Day 28 pic for #100happydays is my first apple pie of the season. These make me happy for so many reasons but mostly it means it is fall and the weather is cooler, which makes me happy! Apple pies are only a fall/winter thing for me just like peach pies are only a summer thing when the local peaches are ripe.
I am not exactly a great cook, but everybody really does love my apple pies, so I make them often in the fall – mainly to give away as the thing has a deadly number of calories.
So, here is the recipe:
Apple Pie with Cinnamon Crumb Topping
Crust:
- 4 oz. cream cheese
- 1 stick butter (1/4 lb)
- 1 1/3 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 Tbsp milk
Filling:
- 6-8 Granny Smith apples – this depends on the size of the apples – peeled, cored, sliced 1/4″ thick – I cut them into a large measuring bowl and end up with approximately 8 or 9 cups of apples once they are sliced
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 2 Tbsp flour
- 1 Tbsp ground cinnamon
Topping:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup packed golden brown sugar
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 6 Tbsp chilled unsalted butter cut into small cubes
For crust:
Put steel blade into a large food processor. Cube the butter and cut the cream cheese into a couple of pieces. Chop with food processor to blend together a bit. Scrape down sides with rubber spatula, add flour and salt and blend again with on/off setting to mix together. Scrape down sides again, then with running constant pour the milk into the processor tube. The dough will form into a large clump. Turn off the processor and wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least an hour or until ready to put the pie together. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Transfer to a nine inch pie pan and cut the overhanging dough to about 1/2 inch and crimp. Put pan back into refrigerator while preparing pie filling. At this point, you can also wrap the entire thing in plastic freezer wrap and freeze it for later use.
I roll out the leftover crust and cut out little leaves or other shapes. I have those cute little Williams-Sonoma pastry shape cutter things – or you can cut out shapes with a knife or you can skip this step altogether if you don’t care about little leafy things on top of your pie.
For filling:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Mix all ingredients except the apples in a large mixing bowl. Add the apples and toss to coat with mixture.
Transfer mixture into prepared pie shell.
For topping:
Stir all ingredients except butter into medium mixing bowl. Drop butter cubes into bowl and use a pastry blender to chop butter into mixture; the result should look like wet sand.
Sprinkle topping over top of the filling.
If you have made crust cut-outs, arrange them on top of the filling.
Baking:
I make a foil “collar” and put it around the crust from the beginning and take it off 10 minutes before the baking time is up. I know every cookbook in the world tells you to put them on later on if the crust is browning too much, but I do it my way and it works every time; I never have over-browned crust and my pies bake just fine.
Put the pie on a baking sheet covered with heavy duty aluminum foil to keep from having a goopy mess in the bottom of your oven if the juices bubble over a bit. This way your only cleanup is to take the aluminum foil off and throw it away.
Bake for 40 minutes.
Reduce oven temp to 350 degrees. Bake about 45 minutes longer. The apples will be tender when the pie is ready
Take out, cool for about an hour and then EAT!
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