Sasha's Kitchen: Salted Caramel Apple Pie

I pride myself on my apple pie and my perfect apple pie crust.  But I am also a big fan of the salted caramel apple pie at Four and Twenty Blackbirds here in Brooklyn, and since learning how to make caramel when I made pumpkin flan last week, I figured it was time to give their salted carmel apple pie recipe that I found online a try. I love caramel apples in the fall so i knew adding caramel to a classic apple pie was going to be a perfect food combination.  The recipe I found online is for the filling only - you use your own recipe for the crust, so I am including that here as well.

Oh and by the way, one of my recent blog posts (for pumpkin flan) was quoted with a photo on Bon Appetit's website - for real! To find the reference to A Kitchen In Brooklyn, click on the link and scroll to photo number 10.  I'm so psyched!

Sasha's Apple Pie Crust (makes bottom and top portions)
2 sticks cold butter, chopped
2 1/4 cups flour
pinch of salt
large pinch of sugar

To make the apple pie crust, follow my instructions here, although I cheated this time and made it in my mixer rather than by hand.

Four and Twenty Blackbirds Salted Caramel Apple Pie (recipe found here)
Filling
1/3 cup raw sugar
2 T flour
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
2 to 3 dashes Angostura bitters (unfortunately I left this out this time because I forgot to pick it up)
6 apples
4-6 lemons juiced (I used four)

Salted Caramel
1 cup granulated white sugar
1/4 cup water
1 stick butter
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 tsp sea salt

Glaze
1 egg, beaten
raw sugar for sprinkling on top
1/2 tsp sea salt

Prepare your bottom pie crust and chill in the refrigerator.  Combine the ingredients for the apple pie filling.  I used granny smith apples and golden delicious apples this time.  Core, peel and thinly slice the apples.  The recipe recommends using a mandolin but I just used a knife to produce thin slices.  Dredge the apples in the freshly squeezed lemon juice to prevent browning and add flavor.  Mix the seasons for the apple pie filling and combined with the apples, using your hands to mix.

To prepare the salted caramel, heat the sugar and water over low heat until dissolved.  Add the butter and bring to a slow boil.  Continue boiling, stirring or swirling only occasionally until the mixture turns a golden brown, almost copper.  If it blackens or smokes, you've overcooked it and will have to start again.  Remove from the heat immediately upon reaching the right color and add the heavy cream.  The mixture will bubble and steam rapidly.  Sprinkle in the sea salt.

To assemble the pie, preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Put 1/3 of the apples in the crust and pour 1/3 of the carmel on top. Then repeat with the remaining apples and another 1/2 of the caramel.  Save 1/3 of the caramel for the top of the pie.  The recipe suggest stacking the apples (after slicing with a mandolin) but I really just threw them in - it doesn't bother me that they are not stacked neatly and densely.

Roll out the remaining dough for the top crust and prepare a lattice.  Drizzle the remaining caramel on top, then do a egg glaze and top with sugar.

Bake at 400 for 20 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350 for another 25 to 30 minutes.

Sasha's Kitchen: Salted Caramel Apple Pie

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple-Sweet Potato Matzo Kugel

Tonight, for the second night of Passover, I am sharing a new recipe that I tried out for our second night seder - an apple sweet potato matzo kugel. There's two types of kugels for passover, and egg noodle kugel like the one I made last year, and matzo kugel. This kugel was fantastic, and shows why I prefer a matzo kugel to a noodle kugel. This recipe has already been requested by one of my family members, so I am posting it right away on A Kitchen In Brooklyn. The apples, cinnamon, raisins and sweet potato give quite a bit of flavor to the matzo in this kugel.

Sasha's Apple-Sweet Potato Matzo Kugel
3 large gala apples, peeled, cored and chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 cup apple cider
5 plain matzos
6 eggs
1/4 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 1/2 T canola oil
3/4 cup raisons
2 T butter or margarine, cut into small pieces (I used butter)

Preheat the oven to 350. Combine the apples, sweet potato , cider and brown sugar in a bowl and set aside.  Break up the matzo into 2-3 inch pieces, and soak in one cup of warm water until soft but not mushy. The matzo should absorb the water. Beat the eggs with a whisk, and add the salt, granulated sugar, cinnamon, canola oil and raisons. Add the matzo to the egg mixture, and add in the apple mixture. Combine the three mixtures, and add to a well greased casserole dish (a 9x4 or 10x4 casserole). Dot with the 2T of butter or margarine along the top. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Remove the kugel from the oven and cool. Serve slightly warm.

