For the past few months Jeremy and I have gotten together with three other couples to have “wine dinners.” Each couple brings a course (appetizer, first course, main course or dessert) and a bottle (or two, or three) of a wine they think pairs well with their dish. So far we have had three dinners with Italian, Spanish, and most recently “comfort food” themes. Jeremy and I were in charge of dessert this go-round and figured, what is a more classic comfort food dessert than apple pie? I began venturing into from-scratch pie making this holiday season, starting with an apple pie for Thanksgiving and followed by a strawberry-rhubarb pie for Christmas Day dinner, so this was my third pie-making attempt, second apple.

Spice trio

Photo by Jeremy Beker (I was mixing pie crust at this point)

Jeremy and I both looked around online and through our library of cookbooks in search of the “best” apple pie recipe. In the end the Allrecipes.com iPad app provided the winning base recipe, Apple Pie by Grandma Ople. The recipe has over 4,400 reviews and had a five out of five star rating, so I figured with that kind of crowd-sourced recommendation, it was probably a good place to start. We knew we wanted to use spices in the pie filling (the original recipe does not call for spices oddly enough) so that was the first “tweak.” We had some real cinnamon that we brought back from the Caribbean two years ago so that was the star spice in our blend, along with nutmeg and allspice. If you have never had “real” cinnamon, you are in for a treat. Most “cinnamon” you buy in the grocery store is actually from the cassia plant, and has a much sharper and spicier flavor whereas cinnamon is a much warmer, rounder and richer flavor. (To learn more about cinnamon and cassia, and to buy either one, Spice House is a great resource.)

Our second tweak stemmed from the step in Grandma Ople’s recipe that called for creating a syrup out of water, butter and sugar to use to pour over the apples once you had mounded them into the pie. From our earlier recipe readings, and using a bit of science from Alton Brown’s Super Apple Pie recipe, I decided to first put 2/3 of the sugar in with the apples and let them drain over a bowl for about an hour and a half, then used that juice in place of the water for the syrup, reducing it down to really intensify the apple flavor. This way there is not as much liquid in the pie to make the crust soggy and you capture and concentrate the apple flavor. We also opted to pour the syrup in with the sliced apples and mix it together rather than just pouring it over the apples once they were in the pie pan.

Uncovered pie

Apples expertly mounded by Jeremy (who also took the photo)

The third tweak was to use a trio of apples rather than just one variety. Jeremy found an article on Serious Eats testing the best apples for apple pie so using their recommendations for the two best “pie apples” (selected for their flavor) Braeburn and Golden Delicious, along with the “traditional” Granny Smith (for structure and acidity) we had our star ingredients selected.

I had very good luck with the pie crust I made for my Christmas strawberry-rhubarb pie so I reused that recipe, the combination of butter and shortening is the key, you get the flavor and flakiness from the butter plus a tender crust from the shortening.

So without further ado:

Comfort Apple Pie

The finished product

Comfort Apple Pie
 
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Three-apple pie with warm spices and a flaky sugary crust.
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 10
Ingredients
  • 2 Braeburn apples, peeled, cored and sliced into ¼" slices
  • 2 Golden Delicious apples, peeled, cored and sliced into ¼" slices
  • 3 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and sliced into ¼" slices
  • ½ cup unsalted butter
  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • ½ cup white sugar
  • ½ cup packed brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon (fresh ground if possible)
  • 1 teaspoon allspice (fresh ground if possible)
  • 1 teaspoon nutmeg (fresh ground if possible)
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and place your oven rack in its lowest position.
  2. Combine the brown and white sugar, reserving ⅓ cup.
  3. Mix the sugars in with the apples, place in a colander over a large bowl to collect juices, let sit for at least 1 hour.
  4. Make the pie crust and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  5. Once apples and pie crust are ready, melt the butter in a saucepan. Stir in flour to form a paste. Add apple juices and remaining sugar mixture and bring to a boil. Reduce temperature and let simmer for a few minutes and then remove from heat.
  6. Roll out your bottom and top pie crusts.
  7. Place the bottom crust in your pan and brush with egg-whites.
  8. Add the spices into the melted sugar mixture and mix in with the apples.
  9. Layer the apples in the pie pan so there is little space between the slices, continue with as many apple slices as you can fit, mounding in the center.
  10. Cover with top crust, seal edges, cut slits to vent, brush with egg-whites and dust with sugar.
  11. Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven on the lowest rack of the oven.
  12. Move pie up to the middle rack of the oven and continue cooking until the apples are softened, approximately 45 minutes.
Notes
Feel free to tweak the spices to your taste. By keeping the apple layers as compact as possible you can prevent the apples from "sinking" as much when they cook leaving you with a half empty pie shell. The egg wash on the bottom crust will help keep the crust from getting soggy. The egg wash on the top crust helps with browning and acts as an adhesive for the sugar. To keep the crust from overcooking, make a "collar" to go around the pie out of tin foil. Starting at the lowest rack of the oven helps with cooking the bottom crust and making sure it doesn't get too soggy. Wine Pairing Recommendations: We had this with the Wagner 2008 Riesling ice wine but muscat, riesling, sauternes or late harvest wines would also work nicely (according to What to Drink with What You Eat).