Hey Guys! Today we're going to be talking about the iconic American Pie, the Apple Pie.
I'm here with my friend, Margo True, she's a multiple James Beard award winner and Food
Editor at Sunset Magazine, and she's going to show us how to make the Apple Pie. Hey
Margo. Hey Dzung, glad to be here, and Apple Pie is one of my favorite pies to make, because
it's easy, especially if you make the dough and roll out the dough the day before, and
then all you have to do the next day is roll the pie and bake it.
Awesome! Easy to make and we're going to show you how. Let's get started!
To make the pie crust check out our video on the basic pie dough but for the apple pie
filling you're going to need 3 to 3 1/2 pounds of apples, so that's 6 large, or about 7 medium-sized
apples, about 1/2 cup of sugar, 2 tbsp of flour, 1 1/4 tsp of cinnamon, 1/2 tsp of nutmeg,
freshly grated if possible, 1/4 tsp each of ground allspice and salt, 1 tbsp of lemon
juice, some milk and a little bit of sanding sugar. And 2 tbsp of unsalted butter cut into
slices. Margo, do you have a preference on what kind
of apples that you use for this pie? Well, actually I like to use a combination of tart
apples like granny smith and sweet like fuji or honeycrisp. I love honeycrisp, it's my
favorite! Oh good cause that's what we're using today. Awesome! So first you preheat
your oven to 450º F. And you arrange the racks of your oven in the two lowest positions.
One's going to be for the pie, one for the baking pan underneath to catch all the bubbling
juices. Then you slice up your apples. Start by peeling them then you slice the cheeks
off the apple. It's much faster than coring the apple. Toss the cores aside, slice up
the cheeks and put them in a bowl. And then you whisk together your dry ingredients, the
flour, the sugar, the spices. Sprinkle them over your sliced apples, toss toss toss, and
then you add a little bit of lemon juice, about a tablespoon is all you really need,
toss it again. And then you pour it into your beautifully rolled out bottom crust, drape
over your top crust, butter, and then, fold the top crust over the bottom crust and make
sure that it's flush with your pie pan, because anything that kind of hangs out there in space
over the edge of the pie pan will tend to burn, so you want to make sure it's flush.
And then you can crimp or seal it by pressing down with the tines of a fork. You can flute
it, that's what I mean by crimping. So in order to get those beautiful little sacllopy
edges, you just take the forefinger and thumb of your right hand, if you're right-handed,
the thumb of your left hand, and pinch the dough between forefinger and thumb of your
right hand, and use your thumb to push the dough into that "U" that you've made with
your right hand. And you just move all the way around the pie doing this. Pretty! It
creates like these little triangles, it's so cute. Yeah and it's easy, once you get
the hang of it, it's easy. The next step is to create steam vents on the top of your pie.
This is really important because if we don't do this, the bubbling up juices will bust
out of the pie and kind of wreck your crust, you'll get these random fissures like you're,
you know, in the Fjords somewhere. But you want to go all the way through the dough so
that you can feel the knife touching the crunchy apples underneath. Then, once that's done,
to make it really pretty and shiny, you take a pastry brush, dip it in milk, and brush
it all over the pie. And then if you want it to sparkle, take sanding sugar, which is
coarse sugar, and sprinkle it all over the top. It'll stick to the milk and melt a little,
and sparkle. Awesome, that gives us that beautiful brown color on top too.
So now that we have our BEAUTIFUL apple pie assembled, how long should we bake this for?
Well the oven is ready now at 450º F, so pop it into the second to the lowest rack,
and then let it bake for 20 minutes, and after 20 minutes you'll see that it's getting this
really nice browning already. So now the pie has baked for 20 minutes and it's ready for
me to turn the temperature down for the rest of the baking. But before I do that, I noticed
that the rim is getting kind of dark, so I'm going to shield it. So Margo, I usually use
aluminum foil to shield it, because it's easier, but I find that it kind of flies off when
I, you know, open up the oven and whatnot, so what do you recommend? I had that same
trouble and it's so annoying so what I've recently started doing is using these flexible
silicon Pie Shields, which are heat-resistant, and they really work so well. They're very
gentle, they won't break your crust. So now that my rim is protected, I'm sliding the
pie back in the oven at 350º F now and I'm going to bake it for at least another 40 minutes.
I like using a glass pie pan because I can tell when the crust is brown. That's why I
prefer it to a metal pan. Ok, and it's prettier to present. It is, it's nice, there's something
special about a glass pie pan. So when it's done and I'm just keeping an eye on it, when
it's that right beautiful brownness, just take it out and set it on a rack to cool.
Now you want to let it cool for at least 45 minutes, otherwise all of the juices are just
going to run out everywhere. And if you really want the slices to set up nicely, let it sit
for at least 2 hours, if not 3. I can't wait to dig into this pie. The worst part is waiting
for it to set so... Thank you, Margo, for coming on and showing
us your way of making pie. What's your favorite pie? Comment below and if you want to get
more pie recipes, visit Sunset.com, or check out our Sunset Cookbook which has tons of
tips on pie-making, plus about a thousand other recipes. Awesome, don't forget to subscribe
and I'll see you guys soon! Bye!