Mmmm, mmm, apple pie! Nothing says fall better than a mouth-watering, juicy, sweet mouthful of goodness like this. It doesn’t take much to make a good apple pie: a great pie crust recipe and a few good apples, throw ’em together and presto! Apple pie!
Butter Pie Crust (full and complete credit for this recipe goes to San Pejewar!)
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter, cubed
1/4 to 1/2 cup cold water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
Cut the butter into the flour, sugar and salt using 2 knives, pastry blender or food processor. Add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time and mix with a fork until the dough starts to pull together. If it still appears dry and crumbly, add 1 tablespoon of water until the dough holds. At this point you can use your hands. But be careful! This is a bit tricky, because if you mix the flour too much, you’ll end up with dough that is tough.
Split the crust into 2 halves, flatten into discs and wrap in plastic to refrigerate. Chill at least 2 hours before use, but let sit 5-10 minutes before you start rolling.
Fit the dough into a pie dish, pressing it into the base. The best trick to do this without breaking the crust is to fold it in half, then lift together over the pie dish. Trim and crimp the edges.
Roll out the other disc of dough and transfer to a baking sheet. Chill both halves for 15-20 minutes or until firm. Preheat oven to 425 degrees in preparation for baking.
Apple Pie Filling
Thinly slice apples until you have about 5-6 cups. I’ve always wondered what thinly sliced means, so here’s a picture to give you an idea:
The main idea is to get them nice and thin so they’ll cook evenly. I prefer to leave the peels on, but if you’d rather you can peel them beforehand. I used a combination of cortland (red skin, sweet, white flesh, great for desserts), jona gold (yellow skin, juicy, sweet-sour taste) and empire (red skin, juicy, firm flesh, sweet) apples.
