Deep-Dish Apple Pie with Cheddar Crust and Caramel Filling Variations

The winning recipe from this week's idea post was the deep-dish apple pie from the Cook's Country Cookbook. I admit to hoping it would be the winner, because this pie is absolutely fantastic and since it's from an America's Test Kitchen vehicle, I learned a few new fruit pie baking tricks to share. Also, I had a staggering amount of apples in my crisper drawer from my recent apple picking adventures and a girl can only eat so many per day.

The world officially entered the glorious season of Fall six days ago and the New Jersey weather is miraculously cooperating. Overcast, slightly rainy days, temperatures in the 60s and 70s... it's my very favorite time of year. It means I get to wear nice boots and sweaters out, then come home and curl up with a good book and a bowl of comfort food.

My very best friend from high school came for a visit over the weekend and we decided to make some form of apple pie/crumble/crisp to celebrate Fall, apple picking, and hanging out in my big suburban kitchen (instead of her tiny Manhattan one). She heroically slogged her way through all 8-10 cookbooks I tossed her way as potential recipe sources. She narrowed it down to two choices, this deep-dish apple pie and an apple crumble from Sarabeth's bakery. After some debate (otherwise stated as...me refusing to choose) the caramel sauce variation to this deep-dish apple pie eventually elbowed out the crumble. I know, you're expecting the cheddar cheese variation. Have no fear, I made that too.

America's Test Kitchen has done some spectacular things with their deep-dish apple pie recipe. Here are the highlights of their (and now my) discoveries:

1. Pre-cooking (then cooling and draining) the apples avoids the soggy, sunken, mushy apple mess that befalls many fruit-based pies, particularly the deep-dish variety.
2. Pre-heating the oven with a baking sheet in it, and placing your pie dish on the heated sheet pan to bake, helps brown the bottom crust.
3. The best ratio of fat to flour in pie crust is 2 parts flour to 1 part fat, and it's better to have a combination of butter and shortening for the best flake and texture (plus the shortening makes it easier to work the dough).
4. The food processor method for making pie crust is the best, but you should fold in your ice water (and using vodka doesn't make a better pie crust).

One teaspoon of salt and two tablespoons of sugar are the optimal amounts for a double-crust pie (however, if you're making a savory pie, you might want to reduce the sugar amount, at least by half).

I wound up making a few modifications to the original Cook's Country recipe. Instead of slicing the apples into ¼" slices, I used a food processor to shave them into ⅛" slices, because I prefer thinner apple slices in my pie. I accidentally added the lemon juice to the apples before cooking, instead of after, because the way the ingredients list was written suggested to me all those ingredients went together. When I realized my mistake, I added another dose of lemon juice to the apple juices post-cooking them in the Dutch oven, out of concern that I might have lost the acidity it provides during baking the pie. My pie turned out really well; as long as you have between 2-4 teaspoons of lemon juice in filling, you'll be in a happy flavor place. I strongly recommend test-testing your apples after slicing but before adding the sugars to see how sweet they are (and adjusting your sugar amounts accordingly), and again after the initial cooking to double-check you like the flavor of your future apple pie.

The crust of this deep-dish apple pie is exceptionally tender and light. It's not the flakiest pie crust I've ever made or eaten, but it's plenty flaky in my humble opinion. It turned out perfectly, unlike so many pies I've made where the middle of the pie crust comes out soggy and under-cooked. The pie itself is the towering tribute to apple pie that all deep-dish apple pies want to be, not overly sweet, with just a tiny hint of spice from the cinnamon. Both the caramel as well as the cheddar variations are magnificent twists.

If you can't decide which variation you prefer, I recommend (and the voters agree) the cheddar version. The caramel version was lovely, but I didn't really taste the caramel sauce itself. It just added an extra layer of toasty sweetness. Or, you could do both! Seriously.... sort of. I added a couple thin slices of sharp cheddar to my caramel apple pie when I was reheating it in the oven, and that worked out very well for my brunch.

Deep-Dish Apple Pie

The actual amount of prep time depends greatly on how quickly you are able to peel, core, and slice your apples. Otherwise, this pie is really quite easy to make and doesn't require that much active time. I'm assuming 45 minutes total prep time as the maximum amount of time it might take someone prepping solo.

