Alison's Favourite Apple Pie

There's not much I love more than Apple Pie in the Fall! It's a takes more effort than a crumble, but the payoff is incredible, especially with local, farm-fresh apples!

I'm a purest, I don't use a food processor for my pastry, but let me know if you try this recipe with yours and it works out.

View the collection below for all the pie making essentials you'll need!

Yield: 1 Pie with extra pastry

Ingredients:

Pastry

• 5 1/2 cups unsifted, all-purpose flour
• 1 lb cold lard or vegetable shortening, cut into 1” cubes 
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg
  
• 1 tablespoon white vinegar
• cold water

Filling

• 3 lb Granny Smith apples, peeled cored & thinly sliced
• 1/3-3/4 cup sugar (Alison uses 1/3 cup as she prefers a less sweet apple pie)
• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, optional
• Pinch salt
• 2 tablespoons softened butter
  
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon of water

Method:

Pastry

1. In a 1 cup (250mL) liquid measuring cup, add egg and lightly beat.

2. To egg, add 1 tablespoon vinegar and fill cup to 1 cup mark with cold water. Whisk with fork to blend.

3. Place measuring cup in freezer while you prepare rest of pastry.

4. In large bowl, add salt to flour and stir well.

5. Cut in lard using fingers, 2 knives or pastry blender until crumbly (resembling coarse oatmeal).

6. Add only enough liquid to make dough come together.

7. Divide dough into 4 portions and form each into a disk. Wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough until well chilled. (Unused dough can be frozen, well wrapped and stored in a freezer bag, for up to 3 months.)

*NOTE: The trick to flaky pie dough is to keep all of the ingredients as cold as possible. Make sure the lard/shortening is well chilled.

Assembly

1. Remove two portions of chilled dough from refrigerator and let sit for 10-15 minutes to soften slightly. Place oven rack in bottom third of oven and preheat to 450 F.

2. On a lightly floured surface, place pastry and sprinkle with a little flour.

3. Roll dough out into a circle until 1/4” thick, sprinkling with flour if dough is sticking to rolling pin or surface.

4. Gently fold pastry in half for easier handling and transfer to a 8” deep or 9” pie plate. Unfold pastry and nestle dough into the pie plate.

5. Trim excess dough leaving a 1” overhang over the sides of the pie plate. Place the prepared pie shell in the freezer to chill while you prepare the filling.

6. In a medium bowl, toss together apples with remaining ingredients, except the butter and egg.

7. Roll out the second piece of pastry, as above. Remove your chilled pie shell from the freezer and fill with apples. Dot the top of the apples with the butter. Brush the edges of the pie shell with some egg wash and place second piece of pastry over top.  I like to create a lattice for the top - thicker slices are easier, start in the middle changing directions each time you add a piece, lifting and folding earlier pieces to create the lattice.

8. Gently press the edges of the 2 layers of pastry together and with a sharp knife, trim the excess pastry edges. Crimp the edges of the pastry and cut 2 small slices in the top of the pastry (unless you have done to let the moisture to escape while baking. Brush top with egg wash.

9. Bake for 10 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 350 F. Continue to bake for 65 minutes, or until bottom is deep golden brown and filling is bubbling.

10. Place on a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Pastry recipe adapted from Tenderflake.