Here's a great apple pie recipe. But be careful: one slice has 13 points in it (serves 8)!
You can either make this in a 9" deep dish pie pan or a 10" regular dish.
Here's what you need for the crust:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon table salt
2 Tablespoons granulated sugar
13 Tablespoons unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
7 Tablespoons vegetable shortening, chilled
4-5 Tablespoons ice water
1. Mix flour, salt and sugar in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Scatter butter pieces over flour mixture, tossing to coat butter with some flour. Cut butter into flour with five 1-second pulses. Add shortening and continue cutting in until flour is pale yellow and resembles coarse cornmeal with butter bits no larger than small peas, about four more 1-second pulses. Turn mixture into a medium bowl.
2. Sprinkle 4 Tablespoons of ice water over mixture. With blade of rubber spatula, use folding motion to mix. Press down on dough with broad side of spatula until dough sticks together, adding up to 1 Tablespoon more ice water if dough will not come together. Shape dough into two balls with your hands, one slightly larger than the other. Flatten into 4-inch-wide disks. Dust lightly with flour, wrap in plastic or place in a resealable plastic bag, and refrigerate for 30 minutes before rolling.
3. Flour the work surface very lightly; too much flour will be absorbed by the dough and cause it to toughen. If the dough seems to soft to roll, refrigerate it rather than adding more flour. Roll our the dough by placing the rolling pin in the center of the dough and roll out in one direction. Put the pin back in the center and roll out in a different direction. Don't roll out the dough like you used to roll out playdoh! Roll out the dough to 1/8-inch thickness; about the thickness of two quarters.
Here's what you need for the filling:
1/2 cup granulated sugar, plus one teaspoon
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 Tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon grated lemon peel (peel the lemon before you juice it!)
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 1/2 pounds tart apples (firm), about 5 medium, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
2 1/2 pounds sweet apples (firm), about 5 medium, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch thick slices
1 egg white, beaten lightly
*Good tart apple choices: Granny Smiths, Empires or Cortlands. Good sweet apples choices: Golden Delicious, Jonagolds, or Braeburns.
1. Mix 1/2 cup granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, zest and cinnamon in large bowl; add apples and toss to combine. Transfer apples to Dutch oven and cook, covered, over medium heat, stirring frequently, until apples are tender when poked with fork but still hold their shape, 15-20 minutes. (Apples and juices should gently simmer during cooking.) Transfer apples and juices to rimmed baking sheet and cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. While apples cool, adjust oven rack to lowest position, place empty rimmed baking sheet on rack, and heat oven to 425.
2. Remove the larger disk of dough from refrigerator and roll out to about a 12-inch circle (about 1/8" thickness). Place in pie pan. Working around circumference, ease dough into pan by gently lifting edge of dough with one hand while pressing nto plate bottom with other hand. Leave dough that overhangs pan in place. Now roll out other dough disk to 1/8" thickness.
3. Transfer cooled apples to a colander and shake to drain off as much juice as possible; discard juice. Transfer apples to dough-lined pie pan; sprinkle with lemon juice.
4. Place other dough onto apples. Pinch edges of top and bottom dough rounds firmly together. Seal edges of dough, then cut four 2-inch slits in top of dough. Brush surface with beaten egg white and sprinkle evenly with remaining teaspoon sugar.
5. Use foil and tent the edges of crust so they do not over-brown or burn during cooking. Be sure to remove foil tent during the last 10-15 minutes of baking so they brown.
6. Set pie on preheated baking sheet; bake until crust is dark golden brown 45-55 minutes. transfer pie to wire rack and cool at least 90 minutes. Cut into 8 wedges and serve.
