A New - Deep Dish - Apple Pie Recipe

At least I did get a picture this time - but it doesn't show how well the apples retained height in this new to us recipe. The original came from Smitten Kitchen as "even more perfect apple pie", and it really is. This pie has at least 4.5 pounds of apples - about half Granny Smith and the rest Gala. I think we stopped too soon, and could have put another half pound on more on the center - but we would have to have made a larger top crust. It would have been worth it. Here's the recipe as I have it in my Pepperplate, with some notes following it:

Ingredients:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon fresh ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
4 1/2 pounds baking apples - we used Granny Smith/Gala (I think we could have mounded more!)
3 tablespoons cornstarch
Crust home made or purchased
1 egg - to make wash for crust
Granulated sugar, if desired, to top crust

Instructions:
Combine sugars, salt, and spices in the largest bowl available. Peel, halve, core your apples, then cut them into thin (scant 1/4-inch) slices, adding them right to the big bowl.  (See NOTE below about this.) Toss to coat the slices as much as possible. Set aside for 1 to 4 hours at room temperature.

Prepare pie crust.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees

Stir cornstarch into apple pie filling and into prepared bottom crust as mounded as you can get them, then add a few more. Pour juices over apples - all of it. Place top crust - latticed works well, too. Brush top crust with egg, then sprinkle with sugar if desired. If using one piece, cut a few vents in it.  Bake for 75 minutes.

Pie is done when juices are bubbling visibly through the vents, or when the internal temperature reads 195°F. A tester inserted into the pie shouldn’t hit any crunchy apple pieces.

Cool pie for at least one hour at room temperature before cutting into it. However, your filling will not fully thicken until it has fully cooled, ideally in the fridge for a couple hours. You can rewarm slices as you serve them, if desired. Leftovers keep at room temperature for 2 to 3 days, and in the fridge for 1 week.

NOTES:

Instead of hand peeling, coring, slicing, and cutting apples, we used a present received this year - a peeler! And all the work was done within 20 minutes from the time we got the peeler out of the pantry until we put it back washed and dried. Here's the one we got from Amazon

This peeled and cored the apple as well as slicing it in a spiral. Even with different sizes and a couple out of round, they were all peeled smoothly and the core was clear. We then sliced the apple across the middle, then across to quarter, leaving uniform quarter slices. Loved how that went together! I would recommend this peeler as well as this pie!

The original recipe had this suggestion: "If your pie is browning too fast, take a large square of foil, mold it over the back of a large bowl into a convex dome, then use that to cover the pie in the oven for the remaining baking time so it doesn’t brown much further." The pie did brown quickly and we did use this convex foil dome to achieve the result in the photo.

Letting them sit for an hour was also explained: "One of the most frustrating things that happens when you make a pie is that you put in what seems like a massive amount of fresh fruit but after it slumps, shrinks, and nestles in as it bakes, you’re left with a very flat, if not concave, pie . . . mix your filling and let it macerate for a while so that the apples soften, allowing you to put a lot more in the filling and leading to pie slices stacked to the brim with apples." There are other tips (including why this is baked at 400 degrees for 75 minutes) and explanations, as well as links to other recipes, so I'd suggest visiting the original site, too. Then - go make an apple pie!