I’ve been on a double crusted apple pie tear lately.
Since I was a little girl (me, pictured below in the black and white stripes) I’ve always tinkered with pie-making but making one that fits my standards now was more my aim. We’ve all bought the fresh ready made pie dough from the market, but I was looking to perfecting my own. I’m glad I was inspired to get grooving on my pie making abilities again (before the holidays). I seriously upped my ante and the results couldn’t be more satisfying.
You see, I am the great-granddaughter of a master pie maker, one who was known for the flakiest crust and tastiest filling. I took what I remember of my great grandmother’s apple pie secrets and gave them my own twist.
Back to the double crusted apple pie tear lately. I had my brutally honest girlfriend A-dre come over for a pie tasting last week. I made a cream cheese crust caramel apple pie and a traditional apple pie to sample side by side. We both found it a difficult task to choose which was better. She said it was the ‘Sophie’s Choice’ of double crusted apple pie, which made me giggle while inflating my ego. In the end I decided to document the traditional apple pie and maybe revisit the Caramel apple pie some other time.
Ingredients for Double Crusted Apple Pie:
For 9 1/2 inch double crust:
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour*
- 1 1/2 cups pastry flour*
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 2 ounces cream cheese, cut into pieces (frozen)
- 1/3 cup frozen vegetable shortening, spooned into teaspoon drops
- 2 sticks (8 ounces) frozen unsalted butter, cut into tabs
- 1/2 cup extremely cold water
- 1 egg / 1 teaspoon water (for egg wash)
- 1/8 cup sanding sugar
Apple Filling:
- 5 granny smith apples
- 2 gala apples
- 2 large Pink Lady or Honey Crisp apples
- 1 1/2 cups turbinado sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
- 3 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) salted butter
Directions:
For the crust:
- Place the flours, sugar and salt into a food processor. Pulse to combine.
- Add in the cream cheese and vegetable shortening, and pulse until both fats are cut into the flour.
- Pulse in frozen butter into flour mixture in 3 parts. Do not over pulse. You are looking for pea sized balls of butter to remain.
- Slowly add in the ice water one tablespoon at a time. Give the dough one pulse between each water addition.
- Dump the dough onto a clean surface. Run hands under cold water for a few minutes. Dry your hands well, then quickly press the dough together to form a long log. Divide the log in half, and form each half into a disk.
- Wrap each disk in plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night.
- Remove one (1) chilled dough from the fridge, and allow to rest at room temperature for 10 minutes.
- Sprinkle clean work area with flour. I like to roll my dough on a non stick baking sheet. Roll the dough out from the center and move the mat underneath to make a perfect circle. I roll it out to a 1/8 inch thickness.
- Make sure the dough surpasses your pie plate by a couple of inches.
- There are a few methods of placing the dough into the pie plate. You can roll the dough around your rolling pin then unroll it onto the plate. Or you can fold it into 4’s and unfold it onto the plate. Either method works. I like using the rolling pin method.
- Once you place the bottom layer of pie dough into the pie plate, allow the overlap to drape over the edge. Place in freezer while you prepare the filling.
- Preheat oven for 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
For The Apple Filling:
- Peel, core, and cut all the apples into 1/8 inch thickness.
- Place the apple slices in a large bowl.
- Add sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cornstarch, lemon juice, and vanilla extract to the bowl and mix to combine completely.
- Pour the apple mixture into the chilled pie crust plate and top with butter.
Top Crust:
- Remove the second disk of pie dough from the fridge and roll out to a 1/8 inch thickness. I cut four apple-shaped cutouts from the pie dough using a small cookie cutter, and cut in a few slits with a small knife. Feel free to design the top however you’d like, as long as you make some sort of ventilation for the pie.
- Place the second piece of dough over the apple filling. Make sure the apples are covered completely. (see step 10 to refresh how to transfer the dough)
- Fold the top crust over the bottom crust at the edge of the pie rim, and pinch them together to enclose the two crusts. Make a pattern with your fingers or decorate the edges with a fork pattern.
- In a small bowl mix egg and water to create egg wash. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush top of pie and edges with egg wash.
- Sprinkle top with sanding sugar.
Bake:
- Place pie plate on a cookie sheet, and then place in the oven.
- Bake for 25 minutes with rack 1/3 from bottom of the oven.
- Remove pie from oven and place an aluminum foil tent around the edge of the crust only. This will keep the edge from burning but allow the center to continue to brown.
- Place the pie back in the oven and reduce the heat to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, and continue baking for 50 minutes.
- Allow the pie to cool for a minimum of 4 to 5 hours, but overnight is ideal.
- Enjoy!
*Nicole’s Double Crusted Apple Pie Tips:
All crust ingredients should be very cold, and fats frozen. Feel free to even place the flours in the fridge prior to making crust.
Using the food processor will break down the fats quickly and reduce the amount of time you are touching the dough with your warm hands.
Beginners may want to skip on the pastry flour and use 3 cups of all purpose flour instead of the combination of both. As a result, the use of just ‘all purpose’ flour will allow easier handling of the dough. Advanced pie makers, I highly recommend the combination of the two flours. Pastry flour will aid in making your pie crust the flakiest!
I like using a glass pie plate to be able to see the bottom crust and gage if it needs to bake longer or if it need to come out of the oven. You don’t have that luxury with tin pie plates. Glass rules.
**If you are looking for further instruction, hop over to my Instagram feed and look at the saved stories… it will be under Double Crusted Apple Pie!
Looking for other festive ideas for your holiday table? Try my Pumpkin Flan!
