into the food processor and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand.
- Add 2 Tbsp of ice water and 1 Tbsp of vodka* and mix until the mixture comes together. Do not overmix.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured clean surface and bring it together with your hands. Form the dough into a round disc and wrap with plastic wrap.
- Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.
For the Apple Filling
- Peel and chop into small squares 1 3lb bag of your favorite baking apples. After peeling and chopping the apples you should have about 2lbs of apples. If the amount you have exceeds 2.5 lbs, add a little extra of each spice and sugar. Place all of the chopped apples into a large bowl.
- Add the zest of 1/2 lemon and the juice of 1 lemon to the bowl of chopped apples and mix until lightly coated.
- In a large saucepan, melt 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter, then add the chopped apples to the pan and stir.
- Add 1/2 cup of granulated sugar, 1/3 cup of brown sugar, 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1/4 tsp of nutmeg, 1/4 tsp of cloves and 1/8 tsp of ginger directly to the saucepan of apples. Stir, cover and allow to cook down for 5-6 minutes. Juice will start to release from the apples, this is what you want!
- Sprinkle 1 Tbsp of cornstarch over the apples while they're still cooking and stir until dissolved. Allow to cook for another 1-2 minutes until slightly thickened.
- While the apples finish cooking down, place a strainer over a large bowl. Remove the apples from the heat and carefully pour the apples and all of the thickened juice that released from the apples over the strainer. Allow a few moments for most of the juice to pass through the strainer and into the bowl below.
- Remove the strained apples (still in the strainer) and place onto a plate (in case any more juice releases).
- Add 8oz of room temperature cream cheese and 1/2 tsp of salt to the large bowl of strained juice. Mix with a hand mixer until combined. There may be a few lumps left in the mixture, that is okay.
- Add the apples and any extra juice that released back into the cream cheese mixture and mix with a spatula until combined.
- At this point you may refrigerate the apple filling overnight, or, if baking right away, allow the filling to reach room temperature** before pouring it into the pie dish.
For the Assembly
- Preheat the oven to 425°F (roughly 218°F).
- Once the dough has finished chilling, flour your work surface and then remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it into a rectangle roughly 10” x 5”. The dough will be very hard to work at first. You may allow it to warm up slightly on the counter but not for longer than 10 minutes. It’s important to work with pastry while it is cold.
- Perform the ⅓ fold technique to the dough by folding one short end ⅓ of the way over itself. Then fold the other short end over the previous fold. This process is similar to folding a piece of paper into thirds. Roll the dough into another 10” x 5” rectangle and perform the folds one more time. Be sure to keep your work surface well floured. Separate the dough into two squares after you perform the folds.
- The dough should be pliable enough to work with now, plus we just developed layers that will result in deliciously flaky pastry once baked!
- Roll the dough out to about an inch larger than your pie tin (I recommend a 9" pie dish for this pie). The dough should roughly be about 1/8 inch thick.
- Place the pastry into the pie tin and trim the excess edge. Place the dough lined pie tin in the freezer while you roll out the other pastry disc.
- Roll out the other half of the pastry and prepare the top how you prefer. I chose a lattice top for this pie but the design is up to you.
- Remove the pie tin from the freezer, add the apple filling, top it with the lattice design, and brush everything carefully with an egg wash.
- Bake at 425°F for about 15 minutes. It is smart to bake the pie on a baking sheet in case it leaks filling. Pay attention to the edges of the crust, if it is browning too quickly, you may want to tent the edge.
- After the 15 minutes, reduce the heat to 365°F (185°C) and bake for another 40-50 minutes, removing once the pastry has browned properly.
- Once removed, allow the pie to rest for 1-2 hours. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream and enjoy
Notes
if you don't have vodka you can just use 3 Tbsp of ice water, however the vodka is HIGHLY recommended to achieve a super flaky pie crust
**you can do this quickly by spreading the hot apple filling onto a baking sheet and sticking it into the fridge or freezer. It cools faster when it is spread out.