Ah... The period of time that I have been waiting for so long: apple picking time. With freshly picked apples, it is the occasion to make a simple apple pie. Everything from scratch. There are many types of crusts, but what I enjoy most is this one: crunchy on the outside, chewy on the inside. It's just a perfect marriage with a sweet-and-sour apple filling.
The filling is rather fancy, I've added red wine to the recipe.
For those who think that it would be difficult to make the apple crust, I would say that you are overestimating! As simple as only 3 ingredients and the rest is all about doing some cardio -- rolling your dough.
Alright, less talk.
Timeline:
Ready time: about 5 hours
Preparation time: 4 hours
Cooking time: 5 minutes
Baking time: 15-30 minutes
Ingredients:
Crunchy Pie Crust
260g (2 cups) all-purpose flour
150g (2/3 cups) butter
2-4 tbsp cold water
Apple filling
5 big apples of your choice
1 tsp butter
38g (3 tbsp) sugar
1 tsp redwine
a pinch of cinnamon powder
a pinch of all purpose flour
1. In a food processor, put all-purpose flour and butter. Mix it and gradually add in cold water. Do not leave it for too long as we want the butter to remain cool to create a flaky texture after baking. If you don't have a food processor, you can easily do it by hand. Do not have your hand in direct contact with the dough as it will warm up the butter.
2. When the dough becomes a ball, transfer everything in a saran wrap and shape it in rectangle to make it easier when you will work with it later. My prefered size is about 6"x 7".
3. Let the dough cool down in the fridge for at leave 2 hours or overnight.
4. Once the dough is cooled down, roll it. You will see that the dough has become hard but rolling it several time will soften. Once it becomes as long as 15 inches, fold it into three and roll it over. In folding the dough, you will create several layers to the crust.
5. After folding 3 to 4 times, depending on your preferences, shape it in rectangular and place it in the fridge for about 1 hour.
6. While waiting for the dough to chill, you may now work on the filling. In a cooking pan, set the heat to medium-high and melt the butter.
7. Peel the apple, remove the core and cut it into your preferred shape, whether big, thin, thick or small. To prevent the apple from browning, place them in salted water.
8. Put the apple chunks in the pan and stir fry it with the butter for about 30 seconds.
9. Add in sugar, cinnamon and then red wine to the apple and lower the heat to medium-low. If you don't like or have wine, you can replace it with lemon juice.
10. When the apple looks cooked, add in a pinch of all purpose flour to make the filling slightly thicker. Adjust to your preference. When well mixed, let the filling cool down.
11. While the filling cools, preheat the oven at 450°F.
12. Take the crust dough out and roll it so it becomes as thin as you like and should fit your pie pan. Place the rolled dough on the pan and shape it. Then use a fork to poke the dough so that the filling's juice can integrate in later.
13. Pour in the filling. If you are lazy, you can bake it without out decorating. I had some dough left, so I made a latice blanket to cover.
14. Bake it for 15 to 30 minutes or until you see the crust becoming golden brown.
15. Let it cool down and serve it the way you love.
Good luck and enjoy!
