Double Apple Pie With Cornmeal Crust Food

APPLE PIE

Steps:

• For the double pie crust: In a food processor or quickly using your fingertips, combine the flour, sugar, salt, Cheddar and butter until the chunks of butter are broken down to the size of peas and the flour feels like wet sand. Add the first 1/4 cup of water and mix until the dough comes together easily. It's too dry if it immediately clumps apart. Add 2 more tablespoons of water at a time; you can always add more water but not more flour, so careful not to add too much!
• Gather the dough into two balls and plop them on top of 2 sheets of plastic wrap. Loosely wrap up each ball and press down, smooshing the ball into a disc about an inch thick.
• Pop them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes while you busy yourself with the other stuff.
• For the apple filling: Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Combine the apples, sugars, flour, cream, lemon, vanilla, cinnamon, salt and cloves in a bowl until everything is lightly coated.
• Let the dough sit at room temperature for 5 to 10 minutes. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough as well as the surface you're rolling on. Roll out each disc to a 12-inch circle about 1/8-inch thick. As you roll out the dough, use a metal spatula to check if the dough is sticking to the surface below. Add a few sprinkles of flour if necessary to keep the dough from sticking. Roll the dough up onto the rolling pin, like a spool, and place onto a 9-inch pie dish, lining up with the center of the pan. Gently unroll and press down to line the pie dish with the dough. Fill with the apple slices, mounding a bit in the middle, and cover with the other layer of dough. Cut off the excess dough, leaving a 1-inch border around the dish. Pinch the edges to flute together (or press with a fork if that's easier) and cut three small vents into the pie.
• For the egg wash: Whisk together the cream and egg in a small bowl. Brush over the top of the pie. Sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake on the center rack until golden brown, 50 to 60 minutes. (If the edges brown too quickly, cover with aluminum foil.)
• Let the apple pie cool until it's just warm before cutting. Serve with vanilla ice cream.

APPLE CRUMBLE PIE

Steps:

• For the dough: Pulse the flour, granulated sugar and salt in a food processor until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles yellow cornmeal mixed with pea-sized bits of butter. Add the egg mixture and pulse until the dough just comes together. (If the dough is very dry, add up to 1 extra tablespoon cold water.) Remove the dough, gently pat it into a round, wrap it in plastic wrap and refrigerate until thoroughly chilled, at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.
• For the filling: Meanwhile, put the lemon juice in a medium bowl. Peel and core the apples; cut each in half, and cut each half into 4 wedges. Add the apples and brown sugar to the bowl with the lemon juice, and toss.
• Melt the butter over medium-high heat in a large skillet. Add the sugared apples and cook, stirring, until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer, about 2 minutes. Cover, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook until the apples soften and release most of their juices, about 7 minutes.
• Strain the apples in a colander set over a medium bowl to catch all the juices. Shake the colander to extract as much liquid as possible. Return the juice to the skillet and simmer over medium heat until it has thickened and lightly caramelized, about 10 minutes.
• Toss the apples with the thickened juice, cinnamon, salt, cloves, ginger and nutmeg in a medium bowl. Set aside to cool completely. (The cooled filling can be refrigerated for up to 2 days or frozen for up to 6 months.)
• For the streusel topping: Whisk the flour, sugar and salt together in a medium bowl. Add the butter and rub it into the flour mixture with your fingers until it has been absorbed. Mix in the almonds.
• To assemble and bake the pie: Position a rack in the lower third of the oven and place a baking sheet on it. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. On a lightly floured work surface, roll the dough into a 12-inch circle. Layer it between pieces of parchment or wax paper on a baking sheet, and refrigerate for at least 10 minutes.
• Ease the dough round into a 9-inch pie pan. Fold and crimp the edges as desired. Add the filling, and spread it out to make an even layer. Squeeze handfuls of the streusel topping, and drop clumps of it on top of the filling to completely cover it.
• Bake the pie on the preheated baking sheet until the crust and streusel are golden brown, about 1 hour. Let it cool on a cooling rack for at least 3 hours before serving. (The pie keeps well, covered, at room temperature for 24 hours or refrigerated for up to 4 days.)

