No Fail, No Fuss Double Apple Pie with a Rustic Buttery Crust
This is a delicious “no fail” apple pie with a simple buttery crust. Let it be a bit messy and flakey. Relax- it’s pie.
My secret is out- I am not the best at creating a gorgeous pie crust.
But… I do make an incredibly delicious pie crust.
It is buttery, flakey, and with a pile of spiced apples baked inside, you won’t care what it looks like. This apple pie uses Honeycrisp and Granny Smith- both are readily available year round, but right now- with September here and cool temps just around the corner, (please Lord send rain!) you’ll want to start the fall pie season right away.
This dough comes together quickly in a food processor. If you have a smaller food processor, divide the ingredients in half while making each batch – this makes a double crust. That is a lot of flour and butter in your food processor.
I use tapicoa flour for a thickener, but regular flour is just fine. If your apples are very juicy, only use about half of the liquid in your pie filling. No soggy bottoms!
The hardest part about baking this pie is having to wait 3-4 hours for it to cool. Start it early in the day or even the day before you want to devour it.
I served it with Salted caramel Ice Cream.
Happy Fall y’all!
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Rustic Apple Pie
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp salt
8 TBSP vegetable shortening, chilled, cut into small pieces
12 TBSP unsalted butter, chilled cut into very small pieces.
6 TBSP ice water
- For the filling:
3/4 cup sugar
2 TBPS tapioca flour or all purpose flour
1 heaping tsp lemon zest
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 TBSP lemon juice
2 lbs honeycrsip apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 ” pieces.
1 1/2 lbs granny Smith apples, peeled and cut into 1/2″ pieces
1 egg white, beaten
1 TBSP sanding sugar or granualted sugar
Method- Baking time 1 hour. Prep time- 1 hour
- In the bowl of a food processor, pulse together flour, salt and sugar. Add in shortening and pulse until mixture resembles small peas. Add in the butter and pulse about 8-10 times until mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Transfer mixture to a bowl and add in ice water, one TBSP at a time. Dough should pull togher nicely and be somewhat wet, but easily form into a ball. You may not need all the water if you live in a humid climate. Add more flour if dough is too stickly to easily form into a disc.
Divide the dough. Flatten dough into two discs, wrap in plastic and chill for one hour. - Remove dough from fridge and let rest for 5-10 minutes. Roll out the first disc of dough onto a floured surface into a 12″ circle. With a rolling pin, ease the dough into a 9″ pie plate lifting and dropping the dough to cover the bottom and fit into the edges. Leave the overhang of dough in place for now. Cover with plastic and return to the fridge to chill.
Now roll out the second disc into a 12″ circle, place on a parchment lined baking sheet, cover with plastic and return to the fridge until ready to assemble. - Pre heat oven to 500 degrees. Set the rack to the middle of your oven. Place a large rimmed baking sheet insde the oven to heat- like you would with a pizza stone.
- Mix sugar, tapioca, lemon zest, salt and spices in a large bowl. Add apples and lemon juice. Toss gently with a large spoon until apples are completely coated with the sugar and spice mixture.
Spread apples into the prepared pie plate lined with dough.
Remove the second dough from the fridge and drape over the top of the apples. With kitchen scissors, trim the dough so you have about 1 inch of over hang. Tuck the overhang underneath itself and crimp into place. - Cut four slits into the top of the dough for venting. With a pastry brush, brush egg white onto dough and sprinkle with sanding sugar or regular sugar.
Chill pie for 5 minutes. - Reduce oven tempeture to 425 degrees.
Remove pie from fridge. Place prepared pie directly onto hot rimmed baking sheet. This will help avoid the bottom crust from being soggy.
Bake 25 minutes rotating the baking sheet at least once.
Reduce heat again to 375 and bake another 30 minutes, rotating at least once, or until crust is deep golden brown.
Remove pie dish to a wire rack. Let cool for 3-4 hours. - I prefer to heat up my pie and serve warm with ice cream. But you can serve this pie at room temperture.
I don’t have a food processor. Can I use a stand mixer?
Janie- a stand mixer is too rough and adds too much friction as opposed to the blades of a food processor or- just using a pastry cutter. It “overworks” the party making it tough and compressed. Make certain you tools are clean and COLD. I even put the bowls, blades and all tools that touch the dough in the freezer before using.