Here's what you'll need.
And YES, you WILL be making your own pie dough.
You could always buy it. But:
A. It'll be more expensive.
B. It won't be NEARLY as delicious.
It's not scary, I promise. But if you absolutely refuse to do it, you can still make pie with me. Just skip to step 11.
1. Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and add cold butter in chunks.
2. Working quickly to keep the butter cold and using your (very strong) hands, smush the butter into the flour.
3. When you're done, there should be pretty large pieces of butter remaining — you want those pieces to be flat, long and flaky because you've smashed them into the flour.
4. Drizzle the apple cider vinegar and ice water into the bowl.
5. Using your hands, mix the dough until it goes from dry bowl of floury stuff to a nice ball of dough. (A few dry bits are totally cool—you don't want to over-mix).
Over-mixing is what gives you a tough crust– a huge crime against pie.
6. Holy shit! You just made pie dough. See, that wasn't so hard, was it?
7. Cut the dough in half and shape each half into a flat disk, about 1 inch thick. Wrap in plastic wrap or place in a large ziptop bag; chill at least 2 hours.
8. Clear off some counter space and lightly dust it with flour. Using a rolling pin (or like, a wine bottle), roll one piece of dough out to about a 13 inch circle. (It doesn't have to be perfect.)
Sprinkle on a little bit of flour as needed, in case the dough tries to stick.
9. Roll the dough up around the rolling pin (or wine bottle).
This makes it super-easy to transfer to the pie plate.
10. Unroll the pie dough over the pie dish, letting it kinda slump down into the dish.
If it cracks a little, that's okay. DON'T PANIC.
11. Press the dough into the pie plate, so that it's all snug in there.
12. Peel your apples then quarter them, cutting through the core.
13. Cut the core away from the apple and slice the apples about 3/4 inch thick.
14. Put the apple slices in a large bowl and add flour, salt, sugar and light brown sugar.
15. And then the apple cider vinegar and cinnamon.
I know the vinegar seems like a weird move here, but it's going to give your pie a little boost, kind of like a squeeze of lemon. And since the vinegar is made from apple cider, it tastes like..apples....which is...great.
16. Toss the apples so that everything is evenly coated with cinnamon and sugar and all the best things in life.
17. Pile all those apples into the pie crust. I know, you're like, "Won't this make my pie too tall? How will they all fit?" Well, as they bake, they shrink, so your pie will be normal sized, in a good way.
18. Whisk an egg with 1 teaspoon of water (this is called your "EGG WASH").
19. Brush the edge of the pie crust with that egg wash, then place the second pie crust round on top. Press the two together all around the edge. (The egg will help seal this holy union.)
20. Fold the edge of the crust up over itself to make sure that all the stuff inside STAYS inside.
21. You can def leave the crust as is. To take things to the next level, crimp the edge. This can be a wide wavy crimp, or sharp pointy crimp, or literally any crimp you like.
This will not affect the deliciousness of your pie, so don't stress about it.
22. Brush the crust all over with that *egg wash*, then sprinkle with lots of sugar.
23. Using a sharp knife, cut 2 or 3 slits in the top of the pie.
24. Place the pie on a rimmed baking sheet lined with foil—this will catch any juices and prevent them from burning in your oven. Bake it at 375° until it's really nice and golden brown and the juices are thick and bubbly, 70-90 minutes.
I can not stress this enough. I would like to start a MoveOn.Org petition to prevent the underbaking of pies.
25. To me, you are perfect.
Obviously the only thing that could make this more perfect is to serve it with some whipped cream. And the only way to make whipped cream more perfect is to mix it with some sour cream.
26. While your pie bakes, whip the heavy cream until it’s at soft peaks. Then, gently whisk in sour cream, followed by sugar.
27. Whip this mixture until the cream stands up on the whisk when you hold it up (this is called whipping to "medium peaks").
GIMME.
Cinnamon Apple Pie with Whipped Sour Cream
Recipe by Alison Roman
Serves 8
If making pie dough terrifies you, you can always use store bought, but it will cost more and definitely be less delicious.
For the crust:
2½ cups all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp. sugar
1½ tsp. kosher salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
¼ cup ice water
For the filling:
3½ lbs apples (Anything except Red Delicious and Granny Smith works. I prefer a tart apple like Honeycrisp or Gala.)
½ cup sugar, divided
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
For the whipped cream:
1 cup heavy cream
1 cup sour cream
2 Tbsp. granulated sugar
For the crust:
Combine the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl. Using your hands, rub and smash the butter into the flour until most of the butter is incorporated into the flour. You'll have some pretty large pieces of thin, flat butter coated in flour. The mixture will still be shaggy and look kinda dry: That's okay.
Add the vinegar to the ice water. Drizzle this over the flour mixture. Using your hands, mix this together until everything starts coming together. Knead a few more times until you've got a real-life pie dough. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and wrap each one in plastic wrap or place in a large ziplock. Chill at least 2 hours.
Roll out one disk of dough on a lightly floured surface to a circle about 13 inches in diameter. (You always want your dough larger than the circumference of the pie dish.)
Using your hands, or wrapping the dough around the floured rolling pin if you're nervous, carefully transfer the rolled-out round of dough to a 9" pie dish. Lift up the edges and allow the dough to slump down into the dish. Stick the pie plate in the fridge.
Roll out the remaining disk of dough to the same size. Transfer it to a baking sheet or large plate and put it in the fridge to chill while you make the filling.
For the filling and assembly:
Peel and quarter the apples. Lay each quarter flat on the cutting board and using your knife, cut out the core, then slice 'em about 3/4 inch thick.
Toss the apples in a large bowl with ¼ cup of the sugar, along with the brown sugar, flour, vinegar, cinnamon and a pinch of salt. The vinegar may seem weird here, but it's giving your pie a boost of acidity to cut through all that sweetness. Trust.
Beat the egg with 1 tsp. water in a small bowl just to blend. (This is called your "egg wash.")
Take your pie plate out of the fridge. Scrape the apple filling into the crust, along with all the juices in the bowl. Brush the edge of the dough with half of the egg wash.
Take the other round of dough out of the fridge and put it on top of the filling, pressing the edges of the dough to seal. Fold the edges of the dough up. (This creates a double seal, which prevents juices from exploding out of your pie.) If you want to crimp the edge: Press an indentation in the dough with your knuckle every inch or so.
Brush the pie all over with egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Using a paring knife, cut 2 or 3 slits on top of the pie, each about 4 inches long.
Chill the pie at least 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°.
Place the pie on a baking sheet lined with foil. (If any juices escape, you want them on this sheet rather than the bottom of your oven.)
Bake the pie, rotating it once, until it's deep golden brown and juices are bubbling, 70-90 minutes. Baking your pie long enough is important so the juices can properly thicken and the crust can bake all the way through. Do not underbake your pie! I repeat: Do not underbake your pie. If you do, the dough will taste raw and the filling will be runny.
While your pie bakes, whip the heavy cream with a hand mixer or a whisk until it's pretty thick and forms "soft peaks". Then, gently whisk in the sour cream, followed by the sugar.
Beat this until the cream stands up on the tip of the whisk or mixer (this is called "medium peaks").
Let the pie cool at least an hour before serving: This gives the juices a chance to settle down so you don't have a crazy juicy mess on your hands when you slice it.
Do ahead:
You can make the pie dough and refrigerate 5 days ahead or freeze it 1 month ahead.
When making the actual pie, you can refrigerate it overnight and bake it the next day. Just don't forget the egg wash!
Or, if you prefer to make and bake, you can bake it the day before and serve it at room temperature or reheat in a 350° oven for 30 minutes.