I L.O.V.E. pie.  Bake me a good apple pie and I’ll be your friend forever.  This recipe contains the unusual step of partially cooking the apples before they’re put into the pie.  But that’s the secret. The apples are always perfectly done – no half-cooked or mushy apples here.  Another perk of this recipe – the filling freezes exceptionally well.  I usually cook up a big batch and divide it into pie portions and freeze in gallon freezer bags.  It only takes a few hours on the counter to defrost and it can be poured into a pie shell.  This is my favorite apple pie recipe and the only one I ever use.  Paired with an all-butter, buttermilk pie crust (see below) you’ll have one Helluvagood Apple Pie.

Apple Pie Filling

INGREDIENTS – STEP ONE

• 6-7 Granny Smith apples, cored and cut into 1/4″ thick slices
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar

DIRECTIONS

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
• Combine water, white sugar, brown sugar and apples in a saute’ pan.
• Bring to a boil and simmer 4 minutes, stirring continuously.

INGREDIENTS – STEP TWO

• 3 Tbsp corn starch
• 1/4 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS

• Dissolve corn starch in water and stir into apple mixture.
• Bring to a boil and cook 3 minutes, stirring constantly.  Remove from heat.

INGREDIENTS – STEP THREE

• 1/3 cup white sugar
• 3/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp butter

DIRECTIONS

• Off heat, add sugar, cinnamon, salt and butter to apple mixture; gently stir to coat apples.  Cool.
• Pour into pie shell and dot with an additional 1 Tbsp butter.
• Place top crust, seal and vent.  If you like, you can brush the finished pie with an egg wash (beat an egg with 2 Tbsp water) and sprinkle with sugar.
• You can wrap the crust with a narrow band of aluminum foil approximately 15 minutes into baking, to prevent over-browning.
• Place pie on a lined baking sheet.  Bake at 425 degrees for 20 minutes.  Reduce heat to 375 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes.

All Butter Pie Crust

The key to this crust is COLD butter and buttermilk powder.  The butter must be COLD (I prefer frozen) to get a flaky crust.  The buttermilk helps tenderize the dough resulting in a tender crust. You can find buttermilk powder in the baking isle (it’s great to have on hand because, if you’re like me,  I rarely have buttermilk in the fridge).  I make the dough using my food processor. Makes 1 double pie crust or 2 single crust pies.

INGREDIENTS

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbsp buttermilk powder
• 1 cup butter, very cold (I actually use frozen butter)
• 1/4 – 1/2 cup ice water

DIRECTIONS

• Whisk together flour, salt and buttermilk powder.
• Cut the butter into small cubes.  Work it into the flour using a pastry cutter or fork until you have pea-sized pieces of butter throughout the mixture.  Or you can pulse it several times in the food processor until it looks like course sand.
• If you are using a food processor, start adding the cold water through the food tube, 1 Tbsp at a time until the dough comes together in a ball.  If you are using a pastry cutter or fork, do the same; it will just take longer.  Stop adding water as soon as the dough holds together easily and does not crumble.
• You can use the dough immediately, but for a better consistency, form the dough into a flat disk and refrigerate 30-45 minutes and then roll out.