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple-Sweet Potato Matzo Kugel

Sasha's Kitchen: Best Apple Pie - A Stepwise Primer

I've been making pies, from apple to blueberry for some time, and really good pies at that. But I knew they could be better and crispier, so I took a pie tutorial class to work on my pie crust technique last weekend at The Brooklyn Kitchen in Williamsburg. The class was really helpful. Although my pies had always been good, the crusts were too thick and oftentimes not as crispy as the perfect pie would be. This didn't actually require changing the ingredients but changing the way that I work and prepare the crust. I had been making the dough in my mixer, which is fine, I suppose. But a pie crust, as I learned, is much better when worked by hand. The better crust, the more rustic crust, should be worked as little as possible. Thus, it is not necessary to beat in every chunk of butter using an artisan mixer. The crust will be better, and crisper, if there are chunks of the butter in the dough, as the dough needs to be combined just enough so that it will hold together when you roll it out. I was really pleased with the apple pie that I made using the refined techniques in the class. I plan to make another one very soon with the first fruits of spring in a couple weeks - for a strawberry rhubarb pie!

Pie Crust Formula (works for any fruit pie)
2 1/4 cups AP flour
hefty pinch of granulated kosher salt
pinch of sugar
1 cup (two sticks) of cold butter
1/4 cup ice water (can adjust slightly as needed)

It is very important that the butter be cold. You can use any cold fat source (butter, shortening or lard) but it must be cold. I've always used butter and when worked properly, it makes for a fabulous crispy crust in my opinion, so read on.

Cut the cold butter into cubes and scatter in the dry mixture. Gently incorporate the butter partially into the flour using your hands, snapping the butter cubes between the thumb and middle finger. Splash the ice water into the mixture. Do not put the water all in one place, but scattered throughout. Add more water if needed (a tablespoon or two) until the dough can just hold together when you squeeze it. Lumps of butter are not a problem here, but a blessing. Remember, you want to work the dough with your hands as little as possible, or so I learned. In the past, I had been overworking the dough.

Form two balls (one for the top lattice and one for the bottom). Wrap in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for exactly 20 minutes for the fat (the butter) to firm up.

To roll out the dough, you will need a well floured surface. Roll with a rolling pin to 1/8 of an inch thick. I had not been rolling thin enough. Another important trick: if you have had problems with the dough sticking even with plenty of flour, be sure to rotate the dough. You should do one or two rolls only, then turn a quarter of a turn with each roll or two.  If you are constantly turning as you roll, this will ensure that you can roll it to the desired 1/4 inch thickness. You will want to have a large circle (or as close to a circle as possible) that extends well beyond the borders of the pie dish. Use the pie dish to eyeball the size.

Use a pyrex glass pie plate. The Brooklyn Kitchen supplied those and I recommend this over ceramic ones like I previously used. It distributes the heat more evenly and doesn't require any Pam. Gently fold the dough circle in half and lift into the pie plate, then unfolding. Press into the glass pie dish, and trim the edges with a pair of pastry scissors. I had not been trimming before, which is fine (it's all about aesthetics), but this made the pie look so much more professional. Leave about an inch at the edges, and pinch upwards to form the rim of the pie (another trick I leaned how to do that the class).

For the fruit portion - you can use this to make any fruit pie, depending on what is in season. The key is that you always want to have about four cups of fruit, and resist the tendency to heap the fruit. The fruit should be about 1/4 inch lower than the pie pan. This is another thing I may have been over-doing in the past. This will ensure the fruit and pie crust cook at the same rates.

A basic fruit filling works best for me. It should basically consist of the fruit, some lemon, any spices you plan to use, and some sugar, being sure not to overdo the sugar. You want to showcase the fruit, remember, you are not making candy. That's my criticism of the Bill Yosses (White House pastry chef) apple pie (and the rare harsh criticism you will hear from me of the Obama administration). It just uses way, way too much sugar in the crust and in the filling. You just don't need it. Trust me.

