Extra Thick Apple Pie

Apple season means apple pies, and my favorite are those apple pies packed with apples, not overly sweet, and with a buttery crust. The problem with baking thick apple pies is that the apples shrink as they cook, leaving a gap between the crust and the apples, which usually collapses upon cooling. The trick is to gently cook the apples first, so that they do their reducing before they go in the pie. I settled on this recipe after trying several; it draws its crust from a mile-high apple pie recipe in Oprah Magazine and its method adapted from a method for deep-dish apple pie in Cooks Illustrated.

Extra Thick Apple Pie Recipe

Ingredients

Crust

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
• 1/2 cup finely ground blanched almonds or almond flour
• 16 Tbsp (2 sticks) unsalted butter, very-cold, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 heaping teaspoon brown sugar
• 3 to 6 Tbsp nonfat milk, very cold

• 1 Tbsp heavy cream
• 1 large egg yolk

Filling

• 1/2 cup sugar (white granulated)
• 1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 5 lbs of mixed apples (Granny Smith, Golden Delicious, Fuji, Jonagold, Pippin, Braeburn, Cortland, McIntosh), peeled and cut into 1/4 inch slices
• 1 Tbsp of lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon zest
• 2 Tbsp unsalted butter

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