Part 2, Easy as pie apple pie

I guess I am publishing recipes in order of disappearance that pie despite the fact that I hardly had any was gone yesterday... This should tell you how good it. My personal favorite is pecan pie, I have a very good recipe for it, the problem being that I am almost on my own to eat it and we can all agree that this is never a good thing, especially when it comes to pie. This is why I went for apple pie as I know it tends to disappear very quickly. I finally managed not to have my apples completely shrink on me, I think that the trick might be to slice them fairly thinly (unlike what the original recipe calls for...), I also made it quite lemony, which lead to a pie that was much less sweet than was I am pretty sure you are accustomed to. 

The recipe comes from the first blog I started following, 101 cookbooks, it is full of healthy vegetarian recipes. This is the recipe for the pie and my usually pie dough, I used a double pie dough here. I will give both the lemony and regular ingredients, regular in parenthesis and italic. 

Ingredients:

Dough

- 2 1/2 c AP flour

- 1 1/2 stick (1/4 c) cold butter, diced, I dice it and put it in the freezer for 15 min before using
- 1/4 tbsp cold vegetable shortening
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6-8 tbsp ice water

Filling

- 6 tbsp AP flour (3 tbsp)
- zest and juice of one lemon (1 tsp of zest, 1 tbsp of juice)
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 c sugar
- 2 1/2 lb apples, peeled, cored, and cut in thin wedges I use half granny smith and half fuji this time I replace the fuji by golden delicious sometimes

Finishing

- 1 large egg beaten for egg wash

- 1/2 tbsp sugar

Instructions

First prepare the dough 

Place the flour, salt, butter and shortening in the bowl of a food processor equipped with a metal blade.

Pulse until you obtain a wet sand consistency with some pea size pebbles of butter.

 Sprinkle 4 tbs of the ice cold water uniformly and pulse until it just comes together, if the mixture is too dry repeat by adding 1/2 tbsp at a time (6 tbsp is usually the right amount for me every time but it depends where you live, remember that it is much easier to add water than remove it...)

 Test if your dough holds together by squeezing a handful of it as you can see here is should hold together.

 Dump the mixture on a lightly flour surface, divide the dough into 4 equal parts and knead quickly. Form two balls of dough and flatten into disk, wrap tightly and place in the fridge. You can prepare the dough the night before you need it or freeze it at this point.

Preheat the oven to 425F with a cookie sheet placed on the middle rack

Prepare the filling:

- Mix the flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, all spice, lemon zest and lemon juice in the bottom of a large bowl

- slice the apples on top of it and mix gently, set aside

 Roll out one half of the dough, line the pie plate with at least 1/2 inch overhang.

Place the apple in the shell, roll out the other half of the dough and cover the filling. Trim the edges with kitchen shears, about 1/2 away from the rim, seal by pressing the dough, tuck it under it self and crimp.

 Brush lightly with the egg wash. At this point I usually cut out some decorative pieces out of the trimmed dough before putting the left over in the fridge. Sprinkle with sugar and cut 3 vents with a sharp knife.

Bake the pie on the hot baking sheet for 20 min, reduce the heat to 375F for 40 min, until it is golden brown an bubbly.

Let cool at room temperature 2 to 3 hours.

Serve with some whipped cream or vanilla ice cream if you wish, note that the warmer it is the sweeter it is. Enjoy!!! 

Serves 8