The Best homemade apple pie

 
 
 
 

Fall is upon us, and we're thinking about the more important matter: pie. Our friends at Bellewood Acres in Lynden, Washington gave us a heap of gravenstein and honeycrisp apples to bake with. We love Kate Lebo's recipe for all butter pie crust and apple pie filling from fresh apples and a single pear. It's straightforward, simple and positively satisfying.

Kate knows her pie, particularly when it comes to balancing tart and sweet flavors. Check out our previous video where we show you how to make Kate's perfect all butter pie crust from scratch. The filling is simple: thinly sliced apples, sugar, flour, lemon, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon. Julie walks us through how to lattice the top of the pie crust if you're not type A. This is an important skill. The pie is baked for 15-20 minutes at a higher temperature until the top is golden and blistered and then baked longer at a lower temperature to finish. Let it cool longer than we did (Ju had to leave to head to a workout class) and slice! The longer it cools, the easier it will be to slice. —Dak

 

Ingredients

  • 1 double crust

    (See our All Butter Crust recipe!)

  • 3 gravenstein or granny smith apples, thinly sliced

  • 2 Akane, Ginger Gold or McIntosh apples, thinly sliced

  • 1 ripe pear (any variety), thinly sliced

  • juice of 1/2 a lemon (about 1-2 Tbsps)

  • 3/4 cup granulated sugar

  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon

  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (can be freshly grated)

  • Hearty pinch of salt

  • 3 Tbsps flour

  • 2 Tbsps butter cut into small chunks

  • Egg wash (one egg white whisked with a splash of water)

  • Turbinado sugar

 

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees

  2. Prepare 1 double pie crust recipe (see our All Butter Piecrust Recipe here!), separate into two disks, wrap in plastic wrap (or parchment paper) and place in fridge until needed.

  3. To prepare the apples and pear, core and slice into slices as thin as you can make them - think thin slices and not wedges. Place apple slices and pear slices into large bowl. Add sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg to the bowl and mix with your hands to evenly distribute the spices. Add the flour and mix again. Set aside.

  4. Remove the bottom crust disk from the fridge and place on a lightly floured counter. Begin to roll out dough into a rough circle, flouring rolling pin and surface lightly with flour only as needed. Once the circle has been rolled out about an inch larger than the pie dish you are using, carefully fold dough in half and then into quarters. Transfer triangle to your dish and unfold the dough triangle.

  5. Using a slotted spoon transfer the apple and pear slices into the pie dish with the bottom crust. Pour and juices from the bowl on top of the apple and pear slices once you have spooned them all into the bottom crust. The slices will be mounded quite high. Take the 2 tbsps of butter chunks and dot the top of the apple mound.

  6. Remove the top dough disk from the fridge and roll out in the same way you rolled out the bottom crust. Fold into a triangle and transfer, and unfold on top of the apples. Gently tuck the edges of the top crust under the bottom crust and using your thumb and pointer fingers on one hand and your pointer finger on the other, carefully crimp the two crusts together.

  7. Cut generous steam vents in the top of the crust, brush with prepared egg wash and sprinkle generously with turbindao sugar.

  8. Bake in the middle of the oven for 15-20 minutes, until the top of the crust is a golden color and it has started to blister. Turn temperature down to 375 and continue to bake for about 35-45 minutes more, until the crust as turned a deep golden brown across the top. Remove and cool for at least an hour.

Serves 8-10