Making an apple pie

I love cooking and I love all things baked. But I fail more than I succeed in baking, and the most recent failure happened yesterday when my cocoa almond sablets turned into a flat and greasy burned dough..

However I have succeeded in the past in pie-making. I know a lot of people have fear of failing in pie-making, and I had never even wanted to try before I was encouraged by a good friend of mine. (a great conductor, too!) He told me “It’s not complicated at all! I will show you how,” so we tried to make an apple pie. It was not too difficult or fussy, and it turned out beautifully! So here is his secret recipe…. 

For the Pie Dough (10inch pie pan - I used a glass one with rims)

All purpose flour, 2.5 cups

1 Plugra unsalted butter, Cold - this is what we used, but you can use 2 sticks of regular unsalted butter.

Cold water, 1/3 cup (plus more) - start with 1/3 cup, and add as needed

If you want, you can add a bit of salt and sugar into the dough. 

For the Pie Filling

4 apples, sliced - Every cookbook will tell you which apple is better but it boils down to either Golden Delicious or Granny Smith. I used Granny Smith and it was just fine - not mushy, not bland as one cookbook criticized..

1/2 cup brown sugar - you can put a bit more

1/2 ts cinnamon powder

1ts or more freshly squeezed lemon juice

(You can add 1-2 TB corn starch to make the filling more sticky.)

About1/2 stick of butter to dot on the filling 

HOW TO MAKE A PERFECT APPLE PIE

1) In a big bowl, put the measured flour. (I don’t think we sifted, but it would not hurt I suppose..?)

2) Take the butter out from the refrigerator and cut it with a small knife. Cut it so that it’s about 1-2 cm (less than half inch) thick. Cut it into the bowl where the flour is.

3) With a pie cutter, cut the butter into the flour. Do it until they look like small beans. 

4) Add the cold water and fluff with a fork - add the water little by little, and do not stir too much. This is the most important part in pie making! You usually need a bit more (about 1-2 TB more) than 1/3 cup of water. You need to be able to feel if it is ready to become a “ball of dough,” but trust me it is much easier than feeling the water temperature for the dry active yeast. 

5) When the lumps start coming together, then stop mixing. Use your hand and make a big ball.

6)  Wrap the ball with enough plastic wrap, and put it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. You need to say hi to it once or twice - just open the fridge door and pat on it a few times.

7) Make the pie filling: mix everything with a spatula!

Preheat the oven to 425F.

9) Take the dough-ball out from the fridge, and cut in half. On a flat surface, scatter half handful of flour and spread out with your hand. 

10)  Take one half of the dough and flatten it out a bit with your hand so that you can start rolling it. Wrap the other half. 

11)  With a rolling pin, roll it sideways once and vertically once. Then turn it over. Roll again sideways, and then vertically. Repeat twice more.

12) Put the rolled dough over a pie glass. Then pour over the pie filling. Dot with 1/2 stick of butter. (cut it in thin slices and scatter them over the apples)

13) Roll the other half of the dough, and cover the filling.

14) Using the kitchen shears. cut the dough leaving only about 2cm on the edge. 

15) Pinch the doughs to seal, and then tuck it into the pie glass so that it does not hang over the glass. Then use a fork or your thumb, push it against the pie rim so that it looks pretty.

16) Prick the dough (top part) with a fork - I made about 10 pricks. This is to make a few holes so that apples inside can breathe.

17) Bake in the preheated oven (425F) for 20 minutes.

18) Then turn it down to 350F -  bake about 10 minutes and check if it is done. Tap with a fork and see if it makes a pleasant noise. Also look for a golden color. Every oven temperature is a bit different, so you may need to bake up to 15 minutes after you lower the oven temp to 350.

19) Slice it and serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!

This recipe comes from maestro Bernard Rubenstein, conductor of the Fargo Moorhead Symphony.