Apple Filling (from Joy of Cooking)
2 1/2 lbs of apples (5-6 total) - I prefer macintosh or gala
3/4 cups of sugar
2-3 T AP flour
1 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I may prefer closer to 1 tsp, to be honest and 1/4 tsp of nutmeg)
1/4 tsp Kosher salt

Prepare the filling and fill the pie with about 4 cups of the filling. You may have a bit leftover and as I leaned in the class, resist the temptation to put in ever last drop heaved over the top of the pie.

For the top of the pie, roll out the second ball of dough the same way as the first, expect into more of a rectangle. To create the lattice cut into 8 or nine long strips. Place four or five strips along the top of the pie, and weave in (lifting up either evens or odds accordingly to do so) the other strips going the other way. I like to do a 4 X 5, personally, but its up to you.

Glaze the top of the pie. You can use various combinations of eggs, egg yolks, cream and milk to achieve the desired color. I usually do a plain egg gloss. Brush on gently with a pastry brush. Sprinkle with sugar and cinnamon.

Before this point you should have the oven preheated (sorry I forgot to mention earlier) to 425. Cover the pie with a piece of foil (loosely) which will keep the top from burning. Bake for 30 minutes. Reduce the heat to 350 and cook for another 30-45 minutes. The amount of time will depend on how hot your oven runs. Mine runs reasonably hot, so it took me 35 minutes. The pie is done when the apple is tender when poked through with a knife. Don't overdo it, as you are not trying to make applesauce. I removed the foil about 15 minutes before the pie was done to get the color on top of the pie that I desired. Allow to cool, and serve.

Needless to say, this tasted amazing and might just be my best apple pie yet!

Sasha's Kitchen: Best Apple Pie - A Stepwise Primer

Sasha's Kitchen: Butternut Squash-Apple Soup & My Thanksgiving Menu

Ah butternut squash, how I love you. And acorn squash, spaghetti squash and just about every other kind of squash. This is the season for every kind of squash creation that you can imagine. One of my favorite ways to eat a half acorn squash directly, with brown sugar and butter. But, I also love it in soup. I made plenty of pumpkin soups recently, so it was totally time for some squash soup. I love apples combined with other fruits and vegetables in soup, as long as you use the right kind of apples to make sure its not overly sweet.

Sasha's Butternut Squash-Apple Soup
2 1/2 lbs of butternut squash
2 Cortland Apples
Olive oil
1 quart of low sodium chicken stock
1/3 cup heavy cream
cinnamon to taste
cayenne pepper to taste (not enough to add heat, but enough to make sure the dish is not bland)
pepper to taste
pinch of nutmeg
dollop of creme fraiche (for serving)

First heat the oven to 400. Broil the squash for about an hour and a half until it is cooked. Then scrape out the squash (or use pre-cut butternut squash) and mash with a fork (or puree in a blender). Meanwhile, saute the apples (peeled and chopped) in the olive oil and add to the squash puree. Blend with the chicken stock in a blender. Place in a pot and over medium heat add in the heavy cream (just a small amount and you can add less if you prefer, or even leave it out if you want to avoid the extra fat from the cream). Season with cayenne, cinnamon, pepper and nutmeg to taste.  Serve with a small dollop of creme fraiche.

This tasted great, was surprisingly simple, and made for a perfect classic fall dish!

Did I mention that I am making Thanksgiving Dinner this year for our family? Here's what I plan to have on my menu, and I will share the results with you after Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin-Cashew Soup
Turkey with an Orange-Maple Glaze
My cranberry, apple, pecan, turkey sausage stuffing
Green beans with pecans and shallots
Personal acorn squash with brown sugar
My Sweet potato chipotle pancakes with lingonberries (I plan to repost this from last year with better photos)
Chocolate pudding bars (from my new baking cookbook, Baked)
An amazing recipe I found online for gingerbread ice cream made with Belgian trappist beer
My Pumpkin Creme Brulee (because you don't get to use a mini blow torch for pumpkin pie)
My pumpkin gingerbread panna cotta
Wagner Vineyards Riesling
Non-Alcoholic Frozen Harry Potter Butterbeer (adapted by me from the original recipe)

Sasha's Kitchen: Butternut Squash-Apple Soup & My Thanksgiving Menu

Sasha's Kitchen: Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

I love apples in the fall, and Honeycrisp - the crispest, tart apples out there, are my favorite variety. This salad is quite simple and really nothing more than throwing together a few of my favorite fall ingredients.  My favorite apple salad is still this one with the caramelized apples and spicy orange or tangerine vinaigrette, but this salad is much easier to make in a pinch. 

