Never trust a dessert cookbook without a recipe for apple pie. Never trust an apple cookbook without a recipe for apple pie and an accompanying essay. Since we happen to have written just such a book, I know whereof I speak.
Apple pie is, to my mind, the king of pies: warm apples are incomparably delicious. Warm cherries, pears, plums, peaches, are all very nice. Blueberry cobbler is excellent. As is peach cobbler, or warm peaches over ice cream. But apples are the ultimate pie fruit.
The ultimate pie apple is a heavily disputed matter. The Brooklyn Botanical Garden’s apple handbook devotes a chapter to pie as well as a tannin/sugar chart meant as a guide to baking the correct pie.
We have a few general rules: 1. not too soft, not too firm; 2. Not too sweet, not too sour; 3. Experiment. There are so many apples, you should try them in your pie; we like a firm/soft mix like Granny Smith and Golden Delicious.
Finally, slice them really thin. It makes for an attractive cross-section, and ensures your apples will break down.
(NOTE: You can prebake the crust if you like. Sometimes we do, but usually I’m too lazy. Use a mandoline. And don’t be afraid to slice up a lot of apples: you’re looking for a giant mound.)
Apple Pie w/ Cranberry Preserves
Makes one 10-inch double crust deep dish pie
For the Crust:
2 ½ cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons unsalted butter plus 4 tablespoons, chilled and cut in ¼ inch dice
7 tablespoons shortening, chilled
1/3 cup ice water as necessary
For the Filling and to Assemble:
2 cups cranberries
1 cup cranberry juice
1 ¼ cups sugar
5 pounds apples (granny smith and golden delicious is a good mix), peeled, sliced
1/16 inch thin (a mandoline simplifies this)
juice ½ lemon
3 tablespoons flour
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup milk
- Preheat oven to 400. Combine ½ cup of the sugar, cranberries, and the juice in small saucepan and simmer over medium heat until the liquid is absorbed and looks jammy, about 20 minutes. Let cool completely.
- In a large bowl, combine the apples, ½ cup of the remaining sugar, 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon, flour and lemon juice. Mix well with your hands. Reserve at room temperature.
- Remove the dough and let warm a bit, about 10 minutes. Generously flour a surface and roll to 1/16 inch, rotating ¼ turn after a few rolls. Line a 10-inch pan with the crust, layer thickly with the cranberry compote.
- Layer the apples over the cranberries. You’ll have a very high mound. Dot with the remaining 2 tablespoons butter.
- Roll out the second dough, drape over the apples and using a 2 inch ring mold of paring knife, cut out and remove a small hole from the center of the dough.
- Toss the remaining ¾ teaspoon cinnamon with the remaining ¼ cup sugar. Brush the pie with milk and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar.
- Bake on a tray for 50 minutes or until browned and bubbling. Rest for 20 minutes and slice.
For the crust:
- Add the flour, salt, and sugar to a food processor and pulse. Dot the butter on top and pulse 5 or 6 times for a second each. Do the same with the shortening. Each time the fat should be no bigger than tiny peas and resemble coarse breadcrumbs.
- Add a few tablespoons of water and pulse. Keep adding until the mixture just comes together. You may not need all the water.
- Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in two, flatten each into a 7-inch disc and refrigerate for at least a few hours or up to a day.
