Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Baking Challenge #5: Double-Crumble Hot Apple Pies

"If you are going to the trouble of making pie, why make only one when it's just as easy to make two?"

This is what is stated at the beginning of the recipe. I love it! Why not 2? This weeks recipe is from this really cutely designed book called "Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Goey" by Jill O'Connor. Although there is a bunch of steps to this recipe, it is really simple to follow and make.

Double-Crumble Hot Apple Pies

Pie Crust Recipe
makes enough dough for 2 single-crust 8 or 9 inch pies
This pie crust was great–flaky and buttery!

3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, each stick cut into small pieces frozen (I didn't freeze mine, but I kept it cut up in the fridge till ready to use and it worked fine)
6 tablespoons solid coconut oil, cut into small bits and chilled (I couldn't find solid coconut oil, you can most likely get it at a health food store. I used 6 tablespoons of shortening instead which was just as good)
6-8 tablespoons ice water
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 large egg yolk, beaten

Sift flour, sugar, and salt together in a large metal mixing bowl. Cut the frozen butter and shortening (or coconut oil) into the flour until it resembles coarse meal combined with little pea-sized bits of flour. You can use a food processor with a metal blade by pulsing these ingredients or you can use a pastry blender and do it by hand. I used the pastry blender.

Whisk together 6 tablespoons of ice water, the lemon juice and the beaten egg yolk. Dribble the liquid into the flour mixture and stir together with a fork, using a light touch so as not to blend the larger bits of fat into the flour. Stir with the fork until the dough comes together into a moist but not sticky, ball. Use your hands to gentle gather the dough into a ball. You should still see some tiny butter pieces.

Divide the dough into two balls and flatten each ball into a round disk. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or up to overnight. You can also store this wrapped dough in a zip lock bag and freeze for up to 1 month.


For the Crumble:
2 cups bleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 1/2 cups firmly packed light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (you can use ground nutmeg too if you don't have fresh ones)
1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, melted

For the Apple Filling:
6 medium Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 -inch thick
6 medium Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 -inch thick
Juice of 1/2 a lemon
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (you can use ground nutmeg too if you don't have fresh ones)
1/4 teaspoon of salt
I also added a teaspoon of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F

Roll out each round of pie dough into a 12-inch circle. Gently fit each round in a 9 or 8 inch pie pan. Gently fit each round in the pie pans, allowing the excess dough to hang over the edge of the pie pan. Set aside.
It is suggested that if you have a glass pan, use that so that you can gauge how well the crust is browning. I realized that out of all my baking supplies, I didn't have a pie pan! How is that possible! So I had to use a metal one and it seemed to work just as good.

To make the Crumble: Combine the flour, oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in a bowl. Add the melted butter and stir together until the dry mixture is moistened with the melted butter and is crumbly. Refrigerate until needed.

To make the filling: In a large bowl, toss together the sliced apples with the lemon juice, flour, sugar, nutmeg, and salt. Divide the apples between the dough-lined pie pans. Trim the edges of the dough and fold them under and crimp with your fingers to make a decorative border.
See Ex. 1.















Divide the crumble between the two pies and spread evenly over the apples. You should have a generous amount of crumble for each pie. See Ex. 2.















Bake until the crust and crumble are golden brown and the apples are tender and bubbling, 60-75 minutes. My pies were down at 60 minutes but every oven is different so just check up on your pie towards the end.





















This is one of the first recipes that I have made where there is more than enough of the "good stuff" (crumble). I find that I always have to add or make more chocolate, more drizzle, more frosting, etc. than what the recipe calls for. This pie recipe had plenty of crumble and that made me extremely happy! As for the taste, it was absolutely scrumptious! Every bite was a little bit of wonderful and the crumb topping was amazing! So if you love apple pies or pies in general–this recipe is for you!

6 comments:

Kait Knight said...

Yummy! You should get the Pampered Chef stoneware pie pan- my ma is the pie queen and swears by it!!!

Simply Life said...

WOWOWOW, those pies look soooooo good!

Lesley Schooler said...

I'm eating a slice of this right now and it is delicious! :-)

Shannon said...

Marisa! Your apple pie was absolutely the perfect dessert after seeing Julie & Julia! Thank you for sharing yet another wonderful treat with me! If the plate being cleaned in about 5 seconds didn't tell you enough, I loved it!

marisa said...

Thanks! :)

Anonymous said...

the magazine "the knot" published this recipe in the "living" section of their magazine back in 2005 or 2006. all you did was double everything, make a homemade crust and put cinnamon in the filling. why would you claim a recipe as your own if its not. really weird...