Jackie King of A&J King Artisan Bakers in Salem likes a deep pie made with Cortland apples. She tosses the sliced fruit with sugar, flour, and cinnamon and lets it sit for 10 minutes before setting in a well-chilled bottom crust. Her top crust is also well chilled, to help prevent shrinking. King bakes the pie on a rimmed baking sheet (to catch drips) atop a preheated pizza stone so the bottom crust stays flaky.
APPLE PIE RECIPE
Makes one 9-inch pie
PASTRY INGREDIENTS
| 3½ | cups flour, chilled in a bowl, plus extra flour for the counter |
| 1 | cup plus 2 tablespoons butter (2 sticks plus 2 tablespoons), cut up |
| 1¼ | teaspoons salt |
| 2/3 | cup ice water |
MAKING THE PASTRY, STEP BY STEP
1. Have on hand a 9-inch ceramic or glass pie pan (it should be about 2 inches deep) and a rimmed baking sheet. To the chilled flour, add the butter and salt and use your fingertips to pinch the mixture together, making sure you don't pinch too hard or hold the butter in your fingers too long. Pieces of butter should be no larger than pea-sized. If the mixture feels warm, refrigerate the bowl until the mixture is chilled.
2. Drizzle the mixture with the ice water and, using your fingertips again, toss the dry ingredients with the water until the mixture comes together to form dough. You can do all this in the bowl, or you can remove clumps of dough as they become moist enough to hold together and transfer to a lightly floured counter.
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3. When all the dough forms clumps, shape it into a ball. You do not want dry patches, but you'll see streaks of butter in the dough. Divide it in half, shape each into a round, flat disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4. On a lightly floured counter, roll out 1 piece of dough to a 13-inch round, turning it often to keep it from sticking. Lift it onto the rolling pin and ease it into the pie pan. It should hang over the rim by at least 1 inch. Refrigerate the pan. Roll out the second piece of dough in the same way to a 12-inch round. Slide it onto the baking sheet and refrigerate it while you make the filling.
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FILLING INGREDIENTS
| 8 | Cortland apples |
| 1 | cup sugar |
| 1/3 | cup flour |
| 1½ | teaspoons ground cinnamon |
| 1 | egg, lightly beaten (for the glaze) |
PREPARING THE FILLING, STEP BY STEP
1. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Set a pizza stone on the bottom rack. Peel, core, and slice the apples so the widest part of each wedge is almost 1 inch thick. An apple slicer works well for this.
2. In a bowl, combine the apples, sugar, flour, and cinnamon. Let them sit for 10 to 15 minutes.
3. Arrange the apples in the bottom crust in concentric circles. Use some of the egg to brush around the rim of the crust. Top with the chilled round. With the side of your hand, press the top crust into the space next to the rim to make a dome of apples. The two crusts should meet at the top edge of the dish. With scissors, trim excess dough so you have 1 inch of overhang.
4. Use the thumb and forefinger of one hand pressed against the knuckle of the forefinger on the other hand to crimp the crusts together all around. Brush the top with the remaining egg. With the tip of a paring knife, make 8 slits in the top of the pie in a sunburst pattern.
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5. Set the pie on the baking sheet. Set the sheet on the pizza stone. Bake for 1 hour or until the apples are bubbling at the edges. If the pie is browning too much before the juices are bubbling, cover it loosely with foil and transfer to the top rack. Let the pie settle for 15 minutes before slicing. Adapted from a recipe by Jackie King.
Sheryl Julian is a former Boston Globe food editor. Send comments to magazine@globe.com.