This month, we are delighted to welcome Sarah, the talented food blogger behind Friendly City Foodie, as our special guest. Offering insightful perspectives, Sarah is the go-to guide for all things delicious in Harrisonburg. This month, Sarah is teaching us her favorite way to make apple pie with our York apples, featuring a perfectly flaky double pie crust that even your grandma will love.
Delicious York Apples
A popular heirloom apple, the York is known for its semi-sweet flavor that becomes more mellow and sweet over time. Developed in the 1820s on a farm near York, Pennsylvania, the apple grew wildly in popularity and is now grown in the Shenandoah Valley. The York apple is easily identified by its lop-sided shape, deep red color, and firm texture. Called the "Imperial of Keepers" because of its excellent storage ability, the York is a favorite apple for all manner of uses from baking and cooking to making applesauce, cider, preserves, jams, and juice, as well as eating fresh.
The Perfect Apple Pie
Inspired by the timeless wisdom of Joy of Cooking, Sarah teaches us a new method of incorporating flour paste into our pie dough. This unique method results in a double crust apple pie that boasts an unparalleled flakiness and flavor.
Double Crust Pie Dough Ingredients:
- 2 Cups All Purpose King Arthur Flour
- 1 Teaspoon Salt
- ½ Cup Ice Water
- ⅔ Cup Chilled Kerry Gold Butter (cut into even slices or cubes)
Directions:
- Sift flour and salt into a mixing bowl.
- Remove ⅓ cup of this mixture and place in a separate small bowl. Stir ¼ cup of ice water into the small bowl until the flour and water make a smooth paste. Set aside.
- Into your large bowl, add your chilled butter pieces and cut into the flour with a pastry blender until the butter chunks are the size of small peas.
- Stir the flour paste into the dough. Work it with your hand until well incorporated and the dough forms a ball.
- Flatten into a disc, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill in the fridge for at least an hour.
Pie Filling Ingredients:
- 5-6 Cups York Apples
- ½ Cup Brown Sugar
- ⅛ Teaspoon Salt
- ¼ Teaspoon Cinnamon
- ⅛ Teaspoon Nutmeg
Directions:
- Remove chilled pie dough 1 hour prior to baking. Separate into two roughly even halves.
- Preheat oven to 450° F
- Peel, core and thinly slice apples into a large bowl.
- Combine the remaining ingredients and sift them over the apples. Stir the apples gently until well coated.
- Roll the slightly larger half of the dough to an ⅛” thickness and make the round about 2” larger than the pie dish. This will be the bottom dough.
- Place your sliced apples in layers inside the bottom pie dough, working around the bottom to ensure even placement.
- Roll out the remaining dough to ⅛” thickness about 1” diameter larger than the pie dish.
- Cover the pie with this dough round and press the top and bottom edges together until all the edges are sealed.
- Cut decorative slices into the top crust to allow air to escape during baking.
- Bake in a preheated oven for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350° F and bake for 35-45 minutes or until golden brown.
Our experience with Friendly City Foodie was fantastic and sparked wonderful inspiration for utilizing our surplus of York apples. Special appreciation to Friendly City Foodie for the pie insight. Make sure to explore Friendly City Foodie for incredible, inventive cuisine, and join us in our next upcoming exploration with our next highlighted creator using fruit from Shenandoah Valley Orchards!
