Easiest Crust Ever (Apple Pie)

The apple pie I made for Thanksgiving dinner has been staring at me.

I've made apple pies before, but this one was different. You see, I used a different crust. We had a friend coming to dinner that couldn't have any dairy. My first instinct was to use the pie recipe I use for pumpkin pies, you know, this one.

But then I remembered a pie crust from Roland Messnier that didn't use any dairy, only shortening for the fat. When I mixed up the pie crust, I was amazed that it didn't like to be worked by hand, it was so sticky it could only be worked by my mixer. Because I'm neurotic and a little OCD, I've been working at making pie crusts by hand. I just didn't believe that a great crust could come from a mixer. This will be the pie crust I use when I open my pie shop.

The pie was wonderful. Nice tart apples, enough moist filling to carry flavor, but not enough to be a soupy mess, beautiful brown crust surrounding the whole thing. And through the whole experience, I kept thinking:

"I wish I could write about this."


When I started Pie Dreams, I had an idea of what a blog should be. I wanted good writing and photography. I wanted original recipes. As I worked, though,I found myself going back to the same sources I've used for years. I wasn't adding anything, just tweaking a little here and there. I wasn't making pies better or adding my own take on pies.

I wanted to post every week. There were blogs that I admired so much that posted faithfully every week. I have a friend from high school that is a stay at home mom and manages to write nearly every day. (Seriously, she's raising three kids, training for a marathon, writing a novel, and writing a blog every day? What have I accomplished with my life?)

My life was changing, I was spending more time at work. I was running more, and with running more I was paying better attention to what I was eating. My wife was trying to lose weight and eating pie every week wasn't helping her reach her goals. It was getting hard to get rid of all the pies I was baking.

The pressure to write every week was too overwhelming. There wasn't enough time to make different pies to compare, and so I just made a pie a week and then wrote about it. Sometimes I was writing with no time to go back and edit, to really think things through and make them better. I didn't want to add more drivel to the internet, I wanted to add thoughtful, useful content.

I had a standard that I wanted to reach, and I was falling far short.

But still, that apple pie on my counter has been staring at me.

So I'm going to write on Pie Dreams more often. No commitment about how often, but I'll put it up on twitter so you know when to check out a new post. Hopefully the posts will be more thought through, with more comparative recipes.

Until the next post, though, here is that apple pie recipe.

This has got to be the easiest pie crust I've come across. Although I've made changes, the original is from "Dessert University" by Roland Messnier. I love that cookbook.

Crust:
3 ½ C. cake flour (I substituted part AP flour, and it worked out fine.)

⅓ C. sugar

⅛ tsp. salt

½ C. water
1 ½ C. butter flavored shortening

Mix all ingredients in a mixer on low speed.

Divide dough into two parts, flatten each part out into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for an hour or for a week.

When ready, put a disk of dough in between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to the size needed. Fit into a pie dish and refrigerate.

Put the other disk of dough in between two pieces of parchment paper and roll out to the size needed for a top crust. Refrigerate until the filling is ready.

Pre-heat your oven to 400°

Filling:

⅔ C. sugar

3 Tbsp. cornstarch

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

½ tsp. fresh-grated nutmeg

6 Apples, peeled and sliced

Stir together the first four ingredients. Toss mixture with apples. Pour into the bottom crust. Put the top crust over the pie and pinch the edges together, making the edge as pretty as possible. (I know, I failed at this, this time. Maybe some decorative leaves?)

Finishing:

1 egg

½ tsp. water

turbidino sugar (Like Sugar in the Raw.)

Beat the egg with the water. Brush this mixture over the top crust of the pie (you won't use the entire egg mixture.) Sprinkle the sugar over the top crust. Use a bunch, it adds texture and it looks pretty, too.

Cut some slices in the top crust to vent steam.

Bake the pie at 400° for 45 minutes. When finished, the crust should be browned, the filling should be bubbly, and the apples should give when pierced with a knife.

Cool to room temp before serving.