Crusty Apple Pie

Imagine an apple pie that that is mostly crispy and crumbly crust. A pie that has just enough cinnamon apples to keep the two layers of flaky crust apart.

I'm not very practiced in pastry dough (still learning), and when I assembled this pie, I had some trouble rolling out the dough. It was a little dry, and the edges were really jagged. I mean, really jagged, kind of like a map of Sicily. Fortunately the dough was pretty forgiving, and after some patching, I had a couple of rustic circles.

The pie is baked on a baking sheet or pizza pan, not in a pie pan. I baked mine in a dark pizza pan, which resulted in a very crispy bottom crust.

This pie is really good, and the crust, which contains both butter and cream cheese, is really flaky. If you like crust, make this pie. It's kind of a galette with a top crust. I loved it.

This recipe is part of the October Avid Bakers Challenge. We are baking recipes from the King Arthur Flour website.

Crusty Apple Pie Recipe

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Crust Ingredients

8 1/2 ounces unbleached all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 ounce buttermilk powder

4 ounces cream cheese

5 ounces cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces.

1 1/2 to 2 ounces ice water

Filling Ingredients

1/2 C sugar and 2 tsp cinnamon mixed together

1 1/4 pounds apples (I used Granny Smith), cored, peeled, and halved, and thinly sliced

2 tsp lemon juice

1 ounce salted butter, cut into small cubes

Sparkling sugar and milk for glazing

Instructions

1. In a food processor, add the flour, cream cheese, salt, and buttermilk powder. Pulse about 8 times.
2. Add the butter pieces and pulse a few more times. You should still see butter pieces.
3. Dump the dough out onto your work surface and sprinkle with some of the water and press the dough together to see if it is enough to hold the dough together. Add more water, a little at a time, until the dough just holds together.
4. Divide the dough into a 9 ounce piece and a 10 ounce piece. Form each piece into a disk, wrap each in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes and up to 24 hours. 
5. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 F.
6. Lay a piece of parchment on your work surface and roll out the larger piece of dough to a 13 inch circle on top of the parchment. Move the dough, parchment and all, to a pizza pan or rimmed baking sheet.
7. Toss the apple slices in the lemon juice to keep them from browning.
8. Spread the sugar/cinnamon mixture on top of the dough circle.
9. Arrange the apples on top of the cinnamon sugar.
10. Dot the top of the apples with the butter.
11. Roll the second piece of dough out into a 12 inch circle. Lift the dough and place it on top of the apples.
12. Fold the bottom dough edges over the top piece and crimp them together.
13. Brush the dough with milk or cream, and sprinkle the top with sparkling sugar.
14. Cut holes or slits in the top dough.
15. Bake at 425 degrees F for 15 minutes, and then lower the temperature to 375 degrees F. Bake for an additional 25 to 35 minutes. The pie will be done when the crust is golden and the filling is bubbling.
16. Cool on a rack in the pan for at least an hour before slicing.