Old Fashioned Apple Pie

Dessert

This is a great recipe based on the method described by Rose Levy Beranbaum in her book The Pie and Pastry Bible. By allowing the fruit to macerate and then cooking down the juices you get a fantastic caramel-apple flavor, and you don’t need to use as much thickener (cornstarch). You can use this technique for other fruits like pears, apricots, and peaches.

Use with Basic Pie Crust for great pie!

Ingredients

2½ LB apples (about 6 medium), peeled, cored, and sliced
- Suggested apples: Kings, Spitzenbergs, Jonagolds, Cortland, Jonathan, Pink Lady, Pippin.
1 tbsp lemon juice
¼ cups brown sugar
¼ cups white sugar
½ to 1½ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
¼ tsp salt
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp + 1 tsp cornstarch

Instructions

In a large bowl combine the apples, lemon juice, sugars, cinnamon, and nutmeg, and salt and toss to coat. Allow to sit at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours.
Strain the accumulated juice from the apples into a small saucepan. You should have about ½ cups of juice. Cook the juice with the butter over medium high heat until thick and syrupy, about 7-10 minutes.
Toss the apples with the cornstarch. Gently pour the syrup over the apples and toss.
Transfer the apples to the prepared pie shell.
Ensure your oven is nice and hot – preheat at 425 for at least 20 minutes before baking your pie. Bake for 45-55 minutes, until juices are thickly bubbling. You might need to protect the edges and top crust after 30 minutes of baking to prevent over browning.

Originally came from Pacific Pie. Made it for Caitlin in 2015 in our first Portland apartment and it was very good.

Variations

Apple Cranberry

When reducing the apple juices, add 1 cup whole fresh cranberries. They will burst and cook down a bit in the syrup. Pour over apples and mix through.

Apple Crumb

Prepare pie as described above. After 30 minutes of baking, top with Crumb Topping and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Crumb Topping: Combine ⅓ cups brown sugar, 2 tbsp white sugar, 1 cup chopped walnut, pecans, or hazelnuts (or a combination), 1½ tsp cinnamon, 1 cup flour, ⅛ tsp salt. Put in a large bowl or a food processor. Stir/pulse to combine. Add 8 tbsp cold buter cut into small pieces, and either rub in with your fingers or pulse until mixture forms pea-size clumps.

Bourbon Apple Pie