DOUBLE APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Make the crust: In a food processor, pulse together flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture forms 3/4-inch pieces. Mix vodka with 4 tablespoons ice water (or use 1/2 cup ice water). Add half the ice water mixture to dough, pulse a few times, then continue adding liquid a tablespoon at a time until dough just comes together (you might not use all the liquid). Dough should be moist, but not wet, and hold together when pinched. If there are visible pieces of butter in the dough, all the better.
• On a lightly floured surface, gather dough into a ball. Remove a third of the dough and form into a disk. Form remaining dough into a disk. Cover both tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 5 days.
• On a lightly floured surface, roll out larger disk to a 12-inch circle. Transfer dough to a 9-inch pie plate. Fold over any excess dough, then crimp edges. Prick crust all over with a fork, then chill crust for 30 minutes or up to 24 hours.
• While dough chills, heat oven to 400 degrees. Line chilled crust with foil or parchment paper and fill with pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 15 minutes; remove foil and weights and bake until pale golden, 5 minutes more. Cool on rack until needed. (You can bake the crust up to 24 hours in advance.)
• Toss apples with sugars, tapioca, spices, 1/2 teaspoon salt and the lemon juice. Fold in apple butter. Transfer apples to crust and press gently to make sure fruit is tightly packed.
• Roll out remaining dough disk to a 10-inch round. Use a knife to cut strips 1 3/4 inches wide. Arrange strips over the filling in a lattice pattern. Brush top of crust with heavy cream or milk. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.
• Place pie on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil. Bake 15 minutes; reduce heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until crust is golden brown and juices are bubbling thickly, about 1 hour 15 minutes more. Let pie cool on a wire rack for at least 2 hours before cutting. Serve with whipped cream, sour cream or crème fraîche.

DOUBLE CRUST APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Melt 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large, heavy-bottomed saute pan over medium heat. Add the apple wedges and saute until slightly softened but holding their shape, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the 1/2 cup of sugar and stir to combine. Add the raisins, cinnamon, and cloves and stir.
• In a bowl, combine the lemon juice and cornstarch. Stir the mixture into the apple mixture and remove the pan from the heat. Let cool completely.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Fill an unbaked bottom crust with apple filling and dot the top crust with the remaining 3 tablespoons butter. Top with a rolled-out top crust. Cut 1/2-inch vents in a round-the-clock pattern into the top crust to allow steam to escape. Brush the top lightly with egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tablespoon sugar.
• Put the pie on a cookie sheet or other low-sided baking tray to catch any spillage. Place on the middle rack of the oven and bake for 20 minutes, checking occasionally to ensure that the top is browning evenly. Rotate the pie 180 degrees to move the front edge to the back of the oven, and bake until the top is uniformly golden brown, 15 to 20 minutes more.
• Remove the pie from the oven and let cool for 20 minutes before slicing and serving.
• Put the flour and baking powder in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine. Add the cold butter cubes and pulse a few times until the mixture begins to become mealy and the butter forms plainly visible pea-size nuggets.
• Dissolve 1/2 teaspoon salt in the water. With the motor running, pour in the water and let mix, just until the dough pulls together. Do not over-mix the dough. If it appears dry and is not holding together, add a few additional tablespoons of water.
• Form the dough into a ball, flatten, and wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.
• Lightly flour a pastry board and a rolling pin and unwrap the dough. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and keep the second piece refrigerated. Tamp down the dough with the rolling pin and gently begin to roll it out into a circular pie shape by rolling evenly in one-eighth turns to keep the rolling even. When the dough is rolled out to an even thickness of about 1/8-inch and is about 12 inches in diameter, it is ready to be transferred to a 10-inch pie dish.
• Lightly butter the dish, lift the dough with the rolling pin by partially rolling the dough up on the pin, center the dough in the dish, and unroll. Pierce the dough in several places with the tines of a fork.
• Roll the second half of the dough into a circle slightly larger than the pie dish. Fill the bottom crust with your chosen filling. Cover the filling with the top half of the dough. Using both hands, crimp the edges of the 2 crusts together to seal. With a sharp knife, make several crosshatch slits in the top crust. Brush with the egg wash and bake in a preheated 375 degree Foven for 35 to 40 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool for 20 minutes.

