Every year as summer ends, I just want to bake and eat one dessert: apple pie. Apples are starting to come into season, and every year it seems like more varieties (new and old) are becoming readily available. I could write way too much about how some of these old varieties are brought back, or how some of the new ones are created, but the short version is this; lots of old timey techniques (cross pollination, grafting trees together), lots of trial and error, lots of less than pleasant tasting failure.
For something so classic as apple pie, there are a lot of small variations that can make a big difference, with the biggest being the type of apples you use. I personally prefer something either equally tart and sweet, or even slightly more tart. In the case of this pie, going with something a little more tart pays off nicely, because the filling already has a good amount of sugar in it, and the tartness really brings out some of the other flavors. But there’s no wrong choice! Except Red Delicious. Those are terrible, and don’t hold up well in the oven at all.
This recipe is also different than the kind of apple pie recipes you might be used to. The “old fashioned” method is to chop up the apples, toss them together with everything else, dump them in the crust, bake and hope for the best. It’s not the most consistent method, to say the least. This pie uses a method known as “cooked fruit,” in which you do just that-partially cook the apples on the stove before you assemble and bake the oven. Doing so gives you a pie that turns out much more consistently, apples that are evenly cooked throughout, and a pie that takes less time to bake. The head chef at a restaurant I worked at only wanted to make our apple pies using the old fashioned method (including the Thanksgiving in which I had to peel and chop an entire case of Granny Smith apples for all the pies I had to make, most of which went unsold and were just given away to employees). Sometimes they turned out perfect. Sometimes the apples took so long to bake all the way through, the crust would start to burn. Sometimes the apples were juicier than usual, and the pies would bubble over and the juice would burn all over the bottom of the oven. No such issues with this recipe (but still put a piece of foil on the rack underneath the pie, just in case you get a little bit of bubbling over).
You can top this almost any way you want. For the pie in these pictures, I made a small batch of my sugar cookie dough and used a cookie cutter to cut some out and arrange on top. Even though the sugar cookies would normally bake for far less time at a much lower temperature, being on top of a pie with a lot of moisture slows down the baking process in them. They came out slightly crispy on the outside, but still soft on the inside. For some crunch, you could go with the crunchy oat topping I often use on fruit pies, but I would suggest maybe omitting the cinnamon from the topping so it doesn’t make the overall cinnamon flavor overwhelming. Or you could attempt to do a solid crust top (with some holes cut out for ventilation, of course), or a lattice top. To do either of those, just make a 1.5 or 2x batch of the pie dough I always use so that you have enough for the top and bottom. A 1.5x recipe should be enough, but if you roll out the bottom slightly too thick (as I often do), you want to be sure you have enough for the top. I find that gluten free crust works okay for a solid top, but is a little too delicate to do a nice lattice top. Plus, I’d rather have an interesting different flavor and/or texture with the top of my pie whenever I can.
My only real note on this recipe are that the volume measurements of the sugar are not quite the same as the weights. Why? When I make this, I weigh out the sugar. In doing the math to convert it to volume, I realized I could either do something annoying (such as “X cup of sugar minus Y teaspoons”) OR I could just make the total between the two amounts the same (it is all going into the pie anyway), just adjusting one to be slightly less than usual, the other slightly more. I opted for the less obnoxious route (“For the first time ever with anything,” my wife quietly says to herself).
Gluten Free Apple Pie
Ingredients
- 2 lbs apples, peeled and chopped into 1/4" slices 3 lbs of whole apples will get you close enough
- 2 tbsp vegan butter
- 1/3 cup +1/2 tbsp sugar
- 1/4 cup cold water
- 3 tbsp corn starch
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp vegan butter
Instructions
- In a large saucepan or pot, combine apples, first amount of butter and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until apples are slightly softened and starting to be fork tender.
- Whisk together water and corn starch. Add to pan, stirring constantly to avoid lumps forming, Stir over heat until liquid goes from cloudy to translucent. Remove from heat.
- Add second rest of ingredients. Stir until thoroughly combined and second amount of butter is melted. Let cool before pouring into a parbaked crust. Smooth out and top as desired.
- In a preheated 425° oven, bake for 30-40 minutes. Crust should be golden brown, and liquid in the filling of the pie should have a slow bubbling look in spots. Remove from oven and let cool completely before serving. Serve cold, at room temp or slightly rewarmed.
