Classic Apple Pie, First Try
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Serves: 10
 
Just a little heads up: this is a bad recipe. As stated in the post, this pie wasn't very good. It came out way too soupy, the bottom crust was soggy and I didn't like the flavors. I added the recipe to this post so readers can follow me on my quest to find the perfect pie crust.
Ingredients
For the crust:
  • 310g (or 2½ cups) all-purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon table salt
  • 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 226g (or 1 cup) cold unsalted butter, cubed
  • 5-7 tablespoons ice cold water
For the filling:
  • 1400g (or 3 pounds) apples, I used a mix of Jonagold and Granny Smith
  • 1 tablespoon lemon juice
  • ½ teaspoon lemon zest
  • 150g (or ¾ cup) granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
  • ¼ teaspoon table salt
  • ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
To make it pretty:
  • 1 egg, beaten with ½ tablespoon of water (egg wash)
  • course granulated sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
I started with the crust:
  1. In a medium-sized bowl, I stirred together flour, salt and powdered sugar. I added the cold, cubed butter to the bowl and blended the butter into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter until the mixture looked crumbly, with pea to hazelnut sized pieces of butter. I then added the cold water and stirred with a rubber spatula until the dough came together.
  2. Using my hands, I quickly shaped the dough into two flat discs. I then wrapped the disc in plastic wrap and placed them in the fridge to chill for one hour.
  3. After the dough had chilled, I took one of the disc out of the fridge and placed it between two pieces of lightly floured baking parchment. Using a rolling pin, I rolled it to a thickness of about 5-mm (or one fifth of an inch) and lined a 22-cmm/9-inch, ceramic pie dish with it. I then placed the dish in the freezer to allow the dough to firm up again (MISTAKE NO. 1).
I then proceeded with the apple filling:
  1. I first peeled and cored all the apples. I then cut half the apples into eight wedges, after which I cut the wedges into quarters. The other half of the apples I thinly sliced (might be MISTAKE NO. 2).
  2. I added all the apples to a medium-sized bowl and tossed them with the lemon juice and the zest. At this point, I had to run to the store to get more apples, because I didn't have enough (organized much?).
Once back from the local supermarket...
  1. I peeled, cored and sliced some more apples. I threw the 'new' apples into the bowl with the apples I sliced earlier.
  2. I then took the second dough disc out of the fridge and rolled it out to a thickness of about 5-mm (or one fifth of an inch) between two sheets of lightly floured baking parchment. I set this piece of dough aside while I finished the apple filling.
Here's how I finished the apple filling:
  1. In a small bowl, I combined sugar, flour, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg. I stirred it together and added the mixture to the bowl with the apples. I tossed the apples to coat them with the cinnamon-sugar mixture. Next, I took the lined pie dish out of the freezer and added the apple mixture (MISTAKE NO. 3).
  2. I then placed the dough for the top crust on top of the apple mound, tried my best to tuck it underneath the frozen bottom crust, crimped the edges and used a sharp knife to cut steam vents in the top crust. After the edges were crimped, I placed the pie in the freezer to firm up. In the meantime, I preheated the oven to 200°C/400°F and placed my oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
Once the pie had firmed up...
  1. I brushed it with egg wash and sprinkled it with lots of coarse sugar. Then I placed it on the rack in the oven and baked it for 20 minutes. I then cranked the oven temperature down to 175°C/350°F and baked the pie for another 35 minutes (MISTAKE NO. 4).
  2. After I had taken the pie out of the oven, I allowed it to cool for two hours (MISTAKE NO. 5).
Recipe by The Tough Cookie at https://thetoughcookie.com/2014/05/07/classic-apple-pie-failed/