APPLE PIE WITH CORNMEAL CRUST AND CARAMEL BRANDY SAUCE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 425°F Peel and core the apples, cut into thick wedges. In a large bowl mix together the first 8 ingredients: apples, flour, apple jelly, lemon juice, cinnamon, salt, nutmeg and sugar. Let stand for 30 minutes gently strirring every few minutes.
• Prepare the cornmeal crust. Stir together flour, cornmeal, sugar and salt into a large bowl. Cut butter and shortening into the flour mixture with pastry blender or fork until it resembles small peas. Mound the mixture into side of bowl. Drizzle half of the apple cider along the edge of the mixture in bowl. With fork gently toss a small amount of flour mixture with cider until dry ingredients are moistened. Repeat procedure with remaning cider and flour mixture. Gently gather dough into flat disks. Wrap in plastic and chill for 1 to 24 hours.
• Roll out one disk of dough into 1/8 inch thickness between two floured pieces of wax papers. Remove and discard top sheet of wax paper and place dough over a 9 inch glass pie plate removing the other sheet of wax paper.
• Stir apple mixture and reserve 1 tablespoons of juice. Spoon apples into crust, packing tightly and mounding in the center. Sprinkle apples with 3 tablespoons of sugar and dot with butter.
• Roll out the other disk of dough as directed before and place over filling. Fold edges under, sealing to bottom crust and crimp into fluted edges. Brush pie with reserved juice and sprinkle with sugar. Place pie on a jelly roll pan. Cut slits on top of pie to allow steam to escape.
• Bake at 425 F on lower oven rack for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 F and move pie to the middle oven rack. Bake for 35 more minutes. Cover with aluminum foil to prevent crust from over browning and bake 30 more minutes. Pie is done when juices are thick and bubbly and crust is golden brown. Remove to wire rack to cool.
• Prepare the caramel-brandy sauce. Bring whipping cram to a light boil in large saucepan; stirring occasionally. Add the sugar; stirring occasinally for about 4-5 minutes until mixture is smooth. Remove from heat add butter, brandy and vanilla and allow to cool.
• Serve the apple pie with the caramel-brandy sauce.

CRANBERRY APPLE SHEET PIE

Steps:

• Divide dough into 2 portions so that 1 is slightly larger than the other; wrap and refrigerate 1 hour or overnight., Roll out larger portion of dough between 2 pieces of waxed paper into a 18x13-in. rectangle. Remove top sheet of waxed paper; place a 15x10x1-in. baking pan upside down over crust. Lifting with waxed paper, carefully invert crust into pan. Remove waxed paper; press crust onto bottom and up sides of pan. Allow to chill while preparing filling. , In a Dutch oven, mix sugar and flour; stir in apples, cranberries, orange zest and spices. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat; simmer, uncovered, 10-12 minutes or until apples are tender and juices are thickened, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in raspberries. Set aside to cool completely. , Preheat oven to 375°. Add filling to prepared crust., On a well-floured surface, roll remaining dough into a 1/8-in.-thick rectangle; cut into 1-1/2-in.-wide strips. Arrange strips over filling, sealing ends to bottom crust. If desired, brush crust with egg wash; sprinkle with additional sugar or coarse sugar., Bake on lowest oven rack 45-50 minutes or until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly. Cool on a wire rack. If desired, serve with whipped cream.