I have a bunch of exciting recipes on tap for this weekend and next week, including a new tuna dish, several new squash recipes, new cupcakes, and pumpkin ice cream using my new ice cream maker. So stay tuned!

Sasha's Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Mixed organic greens

2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and diced

Crumbled goat cheese

Dried Cranberries

Slivered almonds

1/2 cup Canola Oil or Olive Oil

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

3 T Vermont maple syrup

pepper to taste

Preparing this recipe is really simple. Saute the apples in canola oil to soften for about five minutes (don't use any sugar). Combine with the other salad ingredients. Make the vinaigrette by shaking the Canola oil, balsamic vinegar, Vermont maple syrup and a bit of pepper to taste.

Sasha's Kitchen: Fall Apple Salad with Maple Vinaigrette

Sasha's Kitchen: Cinnamon-Apple Fall Muffins

Baking muffins always makes me think of my mom. She loves to make muffins, from zucchini muffins to carrot muffins to my favorite pumpkin muffins. I was initially intending to make apple cupcakes this past weekend, but ultimately decided that my recipe worked much better as a muffin. Apples are still in high season, especially here in New York, so these would really be perfect with any variety. I used locally grown, Granny Smith apples in my recipe, which were nice because the end result of the muffins was not overly sweet. I think my mom would have really enjoyed these. I loved the texture of the muffins as well - they're slightly lumpy, but really that is just perfect. The apple cider and the mix of spices are a nice compliment to the apples - it brings out the flavors of fall really well. Muffins like these bring me back to my childhood days.

I love cooking with apples, pumpkins and squash in the fall - these three foods are really the best thing about fall. I haven't tired yet either - I have a whole group of wonderful pumpkin desserts that I will be making when we host Thanksgiving dinner this year, and I am making butternut squash risotto tomorrow night as well.

Sasha's Cinnamon-Apple Fall Muffins
3 large granny smith apples
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup of granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3 large eggs
3/4 cup of canola oil
1/2 cup apple cider
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

To make the muffins, first peel and core the apples, cutting into slices. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until soft. Next, I decided to puree the apples in my Cusinart miniprep. I didn't fully puree though - just enough to leave them chunky so that the cupcakes would have the perfect texture and have some actual lumps of apple in there.

Combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, spices, baking soda and salt) in a bowl.  Add the eggs, canola oil, vanilla, apple cider and apples and mix until well combined. The final mixture will be lumpy an a bit thicker than typical cupcake batter. You do not need a stand mixer to make this recipe.

Using muffin tins, or silicon muffin molds (I am a huge fan of any baking tools made of silicon, including the muffin tins), fill 3/4 of the way full, the same way as if you were making cupcakes. I was initially intending on turning these into apple cupcakes with a caramel icing or glaze, but the muffin idea really worked much better since they are not super-sweet. I think using Granny Smith apples (rather than a sweeter variety) is crucial to accomplishing that.

Bake the muffins at 350 for about 20-25 minutes (I'd say mine took about 22). Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Cinnamon-Apple Fall Muffins

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple Strudel and Apple Picking At Hurd Orchards

Ever since I was a kid, I have made regular visits, often annual visits to Hurd Orchards, wonderful pick your own orchard in Holley, New York, just near my Mom's house in Rochester.  I have picked everything from peaches to apples to strawberries at Hurd Orchards over the years and it truly is one of my favorite family-owned Orchards. Plus, you can't beat the famous Western New York apples.  Last year when we went apple picking, I posted a recipe for my apple pie that I made with the Hurd Orchard apples. One of my favorite parts of a visit to Hurd Orchards is their store - they carry their own extensive line of in-house made jellies, jams and marmalades that are the best jams I have ever had, as well as wonderful other products from caramel to soap to cheese from small, family owned businesses.

This year, I went apple picking with my Mom last weekend, once again. This time, I made a delicious apple strudel with some of the apples, inspired by the great apple strudels that my husband and I had on our trip to Prague in August.

