Golden Honey Apple Pie

I have a TERRIBLE track record with apple pies.  I can make pumpkin, blueberry, cherry, you name it, but recently apple has alluded me.  But if I am anything, I am persistent. My persistence found me spending the bulk of a Sunday afternoon trying to perfect the apple pie.  In the end, it wasn't perfect. But it was very good.  The trick I learned this time? It's all about the apples.  While many recipes call for Granny Smith apples, this sturdy variety doesn't always break down in the baking process leaving bony, hard apples in the finished pie.  Macintosh are great pie apples, but you can't get them in Virginia (or DC or Maryland).  With the two obvious choices out of the running to fill my pie, I had to go hunting for other choices.  After reading what felt like 6,000 other recipes, I settled on two different kinds of apples - golden delicious and honey crisp - thus the pie's Golden Honey moniker.  Both held up to the baking process without turning to mush.

Ingredients
 
Pie crust
2 1/2 cups of flour (plus more for kneading)
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 sticks cold butter (1 cup), diced
Ice water as needed (+/- 1/2 cup)

Filling
3 lg Honey Crisp Apples
3 lg Golden Delicious Apples
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 tablespoons butter

Eggwash
1 egg
1 tablespoon of water

To make the crust, combine the flour and salt in a food processor. Give it a quick whir to mix the salt through.  Add the diced butter. Pulse the food processor on the "dough" setting until combined. At this point your dough should look like many little balls the size of peas. Gradually add in the ice water while pulsing.  You'll know you have enough when the dough begins moving around the food processor in one large chunk rather than allowing the blade to move through it. Dump the contents of the food processor onto a floured board (or a floured clean counter top) and knead only enough to gather it into a ball.

Pie crust dough, freshly kneaded and headed for the refrigerator

Cut the dough in half and form each half into a ball.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes before attempting to roll it out.  When the dough has finished chilling, return one dough ball to the floured board.  Roll it out as evenly as possible in a large square to make the bottom crust of your pie. You'll be using a 9" pie pan, so a 12" square should cover it. When rolled out properly, the crust should a generous 1/4 inch thick.  Thicker and the crust will be mushy, thinner and your filling may break through and make a mess.  To get the pie crust from the board to your pie pan, roll it around the rolling pin and slowly roll it over the pie pan.  It's ideal if you can cover the whole pan including up the sides with one piece of crust.  But this is not an ideal world.  Once the crust is in the pan, cut the excess from around the sides.  Use these pieces to fill in the gaps where there is not enough crust in other places.  Just make sure to adhere the pieces of crust with your fingers or else the filling will leak through.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Prepare your filling.  Mix the white and brown sugar together in a small bowl with the cinnamon. Peel and evenly slice each apple - the yield should be six or seven cups of apple slices.  Begin placing your apples in the pie working in a continuous circle from the outside.  Each apple should overlap the one before it slightly.  Filling the middle in the same circular pattern can be tricky - do the best you can.  When you've finished one layer of apples, sprinkle one-third of the sugar-cinnamon mixture over them.  Make sure to sprinkle everywhere.  Continue the same process for two more layers of apples, laying them in the overlapping circle and then sprinkling with the sugar-cinnamon mixture.

Three layers of apples, about to receive their final dusting of the sugar-cinnamon mixture

Once the apples are laid out and covered with sugar-cinnamon mix, set your pie pan aside for a moment. Quickly roll out the top layer of pie crust, ensuring again that you roll in a square(ish) shape sufficient to cover the 9" pie pan and the filling. Just before placing the top crust in place, dice two tablespoons of butter and place them randomly on top of the apple filling. Cover quickly with the pie crust, cutting off the excess and crimping the edges with either a fork or your fingers to ensure that the top and bottom crust adhere. Using a sharp knife, make three small slits in the top of the crust near the center to allow steam to escape.

Make an aluminum foil skirt for your pie.  The skirt should cover the edges of your pie and nothing else.  By baking with this skirt, the pie's edges are safe from over-browning or burning and becoming brittle.  Bake the pie with its aluminum skirt for 25 minutes.  While the pie is baking, make the egg wash by beating one egg with a tablespoon of water.  When the 25 minutes have elapsed quickly remove the pie from the oven, remove the aluminum skirt and brush the egg-wash all over the crust, including the edges.  Return the pie to the oven and continue baking for another 25 minutes.When the pie has finished baking, remove it from the oven to a cooling rack and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes before cutting into it.  There is nothing better than warm apple pie, but cutting into it too soon will cause it to fall apart. 

The final pie!