Apple Pie #2

Apple Pie #2 - made October 3, 2021 from, pie crust from Little Spoon Farm and filling from Chew Out Loud

All-Butter Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup unsalted butter, cold, cut into small cubes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 cup cold water, plus 1 ice cube

2 teaspoons vinegar

1. Drop an ice cube into a measuring cup and fill the measuring cup with water up to the 1/2 cup mark. Add 2 teaspoons of white vinegar; set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine flour, salt, sugar and butter cubes. Cut the butter into the flour mixture with two knives or a pastry cutter until the mixture forms large crumbs.
3. Add water, a few tablespoons at a time, into the flour-butter mixture and toss with a fork until the dough is evenly moist. 
4. Use your hands to quickly bring the dough together in the bowl. Do not overwork the dough.
5. Divide the dough in half and flatten into disks. Wraps the disks separately in plastic wrap; chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour.

Filling

1/2 cup butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons water with 2 teaspoons cornstarch fully dissolved in it

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon

dash nutmeg

8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced

1. Melt butter in a large saucepan. Whisk in flour to form a roux. Add water with dissolved cornstarch, granulated sugar, brown sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg, whisking to combine. Bring to a boil then immediately reduce to barely simmer. Keep sauce warm while rolling out the pie crust.
2. Reserve 1/4 cup of the butter sauce.
3. In a large bowl toss the apple slices with the remaining sauce, coating completely.
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
5. Roll out bottom pie crust into a 9-inch pie pan. Brush with beaten egg white. Fill with coated apple slices, mounding in the center. Roll out top pie crust and cover apples. Seal and crimp the edges together. Cut several slits in top crust. Brush with remaining butter sauce and lightly sprinkle with coarse sugar and a dusting of cinnamon.
6. Place pie pan over baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F and bake another 35-45 minutes or until crust is golden and apples are soft. If crust is browning too quickly, cover lightly with foil. Cool completely before serving.

This is my second attempt in recent months at making pie crust. You'd think I'd get better with a little practice, right? Well, welcome  to attempt #2 which, sadly, turned out worse than attempt #1.

I thought I was getting smarter about pie crusts and was sure the crust on Apple Pie #1 was so difficult because I hadn't added enough water. So I turned to a new crust recipe and a new filling recipe for this one. Plus I got cute new pie tools that made embossed pie crust strips. What could go wrong? 

*Raises hand*. I, I could go wrong. And I did. In an attempt to (over)compensate for the dry pie dough last time, I added more water. So much more, in fact, that even the little handling I tried to do made the pie dough not so much sticky as develop the gluten. Which you don't want to do when you're trying to make a flaky crust. Fail.

You also apparently don't want to have pretty pie impressions on your crust when your filling recipe calls for you brushing it over the unbaked pie crust and having it be so thick that it obliterates the impressions anyway. Plus pie dough is unlike shortbread cookie dough and doesn't lend itself well to small, intricate designs stamped on it. Like of cute little apples.

My third fail with what I did to this pie was to bake it in a cast iron pie pan. That sounded reasonable enough and I like baking with cast iron (sort of). But I had to bake this so long until the apple filling was soft enough that the crust hardened in the cast iron pie pan. Note to self: pie crust, flaky or not, doesn’t do well in cast iron. Maybe they do for other people but it didn't work for me. How do I know? I got the hint when I had to use a knife to cut the bottom crust. Not the knife to slice a piece of pie out of the whole pie. But a knife to cut the piece of pie so I could lift it with my fork and eat it. Let that sink in.

As a side note: the recipes themselves were fine so feel free to try them on your own. I just need to execute better on them. Dammit, I refuse to be beaten by pie. I'll be back again with attempt #3.