Apple Pie

I wanted to make apple pie in the spirit of the upcoming holidays. But I didn't want to just follow a recipe and call it good, I wanted to make my own apple pie. Two problems, I don't usually like apple pie (shock and awe) and I have never made a traditional American pie. I went to the experts...bloggers of the internet for advice.

What I usually don't like about pie:
1. Crust. Why:
I find crust on pie to be flavorless, either too soggy or too tough, and generally unappealing.
2. Filling. Why:
The filling of an apple pie is too sweet for my taste, and I could never appreciate the true flavor of the fruit.

What I was looking for:
Flaky, sandy, flavorful crust. Dense filling full of apple flavor and not a lot of sugar.

What I made:
The crust was made in a traditional way, with flour and butter as the base, with salt, sugar, cinnamon, for flavor, and ice cold water as the binding agent. However, instead of using all purpose flour only, I used a combination of cake flour and all purpose flour. Cake flour is less percent in protein, therefore it is usually lighter, which aided me in making a sandy/flaky crust.
1.5 cups all purpose flour
1.5 cups cake flour
1 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
4 tbsp white sugar
.5 cup water
16 tbsp butter

1. I combined the flour (already a mixture of the dry ingredients) and butter in a food processor and mixed them until there were pea sized crumbs.
2. I added tablespoon by tablespoon of ice cold water, until the flour mixture turned into a ball of dough.
3. The dough rested in the fridge for 45 minutes.

The filling was a combination of Granny Smith and Golden Delicious apples. I decided to add fresh ground ginger because I thought the spiciness of the ginger would bring out the apple flavor, which it did.
4 Golden Delicious
4 Granny Smith
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
.5 tsp ginger powder
.5 cup white sugar
.25 cup brown sugar (not packed)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp fresh ground ginger
1 tsp vanilla

The apples were half skinned and half not skinned and sliced. All ingredients were mixed in a dutch over and cooked on medium heat for about 10 minutes, or until the sugar caramelized.
Set aside the filling.

The pie was assembled and prepared in a tinned dish for 45 minutes at 375 degrees.

Results:
Delicious! I was pleasantly surprised! To be honest, it wasn't groundbreaking, but it was exactly what I wanted. I think in the future, I will add 1/3 cup of apple cider to the filling, the pie was a little bit on the drier side. To me though, a more dense filling is more satisfactory than a runny one, but to each his own. The flavor was wonderful. The crust was flaky and buttery, I could really taste the apples which were wonderfully complemented by the spices and ginger.

Sorry no picture, I don't currently have a camera, but I will make this again, with more of my own variations and record it.

If you have pie secrets or advice, please, please post a comment. I would like this to be a learning lesson.

More to come for the holidays!

Pleasant eating,
Elena