Apple Pie Recipe, At last!!! :D

This is the season for delicious apples, and here in upstate NY, we KNOW apples. Sometimes I hate when you go to the produce section of most supermarkets up here, and basically that's what they have... piles of apples, upon piles of apples...

But, when the fall comes and the weather is damp, and rainy and cloudy like today... there's nothing that says autumn better than a slice of delicious home made apple pie. This is a great recipe, I know you'll love it and print it and save it and make it over and over again. Very simple ingredients, always at hand, yet so delicious and sweet, yet tangy because of the granny smith apples.

You can use a sweeter apple, like I've done here, (Alex and I picked them in our back yard, just the other day) but I really like to make it with Reinette Apples, they are really tangy, and a lot more complex in flavor than the Granny Smith, but I haven't been able to find them here. They are the variety that my mom used to bake in the long winter afternoons, stuffed with raisins, cinnamon, walnuts, honey... (Oh boy... memory lane) but that's another recipe.

If you feel lazy you can use store bought pie dough (not my choice), but I rather make it from scratch (by the way in Castillian we don't have such an expression, I always found it very interesting and quite funny to tell you the truth. If you are not making something from scratch, you are simply not cooking... that's what us Spaniards think. No punn intended ;) So lets get baking!!! :D
Here goes the recipe:

Final result!!!

Basic Dough Recipe:


2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
Fine sea Salt
1/4 teaspoon of baking powder
2 sticks of really cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes.
1/3 cup of ice cold water.

Put the dry ingredients in a food processors bowl and pulse until combined. Add the cold butter cubes and pulse everything until it looks like cornmeal consistency and the butter is about pea size.

Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon of salt in the water. With the motor running, pour in the water and let mix, just until the dough pulls together. (Don't over-mix)
If it looks a little dry and it doesn't hold together, add a few additional tablespoons of water.
Form a ball with it, flatten and wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate.

Dust a pastry board with flour, unwrap the dough and divide it in 2 equal pieces. Put the second one back in the fridge.
Tamp the dough down with a rolling pin and begin rolling it out into a circular pie shape evenly in 1/8 turns so it's nice and even. When the dough is about 1/4 inch and about 12 inches in diameter, transfer it to a 10 inch pie dish.
Butter the dish lightly, lift the dough with the rolling pin, center the dough in the dish, and unroll. Pierce it with a fork in several places with a fork.

Ingredients:

1 recipe pastry for a 10 inch double crust pie
1/2 cup unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 cup water
1/2 cup white organic sugar
1/2 cup packed brown organic sugar
Cinnamon, nutmeg, old spice... to taste, whatever rocks your boat! :)
8 Granny Smith apples - peeled, cored and sliced,
the juice of half a lemon.
egg wash or milk.


Method

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F (220 degrees C). 
2. After peeling and chopping the apples let them sit with the lemon juice, meanwhile melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add the water, white sugar and brown sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer. 
3. Place the bottom crust in your pan. Fill with apples, mounded slightly. Gently pour the sugar and butter liquid over the apples. Pour slowly, then  cover with the other piece of crust, paint it with egg wash or milk, so it bakes nice and shiny. Don't forget to cut a couple of slits on the top, so the steam has room to get out! :)
4. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven. Reduce the temperature to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Continue baking for 35 to 45 minutes, until apples are soft.

The smells in your whole house will make you insane, but  do not peek!!! Don't open the oven!!

Eventually it will get done. It's a killer with French Vanilla Ice cream!

Enjoy!!!