Elena's Famous Apple Pie

 

Everyone living near the Sequoia Woods Country Club raves about Elena's apple pie.  She brings a pie or two to every potluck or group picnic.

Elena's Homemade Apple Pie

The foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains are home to some of the best apples in the world. Those apples plus Elena's knack for making a beautiful crust makes her pies in demand from both her family and friends. She modified this pie recipe after seeing the video of Natasha from natashaskitchen.com.

1 double nine-inch pie crust or the homemade crust from the recipe below.

2 1/4 lbs. Granny Smith Apples peeled and cored 6-7 apples (7 cups thinly sliced)

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

8 tablespoons unsalted butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 cup water

1 cup sugar

1 egg + 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash

The homemade pie crust below is really easy to make. As an alternative, you can buy a high-quality one from the store. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter over medium heat and whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour then simmer for 1 minute, whisking constantly. Whisk in 1/4 cup of water, 1 cup of sugar, and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and continue simmering for 3 minutes, whisking frequently. Then, remove the pan from heat. This will yield a beautiful yellow sauce.

Peel, core and use the food processor to thinly slice the apples and place them in a large bowl. Sprinkle the top with 1 1/2 teaspoons of cinnamon and toss to combine. Pour the sauce over the apples and stir to coat the apple slices.

If you are using the homemade pie crust, sprinkle your work surface with flour and roll out one of the dough disks to a 12" diameter circle. Transfer it to a 9" pie plate. Add the apple mixture, mounding slightly in the center, and being careful not to get the filling on the edges which would make it difficult to seal. The center mound will be pretty high.

For both the homemade and store-bought versions, roll the second crust into an 11" round and cut it into 10 even thickness strips using a pizza cutter. Start in the middle of the pie with one of the strips. Add two strips to both the right and left sides. Now you want to work in the other direction. Start with the center strip. Pull back the first strip so that this strip will be under it. Put it over the second strip and continue this over-under weave for all of the other strips. The end product should be a woven lattice pattern over the top. Beat together 1 egg and 1 tablespoon of water and brush the top with the egg mixture.

Put the pie on a cookie sheet and bake at 425˚F for 15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350˚F and continue baking another 45 minutes or until the apples are soft and the filling is bubbling through the vents. Rest at room temp for 1 hour before serving.

Enjoy this incredible creation.

 

Homemade Pie Crust Recipe

2 1/2 cups flour plus more to dust

1/2 Tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 lb. COLD unsalted butter (2 sticks) diced into 1/4" pieces

6 Tbsp ice water (6 to 7 Tbsp)

Place the flour, sugar, and salt into the bowl of a food processor and pulse a few times to combine.

Add the cold diced butter and pulse the mixture until coarse crumbs form with some pea-sized pieces then stop mixing. The mixture should remain dry and powdery.

Add 6 Tbsp of ice water and pulse just until moist clumps or small balls form. Press a piece of dough between your fingertips and if the dough sticks together, you have added enough water. If not, add more water a teaspoon full at a time. If you add too much water the dough will be sticky and difficult to roll out.

Transfer the dough to a clean work surface and gather the dough together into a ball (it should not be smooth and do not knead the dough). Divide the dough in half and flatten to form 2 disks. Cover each one with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.