Sasha's Apple Strudel (loosely based on Paula Deen's Apple strudel)
1/4 cup amaretto (I used my homemade amaretto liquor)
1/2 cup dates, pitted and diced
4 medium apples (I used a combination of Gala and an experimental variety that tastes similar to Honeycrisp)
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup crushed shortbread cookies
1/4 cup chopped pecans
2 T unsalted butter, softened in the microwave
6 sheets of phyllo dough
2 T unsalted butter, melted, for brushing phyllo sheets
1 T granulated sugar
1 cup confectioner's sugar (for the glaze)
3 T of milk (for the glaze)

Preheat the oven to 350. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. To make the filling, first soak the dates in the amaretto (microwave on high for 40 seconds) for about 10 minutes. I used my homemade amaretto. Then combine the dates with the apples (peeled and diced), lemon juice, cinnamon, brown sugar, cookie crumbs, pecans and 2 T of butter in a large mixing bowl. Set aside.

Remove the phyllo dough from the box and lay out 6 sheets. Brush the butter between the sheets (which is a bit tricky to do without ripping the sheets). Stack the six sheets using this technique. You could obviously make another apple strudel recipe where you make your own dough but I do not recommend this. Phyllo is the best for achieving the thin and crisp way that apple strudel is supposed to look and taste to be an authentic dish.

The next step in the process reminded me of rolling sushi. Basically, treat the phyllo sheets like your sushi nori and place the apple mixture on the nearest third of the phyllo stack, spread over that region of the phyllo. Be sure to leave a two inch border, at least. Gently lift the bottom edge of the phyllo stack to cover the filling and roll over - to roll into a strudel. Continue to roll the stack away until the filling is completely sealed in and the seam is on the bottom. Brush with the remaining melted butter and top with granulated sugar.

Bake at 350 for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Glaze with the mixture of confectioner's sugar and milk. Slice into rounds as you are ready to eat, using a bread knife. You can top with caramel sauce, which I forgot to do - it really isn't needed. The result was sweet and delicious. The jams from Hurd Orchards that I brought home with me are pictured below.

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple Strudel and Apple Picking At Hurd Orchards

Sasha's Kitchen: Caramelized Apple, Goat Cheese, Pecan Salad

I love making my own salad dressings. I can make a good Caesar salad (although the emulsification is a bit tricky with a creamy Caesar). But I am not an oil-and-vinegar kind of girl. I like unusual flavorful salad dressings. You can make a salad dressing with almost every kind of fruit - I've used strawberries, blueberries, oranges etc. One of my favorite salad recipes is one I developed as a variation of the "caramelized apple salad with blue cheese, black walnuts and spicy orange vinaigrette" in Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill Cookbook. His version of this salad, which looks and tastes quite different from mine, is served at his restaurant Mesa Grill in Gramercy. They key to the dressing is a fruit juice reduction - the dressing uses orange juice in his salad, but requires that you boil away the juice for about 20-30 minutes until it is a thicker, stickier, reduced liquid.

Here's my adapted recipe for the caramelized apple salad that I love. This was our dinner tonight.

Spicy Tangerine Dressing (tangerine is much better than OJ - less acidic, as I discovered by mistake when I ran out of orange juice)

1/2 quart orange juice (reduce to 1/4 cup by heating on medium to medium high until thickened, about 20 minutes)
2 T red wine vinegar
2 T diced red onions
1 T ancho chile powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3/4 cup canola oil (I prefer canola oil to olive oil in all of my dressings)
1 T honey

Then puree all of these in a blender to make the dressing. Add the olive oil slowly at the end and blend until emulsified.

Next peel 2 granny smith apples. Caramelize these apples by sauteing in about 1/4 cup of the dressing. The strain the excess liquid. Cool the apples before adding to the salad.

Add to the following

1/4 cup pecans
1 bag of romaine hearts
4 oz crumbled goat cheese

This salad should serve 2 as a dinner salad, or 4 as an appetizer.

