Rustic Apple Pie

This was meant to be a perfect apple pie.  But since I did not have the required quantity of apples, the recipe was halved and the result was that I ran short of the pie crust for the top covering !  And thus unwittingly, the rustic apple pie was baked.  It was unanimously voted as the best apple pie ever !  Recipe from Joy of Baking .

Note - The pie was made in the cake tin

The recipe here is for the apple pie - with the top crust.

Pie Crust:

All-purpose flour - 350 gms

Salt - 1 tsp

Granulated sugar -  30 gms ( 2 tbsp)

Unsalted butter - 226 gms - chilled.  Cut into 1" cubes

Ice water - 1/4 to 1/2 cup 

AppleFilling:
Apples - 6 large - peeled, cored, cut 1/4" thickness
Granulated white sugar - 100 gms ( or use part white and part light brown sugar)
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp
Ground cinnamon - 1 tsp
Nutmeg - 1/4 tsp ( optional)
Unsalted butter - 30 gms
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Corn starch/flour  - 15 gms

Place flour, salt, sugar.  Combine in a food processor:

• Add butter and blend till the mixture resembles a coarse meal.
• Pour the cold water slowly till the mixture just comes together when pinched.
• Do not process more than 30 seconds.
• Gather into a ball.
• Divide into two portions.  Flatten to a disc and put in cling wrap and refrigerate 1/2 hour: This is supposed to chill the butter and relax the gluten.

(I did the whole thing manually)

Remove one portion of chilled dough and place on lightly floured surface.
Roll pastry into 12" circle of uniform thickness.
Keep either turning the board or lifting and turning the pastry - always roll from centre of pastry outwards.
Fold in half and gently transfer to a 9" pie pan - open out and trim the edges to fit the pie pan.
Cover with wrap and return to the refrigerator.

Similarly roll out the other portion, transfer to parchment paper, cover with wrap and keep in the refrigerator.

Prepare the apple filling.  ( I did this earlier and kept aside with help from sous chef K).
Put the apple slices in a bowl with sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt.
Let it sit for half hour (this is important to get the juices from the apples as otherwise they shrink when you bake and also make the pastry soggy).
Drain the juices of the apples into a pan, add a little unsalted butter put in a pan and reduce it till it is lightly caramalised.

Coat the drained apple slices and mix them with cornflour (I skipped this).
Pour reduced syrup over the apples, toss and combine.
Put the apples into the chilled pie crust.
Moisten the edges of the pie shell with a little water.

(I did not have enough pie crust pastry to do the top covering. But this is how you do it.)
Remove the top crust and let it sit for about 10 minutes at room temperature/
Place over the apples.  Tuck any excess pastry under the bottom crust.
Crimp edges using fingers or fork.
Make a few slits on the top from centre to edge to allow steam to excape.
Cover with plastic wrap and keep in refrigerator as you preheat the oven.

Preheat oven to 220C
Place oven rack at the lowest level - place aluminium foil to catch any apple juice that may overflow.
Bake for about 45-55 minutes till juices start to bubble through slits and apples get tender (but not mushy).

After about 30 minutes cover the top with foil to prevent excessive browning.

Remove from oven when done and place on wire rack to cool for about 2-3 hours before cutting.

Serve warm with cream or ice-cream.
Store the apple pie at room temperature ( if it remains, highly doubtful ) for 2-3 days.