Making up for it

Couple of times a year, I hit these intense contemplative baking moods, where I feel the need to bake pies incessantly, even though there's really not enough people around to even eat said pies. As a result, far too much butter is consumed in the form of flaky crusts and far too much flour is frittered away from the flour jar. Call it a process of stress relief, what have you, but there's nothing more satisfying than donning an apron and spraying flour everywhere. Good news is that all these periods of intense baking do lead to some form of measurable improvement. I think this apple pie looks and tastes pretty damn good. I'm quite satisfied with the recipe; the flavor is balanced and I don't plan on changing anything major anytime soon. I might stuff the pie with more apples, but that's about it.

Granted, it's apparently not just me in the pie-baking mood. In the middle of composing this post, I checked my feed and it looks like apple pie is in fashion on the blogosphere today. Fancy that. But why did you choose apple pie, you my ask? Why not some cherry or blueberry or strawberry pie? I wish it was as simple as I had "felt like" making an apple pie, but no, unfortunately not. Rather, I chose to assemble a Dutch apple pie for a very simple reason - I had to make up for a gross Valentine's Day error. Oh the horrorrrr.

I lost at the Valentine's game this year, was beat to the punch. On top of that, at the supermarket, while originally intending on purchasing an apple pie (Pinky's favorite), I ended up buying a peach pie, spurred by some weird and distant childhood memory of the taste of summer peaches. It was a last-minute split-decision that I now regret. Long story short, the store-bought peach pie was tasteless, glutinous, and  thoroughly disappointing. Even worse, adding to my lack of prior gifting creativity, I had destroyed Pinky's hopes of enjoying apple pie for goddamn Valentine's Day.

So to make up for it, I made one and decided to put a crumble on it, not because I like crumble, but because Pinky loves crumble. I am forever happy that this turned out deliciously. Better late than never, am I right?

This apple pie is a nice balance of tart to sweet, most likely because of the combination of Granny Smiths and Kikus (Fuji-hybrids) and the sweet crumb on top. The Kikus also actually turn a pretty pink color after being baked, which is a plus. Stuff as many of the suckers in there as you can, is what I say (I put 2 but for the future I think I'll do 4 to give the pie some more height). In addition, I was very mild with the spices because I wanted the apple-y taste to be strong (only 1 TB of cinnamon). If you like the cinnamon/nutmeg thing that comes along with apple pie, add as you see fit. Enjoy!

Dutch Apple (Crumb) Pie

makes one 9-inch pie

crust

125 g AP flour

4 oz salted butter

1/8 C water

crumb

3/4 C AP flour

1/4 C packed light brown sugar

2 heaping TB granulated sugar

6 TB salted butter, cut into small pieces

filling

4 Granny Smith Apples

2-4 Kiku or Fuji apples

10 TB granulated sugar

2 heaping TB cornstarch

1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 teaspoons fresh-squeezed lemon juice*

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

*Note: I used Meyer lemon juice which is a little less tart, so if you're using regular lemon juice, adjust to your taste accordingly.

To make the crust, heap the flour onto a cutting board or flat surface and divide the butter into smaller pieces. Place the butter pieces into the flour, coating both sides of every piece. Then, using a cold hand, press the butter into the flour until the butter pieces flatten and break apart and the mixture begins to look crumbly. At that point, transfer the flour/butter mixture to a bowl and drizzle the water in while kneading with your hand. With some meddling, the dough should come together into a ball (it might not seem like enough water at first but it is; don't add more water!). Wrap this ball in plastic wrap and let sit in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

To make the crumb: mix together all the ingredients in a bowl. Using your hands, mash together the ingredients until moist lumps can be formed by the mixture. Then place all of it in the refrigerator until ready to use.

To prepare the filling, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Peel, core, and cut your apples all into slices and mix together in a large bowl. Pour boiling water over the apple slices until completely covered, weighing down any floating pieces if necessary. Let the apple slices sit in the water for 10 minutes, then drain thoroughly and air dry. Add the granulated sugar, cinnamon, cornstarch, lemon juice and sea salt, stirring until all apples are coated with the thickened liquid and set aside for later use.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Assembly: Remove the dough from the refrigerator and roll it out evenly on a well-floured surface so that it is large enough to cover the bottom of your pie pan. Feel free to fold the dough over on itself if it is cracking (it will a little), which will also help to create flaky layers within the dough. Fit the rolled-out dough into the pie pan and crimp the edges.

Fill the pie shell with the apple filling and cover the top with the crumble mix (remember to form lumps of the stuff when you're sprinkling it around - it should look like  a crumble, not sand). Bake at 350 degrees for ~1 hour or until the crust and crumble are golden brown in color.

Serve with vanilla ice cream.