Sasha's Kitchen: Caramelized Apple, Goat Cheese, Pecan Salad

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple Pie With Seasonal New York Apples

Apple pie. What's more American than apple pie? I've been making a lot of apple pies the last few months since autumn apples are in season. I went to middle school and high school in Rochester, NY and have always loved going apple picking (and picking various other types of fresh fruit) at a local family owned fruit farm called Hurd Orchards, in Holley New York. I went back to Hurd Orchards (which also makes the best jellies and apple butters ever) with my mom and husband over Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish New Year) in September when I was home visiting my family for the holiday so we could pick apples to go with the honey for a sweet new year, and have fresh New York State Apples for apple pie. (We picked two varieties - Macintosh and a Cornell-pesticide free variety).

Over the past year, I've studied many apple pie recipes (Brad's grandmother's, Martha Stewart and President Obama's baker, Bill Yosses [known by the President simply and affectionately as "the crustmaker."). Based on these recipes, and some trial and error, I think I have developed the perfect apple pie.

The first step, when thinking about apple pie is determining what kinds of apples to use in the pie. I believe that you should use the same types of apples, but there's quite a few varieties that will taste good. Personally, my favorite varieties to use in an apple pie are either Honeycrisp, Gala or Macintosh, but other varieties such as Empire, Cortland or Macoun will work just fine as well. Obviously apple pie is the best when you can get fresh farmer's market apples. Other than that trip to western NY, I am fortunate to have a great Sunday farmer's market across the street in Brooklyn that has provided with great local apples.

The first step in making a killer apple pie is making a killer crust. I have experimented with making crusts with butter and canola oil. Personally, I prefer an apple pie crust made with butter, even though obviously canola oil would be healthier. Bill Yosses, renowned New York City pastry chef, who is presently Obama's personal White House Pastry chef makes his crust out of a combination of butter and lard (which I believe is pig fat). I have not tried that, however, because I do not cook with pig products. However, upon doing a bit of research, lard is typically added by some pastry chefs to increase the degree of flakiness in the texture of the pastry. It is absolutely imperative to make the crust in an artisan stand mixer, so if you don't have one yet, now is the time to get one in the color of your choice (mine is mint green). You cannot make a good pie crust without one.

One further note with respect to sugar: Yosses uses 1/4 cup sugar; Martha Stewart uses none. I prefer just a tad of sugar, so I split the difference. However, if you don't want the sugar, you can leave it out and it still tastes great. Here is my recipe for the perfect apple pie crust (which is great for blueberry and cherry pies as well).

Sasha's Apple Pie Crust

2 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup very cold water or ice water (more if needed)
2 sticks unsalted butter broken into small pieces (it is very important that the butter be COLD and not room temperature)
1/8 cup sugar

Put the above ingredients in the mixer and add the cold water slowly while the mixer is running. Mix until forms an even dough, no more than 30 seconds. Separate the dough for two balls (one for the crust and one for the top) and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Next, roll out one of the balls on a floured surface to make fit a 9 inch pie pan and mold to fit the bottom and sides of the pie pan. Before doing this, you should grease the pie pan with PAM.

While it is baking, make your filling. This is how I make my apple pie filling:

Sasha's Apple Pie Filling

2 1/2 pounds of apples (or slightly more or less, as you prefer), peeled, cored and cut into 1/4 inch slices
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2/3 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup sugar [just a note - Yosses uses WAY too much sugar for me - he uses 1 cup sugar and 1/2 cup honey which is just uber-sweet; maybe the President has a sweet tooth?]
1/8 tsp salt
2 T cornstarch

Yosses actually cooks the fruit at this point. I do not. I prefer to let the mixture cook in the oven. So, if you are following my recipe, mix the filling well and add to the pie crust, raw, without doing anything funky with it on your stove top.

The roll out the top and make the circular cover for the apple pie. Pinch the edges with your fingers, or crimp with a crimper if you have one (I don't have one yet).

Glaze - use a pastry brush to brush on the following glaze
1 large egg yolk
1 T heavy cream
sugar for sprinkling

The bake 20 minutes at 400 and reduce heat to 350 and bake for 40-50 minutes more.

An alternate variation, which I am going to try this weekend based on the Yosses recipe is to cook the bottom of the pie separately at 400 for 20 minutes (until it begins to turn golden) WITHOUT the filling. Then add the filling and the top and the glaze and cook at 350 for 40-50 minutes until done. This should increase the flakiness/crispness of the pie crust.

And this is my signature apple pie.

Sasha's Kitchen: Apple Pie With Seasonal New York Apples