This pie is “waving” at you — and by that, I have called this pie a Liberty Wave Apple Pie. When I went apple picking a few weekends ago, I picked a whole lot of the liberty varietal. The wave part, is self-evident, with the ‘swoosh’. Lots of tart apples, lots of spice, an absolutely delicious apple pie. I am very happy with the design. Bring on the ice cream.
Ingredients
for the pastry
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
10 tablespoons (1 1/4 sticks) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1/3 cup chilled solid vegetable shortening, diced
6 tablespoons (or more) ice water
for the filling
14 large baking apples, I used Liberty apples
3 tablespoons butter
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
pinch of salt
2 tablespoons corn starch mixed with 4 tablespoons cold water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Directions
Blend flour, sugar and salt in processor. Add butter and shortening and pulse in until it turns until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add 6 tablespoons ice water and process until moist clumps form, adding more water by teaspoonfuls if dough is dry. Gather into ball, then divide and flatten into two disks. Wrap in plastic and chill 2 hours.
Preheat oven to 425F.
In the meantime, make your filling. In a medium sauce pan, heat butter until shimmering. Add apples and sauté for a minute or two. Add sugar and pinch of salt. The apples should get soft and start to become juicy. Sauté until almost all of the liquid is evaporated and the apples are very soft. Add spices, then the cornstarch slurry, stirring frequently as the remaining juices thicken. Remove from the heat, add the lemon juice and set aside to cool. This can be done a day or two or three ahead of time.
On a lightly floured surface, roll out the first pie dough to a 12-inch circle. Place the first round into a 9-inch pie plate, pressing down into the edges. Place the apples into the pie plate, mounding them towards the edge a bit (as you can see from the photo, there is a big, overlapped bit of dough bit in the center. If you don’t put a little bit of indentation in the apples, it will rise up pretty high). Roll out the second piece of dough to a rectangle where one edge is at least 11 inches. Cut very narrow strips, less than 1/4 wide. Lay strips close to another (or even touching) in a circle. They will overlap and create a “swoosh” by themselves as you lay them on the pie. Once completely covered, seal the edges by pinching them together and folding them over. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg with a tablespoon of water. Brush over the pie dough. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, if desired. Chill pie for at least 1/2 hour before baking, particularly if the dough has softened.
Bake pie for 25 minutes before lowering oven temperature to 375F. Bake for an additional 25-35 minutes, or until golden brown. If the edges begin to darken too quickly, cover with aluminum foil to prevent additional browning.
Cool pie for at least 3 hours before slicing and serving.