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Course: Dessert

Cuisine: American

Prep Time: 45 minutes minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour hour 10 minutes minutes

Resting time: 3 hours hours 30 minutes minutes

Total Time: 5 hours hours 15 minutes minutes

Servings: 8 -12 slices

Ingredients

Double-Crust Pie Dough {see Notes for cheddar variation}

• 2 ½ cups (350 g) all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ cup vegetable shortening cut into ~½-inch pieces and chilled
• 12 tablespoons (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter cut into ~¼-inch pieces and chilled
• 6-8 tablespoons ice water make by placing about ½ cup water in a bowl with 2-3 ice cubes

Apple Pie

• 5 pounds mixed tart and sweet apples (I used a mix of Empire, Jonathan, Jonamac, and Jonagold) about 10-14 apples
• ½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
• ¼ cup (60 grams) packed light brown sugar
• ½ teaspoon grated fresh lemon zest about 1 lemon
• 2-4 teaspoons fresh lemon juice about 1 lemon
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ⅛ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Assembly {see Notes for Caramel variation}

• 1 large egg white lightly beaten
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Instructions

Double-Crust Pie Dough

• Using a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, and salt together to combine.
• Scatter the shortening over the top of the dry products, then using about 10 one-second pulses, process until mixture looks like coarse sand.
• Scatter the butter over the mixture, pulse for one-second about 10 times, until mixture looks like coarse crumbs. Butter and shortening bits should be no bigger than small peas.
• Place mixture into a medium bowl. Sprinkle 6 tablespoons of the ice water over the mixture, then use a rubber spatula to fold the water into the other ingredients.
• Press down with the flat side of the spatula on the dough so the dough sticks together. If necessary (it wasn't for me), add up to 2 more tablespoons of the ice water.
• Divide the dough into 2 balls, flatten into 4-inch disks, wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least one hour or up to two days.

Apple Pie

• Peel and core your apples, then slice into even slices about ⅛" thick, using either a food processor with the standard 3mm slicing blade (thinnest attachment), mandoline, or sharp knife.
• In a Dutch oven, toss the apples with the sugars, lemon zest, salt, cinnamon, and optionally (I did accidentally) 2 teaspoons of lemon juice. Place on the stove over medium heat, cover, and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until tender but not falling apart.
• Transfer the apples and their juices to a rimmed baking sheet. Let cool to room temperature, at least 30 minutes.
• Meanwhile, roll out one disk of your refrigerated dough into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured large work surface.
• Gently fit into a 9-inch pie plate, letting the excess hang over the edge. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.*
• Roll out the other dough disk, again into a 12-inch circle on a lightly floured work surface. Place this dough circle on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, cover the dough with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.*
• Move an oven rack to the lowest or second-lowest position in your oven. Place a rimmed baking sheet on that rack**, and heat the oven to 425.
• Drain the cooled apples into a colander, catching the reserved juices in a bowl. Reserve ¼ cup of the juice and stir in 2 teaspoons lemon juice. (I had only ⅕ cup of juice left from the apples cooking, and my pie turned out fine.)
• Evenly spread the apples across the dough-lined pie dish.***{See Notes for variations here} Mound apples slightly in the middle, then drizzle with the apple-lemon juice.
• Use a rolling pin to pick up the second piece of pie dough by gently rolling the dough around the pin. Unroll the dough over the filled pie dish. Trim the edges so only ½" of dough remains overhanging the dish. Press the top and bottom crust together, then tuck underneath. Crimp the dough evenly around the pie dish, using your fingers to form the crimp pattern. Slash the top pie dough four times to create vents in the top (see pictures).

Assembly

• Brush the crust with the beaten egg white, then sprinkle with the one tablespoon of sugar.
• Place the pie in the 425 F oven on the heated baking sheet. Cook for 25 minutes, until crust is golden.
• Rotate the baking sheet, reduce the oven temperature to 375 F, and continue baking another 25-30 minutes longer, until the juices are visibly bubbling and the top is deeply golden. If the pie is browning too quickly, cover with foil.
• Place pie on a wire rack and let cool until the filling sets completely, about 2 hours.
• Serve warm or at room temperature (honestly, it's even delicious cold), ideally with vanilla bean ice cream.
• This pie will keep for 3 days tightly-wrapped in the refrigerator. It can also be frozen and gently reheated for longer periods of storage (up to one month).

Notes

*Note that I completely missed (and thus skipped) this second dough refrigeration step, and no harm seemed to befall my pie. It may make your pie even better, but if you're in a hurry, my solitary data point suggests the pie will still turn out well.
**If you only have one rimmed baking sheet, like yours truly, instead use a casserole pan that will accommodate your pie dish inside.

Cheddar-crust variation
Cheddar cheese replaces some of the shortening and butter in the pie crust. Reduce the amount of shortening from ½ cup to ¼ cup. Similarly, reduce the butter from 12 tablespoons to 8 tablespoons (1 cup). Reduce the sugar to 1 tablespoon or omit completely. At the same time you add the shortening, add 6-8 ounces (scant 2 ½ cups) of finely shredded white or sharp cheddar cheese (shred it yourself, skip the store-bought shredded cheese). Proceed with the recipe.

Caramel-apple pie variation
When assembling the pie, add ⅓ of the cooked apples to the pie dish. Drizzle with 1 tablespoon caramel sauce. Repeat twice more for the next two thirds of the apples.

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