Apple Pie

With some apples still leftover from apple picking and unexpected leisure time, I had the perfect conditions to make my first apple pie. I followed the Double-Crust Apple Pie recipe in How to Bake, by Nick Malgieri. Unfortunately, my lack of experience with pie dough made for a rather crumbly crust. It was flaky and tasted fine, but had the texture of shortbread. K didn’t mind, but I wanted it to be a little more doughy. Another reason why it was drier than expected may be because I extracted the juice from the filling before it was baked. The author warned that Granny Smiths have a lot of moisture, so they need to be cooked first. Half of the apples were Granny Smiths and the rest were some non-baking apples from the farm. I will remember to leave more of the juice for the filling next time and add more water or vodka to the pie dough. I’m not going to post the recipe here since it wasn’t successful, but will include an ingredient list with amendments for future reference.

Flaky Pie Dough (for a two-crust pie, about 1-½ pounds dough)
2-½ cups bleached all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking powder
16 tablespoons (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
4 to 6 tablespoons cold water

Double-Crust Apple Pie

filling:
3 pounds firm, tart apples, such as Granny Smith, Pippin, or Golden Delicious
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon lemon juice
⅓ cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

egg wash:
1 egg well beaten with a pinch of salt

topping:
1 teaspoon sugar 
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon